How to Tune a Bass Guitar

The standard bass guitar has four strings. The models of bass guitars that have 4 strings are also usually tuned in a standard form that is E, A, D, G. This tuning is used in the 'almost' all forms of music. Most of the songs are played in the standard tuning. However with the advancements of different genres of music, manufacturers have come up with 5-string and 6 string bass guitar models. The following table gives all the possible permutation combination of the bass guitar tuning.

Guitars	Tunings
4-string bass guitars	Standard tuning (E, A,D, G), Drop D tuning, ½ Step down tuning, full step down tuning, drop-C, Low-B.
5-string bass guitars	Standard tuning (b, E, A,D, G), standard with High C, ½ Step down tuning, full step down tuning, high C tuning, high C half step down and full step down.
6-string bass guitars	Standard tuning (E, A, D, G, B, e), ½ step down and full step down.

How to tune a bass guitar

Most of the pro bass guitar players have a brilliant knack of tuning their guitars with the help of their hearing senses ONLY. The beginners however have to tune the guitar with the help of electronic tuners.

The bass is a basic instrument, and has a very basic sound. A bass guitar that has gone out of tune generally has clashing frequencies. To know if the bass guitar is out of tune or not, you need to know the sound of a tuned guitar, i.e: E, A, D, G. Another sound that is peculiarly heard in a bass that is out of tune is the sound of 'wah'.

The next step in tuning a bass is to find out which string is out of tune. This can be usually accomplished by playing the scales on the bass. The notation placed on the string that is out of tune, does not fit into the scale. The next step is to find the note, of the out of tune string on the rest of the fret board. The following is an example.

G-------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------( String out of tune)
E---------------5---------------------

In the above example, the A string or the string that plays the note A, is out of tune. The A note is also played on the 5th fret of the E string. Hence the A string should sound like the a note, that is played on the 5th fret of the E string. The next step depends entirely on the player's hearing senses.

All that a guitarist has to do is to match up the A string and the A note on the E string. The best way to do is to adjust the tuning key in such a manner that 'wah' sound disappears. If the 'wah', sound gets extremely heavy, loosen the string and if it gets too soft, tighten the string.

The tuning of bass guitar done with the help of the hearing sense of an (imperfect) guitar player is not 100% accurate, as developing the sense of playing the (perfect) bass guitar, is very difficult. Due to the enormous size of strings, matching the notations of the strings and the notes played, also becomes difficult. To achieve perfection in the task, one needs a lot of practice.