A bass guitar has four strings and sounds exactly one octave lower than the four low strings of a guitar. Its strings are thick and wound with wire – the low E string vibrates only about 41 times a second. That’s why the bass hums so nicely and holds a whole band together.
The target notes
- 4th string (top, the thickest): E (E1)
- 3rd string: A (A1)
- 2nd string: D (D2)
- 1st string (bottom, the thinnest): G (G2)
With a tuner
- Plug the bass into the amp and turn it up a little. Without an amp a bass guitar is very quiet – then hold the phone close to the strings.
- Open the tuner, allow the microphone and pluck one string firmly.
- Too low? Turn the tuning key to tighten the string. Too high? Loosen it a little. Bass tuning keys are big – even a small turn changes a lot.
Phone microphones hear very low notes only faintly. That’s why the app’s tuner also listens to the overtone one octave higher, which is much louder. If the needle still jumps around, pluck a little further from the bridge and let the string ring.
By ear: the 5th fret
Once the E string is in tune, you can tune the rest without a device: fret the E string at the 5th fret – that’s an A. The open A string must sound exactly the same. Then the A string at the 5th fret against the open D string, and the D string at the 5th fret against the open G string. If you hear a wobble, one string isn’t quite there yet – turn slowly until it disappears.