Bass Tuning

[rogerhembree]

Hello I play a 5 string Carvin Bass I use a Korg Tuner when I tune my low E string to open E the tuner reads F yet it's in tune. The low B string open string reads C but it's in tune what gives any idea? PS All the other strings tune and read correctly.

Edited December 25, 2018 by rogerhembree

[John T]

Is the battery ok? Is the tuner in 440 standard mode? You say it's in tune, what are you using to confirm that it actually is?

Welcome to Basschat by the way.

[John T]

11 minutes ago, rogerhembree said:

PS All the other strings tune and read correctly.

Ah, i see youv'e just added this....

Dodgy tuner/battery perhaps?

[rogerhembree]

Battery's are good used 2 different Tuners it's in 440 just a weird problem Thanks for responding.

[LITTLEWING]

If it's active, turn everything flat. Might be distorting the signal in E and low B. 

[Bolo]

How does it read at the 12th fret?

[Teebs]

What... wait - you can tune a bass guitar?

Who knew

[dmccombe7]

Had that if my bass volume is too low

[Maude]

I use a clip on tuner on my doublebass (on the bridge) and it struggles on the E string if there's lots of noise, it reads B even though it's in tune. I'd tune it at the '12th fret' if I knew where it was. 

As said above, possibly a low signal, the lower the note the worse this problem is usually. If the bass is intonated correctly I'd just tune at the twelfth fret for the problem strings. 

[hubrad]

2 hours ago, Bolo said:

How does it read at the 12th fret?

Play the harmonic at 12th fret, which is a much cleaner signal for any tuner to read as it cuts out half the harmonics. Also you don't get any of that effect of the heaviest string pulling itself out of tune as it flaps!

Always done this, even on 6 string.

Saying all the above, I mostly use a Planet Waves Micro Tuner these days, which copes really well with DB E string and electric bass even down to low B.