Tuner recommendations for acoustic upright?

[Cathode_Follower]

I'm considering replacing my current tuner (Sonic Research ST-200), because while it's a super-accurate and solid piece of kit, it sometimes struggles with upright to home-in on the string being played, especially when there are high levels of ambient noise in the room (usually a DJ on a loud bassy stage just before a set).

Does anyone have any recommendations for a reliable tuner that copes well with double bass?

[jrixn1]

No particular tuner recommendation, but I have better luck sometimes using the octave harmonic.

[tinyd]

I've had one of these for years and it works well on my DB

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intellitouch-PT10C-PT10-Mini-Tuner/dp/B002KDHBRU

[NickA]

I use gstrings tuner app on my mobile. Set it to 5 string bass guitar, put it on my bridge at orchestra ( much more accurate than listening to the oboe) and put it on my amp when doing jazz. Free, accurate ... does the job.

I have just bought a tc polytune tho ... impulse buy.

[Cathode_Follower]

10 hours ago, tinyd said:

I've had one of these for years and it works well on my DB

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intellitouch-PT10C-PT10-Mini-Tuner/dp/B002KDHBRU

Hmm, I wonder if clip-on might actually be the way. I have a Snark which I bloody hate and barely ever use, but when I have it's been clipped onto the bridge, which I would guess possibly has a higher string-sound to ambient-noise ratio than under the bridge foot where my realist is. Is that where you clip yours?

Taking that to its logical conclusion.. a mag pickup just for tuning would definitely do the business, hah. Might be over-gasing there though..!

2 hours ago, NickA said:

I use gstrings tuner app on my mobile. Set it to 5 string bass guitar, put it on my bridge at orchestra ( much more accurate than listening to the oboe) and put it on my amp when doing jazz. Free, accurate ... does the job.

I have just bought a tc polytune tho ... impulse buy.

That sounds great for your application but I'm guessing you don't have 100dB of deep-house thumping behind you in the pit before the curtain goes up

Just out of interest, I always understood that orchestras tuned to Just Intonation based on the key the piece was in. Is that something that Gstrings can accommodate? Or am I way off the mark and everyone just uses equal temperament these days?

Edited September 3, 2019 by Cathode_Follower

[DanOwens]

9 hours ago, Cathode_Follower said:

That sounds great for your application but I'm guessing you don't have 100dB of deep-house thumping behind you in the pit before the curtain goes up

What's the gig? That sounds interesting!

I use a Korg Pitchclip 1 clipped to my bridge. I bought some adhesive felt and stuck it in the hinge so if I leave it in place then it doesn't rattle. I also bought it in yellow to camouflage with  a maple bridge.

I also use a Pitchclip 2 clipped to the head of the bass on my EUB and that might be a better location if you've got a lot of background noise. I felted that one too.

[tinyd]

14 hours ago, Cathode_Follower said:

Hmm, I wonder if clip-on might actually be the way. I have a Snark which I bloody hate and barely ever use, but when I have it's been clipped onto the bridge, which I would guess possibly has a higher string-sound to ambient-noise ratio than under the bridge foot where my realist is. Is that where you clip yours?

 

Yep, I have it permanently clipped onto the bridge facing up at me. I did a bit of research at the time and this one was recommended as good for DB (i.e. able to find the fundamentals quickly) and it's been that way for me.

[Cathode_Follower]

5 hours ago, DanOwens said:

What's the gig? That sounds interesting!

No specific gig really, but the band I play with does what might be termed 'contemporary' jazz, so there's quite a lot of crossover with dance music crowds and just a lot of generally loud, non jazz-bar-y type situations. We played a lot of large festival stages this summer and there's always a DJ in between acts, some louder than others but often loud enough to interfere with tuning!

[Cathode_Follower]

@tinyd Sounds good! What sort of battery life do you get? (from X number of uses per day/week)

[tinyd]

5 hours ago, Cathode_Follower said:

@tinyd Sounds good! What sort of battery life do you get? (from X number of uses per day/week)

I use it to tune up a couple of times per week and the battery lasts months. It takes those metal lithium batteries but they're easy enough to get hold of.

[NickA]

22 hours ago, Cathode_Follower said:

Just out of interest, I always understood that orchestras tuned to Just Intonation based on the key the piece was in. Is that something that Gstrings can accommodate? Or am I way off the mark and everyone just uses equal temperament these days?

G strings handles "just".  In fact at a recent gig I did a list minute check of my fretted bass and adjusted it to the tuner ..which was set to JUST!!! Sounded awful.  Never ever ever use just on a fretted instrument!

As for orchestras, really good ones ( especially " authentic performance " ones) will use " just " or other carefully chosen non even temper; then the base key will sound perfect and contrasting keys will sound  Different.

In my kind of amateur orchestra we tune to the same A, then everyone does their own thing .. cellos and violins tuning strings in perfect 5ths, double basses in perfect 4ths ( which is an argument for tuning basses in 5ths!).  If you get a melody line then it's usually played in just ( avoiding open strings) but no one is good enough to play say an A minor melody in natural temper of   E major!

Anything with a piano in has to be even temper anyway .... though I gues if you're lang lang you can get your piano specially tuned for a given performance ?... probably ( I guess not ).

Bit of a pet subject 😉

[pete.young]

On 03/09/2019 at 01:19, Cathode_Follower said:

Hmm, I wonder if clip-on might actually be the way. I have a Snark which I bloody hate and barely ever use, but when I have it's been clipped onto the bridge, which I would guess possibly has a higher string-sound to ambient-noise ratio than under the bridge foot where my realist is. Is that where you clip yours?

 

I have a Snark too, not great for bass guitar and utterly useless for my DB. Maybe there's something particular about my bridge, but it doesn't work that well. A TC Polyclip on the other hand is utterly brilliant.

This one, if you don't need the polyphonic guitar capability: https://www.andertons.co.uk/tc-electronic-unitune-clip-tc194?lgw_code=16284-TC194&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwb3rBRDrARIsALR3XeYl0P2OzbBYR-mU0hqF9bTOhdehz0seonLLkF0h3eFPbLJsrKIXsfwaAteiEALw_wcB

 

[NickA]

Tried gigging my TC polytune this afternoon.  Put it in the signal chain between bass and amp so that turning it to tuning mode blocks the signal to the amp.  Good for swapping between the electric and double basses.

Works very well, locks on right away all the way down to the e basses bottom B string.  Very accurate in single pitch mode and good for a quick check in "poly" mode ( it swaps automatically ).

BUT the double bass does act as a big microphone, so external noise ( the vocalist and guitarist warming up even ) gets into the tuner a bit and can switch it into poly mode. 

Isolating the sound of the dB from everything else, I guess, is the problem, especially if a pa is pumping out electronica behind you.  Now understand the issue!

 

[Jakester]

I use a Snark clipped to the bridge of my EUB - IIRC you can swap between ‘Mic’ mode and ‘vibration’ mode - set to the latter its been fine. 

[Cathode_Follower]

Thanks for your input all! Think I will give @tinyd's suggestion a go as it's cheap as chips, seems like the first thing to try. Will report back with results from the field