Hi there guys, this is Ben Jones from the Institute as part of the Bass Expo for
Music Radar. We've just got the strings onto our guitar and now we're going to take the
next stage, which is obviously getting it in tune and I'm going to show you a couple
of ways of doing that. Now, most of us out there have 4 string basses. The strings for
a 4 string go like so; you'll hear E, A, D and G. So the 1st point, obviously we said
was our E string, we need to get the E in the right tuning, otherwise it will
only be tuned out of tune basically. There are lots of electric tuners out there, I'd
definitely recommend buying one, they're very very useful and the one I've got here Korg,
they make some really good tuners that are definitely worth looking into. 1st of all
I'm going to tune up my E to make sure that it's in tune. So now I know my E is in tune,
I can now tune all of the other strings to this note, but that's the most important thing
without that E being in tune we need to make sure that our reference point is right. The
frets we're going to be concerned with when tuning are the 5th fret, because the 5th fret
on the lowest string, your E string is the same pitch as the open string below it. So
the same thing for the A's, so the 5th on the A is the open string on the D, 5th on
the D is the open string on the G. Because of that, that sounds like the same note which
means that it's in tune, again we can hear that that's in tune. Now if I knock this out
of tune, we're going to talk about how we can actually get back. Back into tune.
So the 1st thing we're going to do, is we're going to fret a 5th fret on our E string.
We know that's in tune, we've had that reference from the tuner. Now we can obviously just
tune all of these strings using a tuner but it's really good habit to be able to tune by
ear it also helps you with learning songs when you're starting to learn the guitar and
it just gives you a really useful skill. What we're going to look at here is the 5th fret
first of all, now we know that this open string below us, our A, needs to be the same note,
you can all hear that hopefully, sounds pretty horrendous, that's because it's not in tune.
What we're going to do is we're going to turn and tune up or down (depending whether it's
a sharp or flat) the open A string to get it to sound the same as that 5th E. So what
we're going to do, we hear that note, hopefully you guys can all hear that this note is higher
than that one. Therefore it's flat, we need to bring that note higher to make it sound
the same, so what we're going to do is we're going to tighten the string. If you losing
a string it flattens the note if you tighten the string it sharpens or raises the note.
So, we want to try and get, that, into the same sound. So the way I do it, is I fret the 5th
fret and play through both strings so I can hear. Hope you guys on the video can hear
that vibration, that means that it's not in tune as it gets closer to being in tune, that's
going to stop and we'll just hear one constant note. Hopefully you guys can hear so I'll do that again.
You can hearthe wavering stops as we get closer into the note. There we go. We're back into tune,
so you can do that for all the strings, you're listening for that wavering sound of going
in and out and that's the way of doing, there are other ways of using it, you can look up
the other things about harmonics and things like that but for now you've got a reference
way of taking the 5th fret, playing the string below it, which will give you the same note.
That's the idea we're going for. But of course at the same time we need to make sure that
first string is in tune, otherwise you're just going to tune it to the note you've got
and if that's not the right note then the whole thing will be out of tune and when you
go to play for your friends or in your band or whatever that might be a bit of a problem.
So definitely invest in an electric tuner but if you haven't got that you can get a
reference point off apps or on your phone, a piano, any of those things will give you
that first note and then you can tune the rest by ear.