5-string bass tuner

5-string bass tuning notes in Hz

4-, 5- and 6-string bass tunings

At A4 = 440 Hz; the reference switch above moves them all.

How to tune a 5-string bass with this tuner

Pick Low B or High C above, tap start and play the string the tuner asks for, the lowest first, and let it ring. Mute the others with your fretting hand. The needle shows how far you are in cents; turn the key slowly, a tick comes at five cents or closer, and the tuner moves on to the next string up, to the G (or the high C). Come up to each note from below: if you overshoot, drop under it and tune up again, so the string sits firm on the post. When all five tick, go round once more: bringing strings up pulls the neck a little, and the first ones you tuned drift flat. Tap a string above to hear its note; on a phone it plays an octave up, where a phone speaker can still make it.

The low B sits at 30.87 Hz, under what a phone's microphone picks up well, so the tuner listens a moment longer before it shows anything. Pluck it with the flesh of a finger or the thumb over the end of the fingerboard, not with a pick at the bridge, and wait past the attack: a low string reads a few cents sharp in its first moment, while it swings widest, and then settles. Tune on the settled part. If the needle never steadies on the B, tune it by ear from the E, below.

What a 5-string bass is tuned to

Standard 5-string bass tuning is B E A D G: the four-string's E A D G with a low B a fourth under the E. The B gives you the five notes below the open E, E♭ down to B, without retuning, and every note of the E string five frets up on the B, so a line can stay in one position. The other five-string tuning keeps the E and adds a high C on top, E A D G C, for chords and solos; it's the second switch. A six-string has both, B E A D G C: tune the B with the first switch and the C with the second.

How to tune a 5-string bass by ear

Get one string right first, the E from this tuner or a reference, then tune the rest from it, each one against a fretted note on the string below:

• B string, 5th fret = open E. Tune the B until the two stop beating.
• E string, 5th fret = open A.
• A string, 5th fret = open D.
• D string, 5th fret = open G.
• High C tuning: G string, 5th fret = open C.

Harmonics make a finer check: the harmonic at the 5th fret of one string and the harmonic at the 7th fret of the next string up are the same note, B2 for the B and E strings. Listen for the slow wobble between them to stop. Matched harmonics put the strings a pure fourth apart, 2 cents narrower than the fourth the frets play, so use them to check a pair, not to tune the whole neck one string after another. Some guides say the 5th-fret harmonic on the B matches the open E; it doesn't, it sounds B two octaves up. The fretted 5th fret matches.

Drop A, drop C and other tunings

Drop A is A E A D G: the B lowered a whole tone to A0, 27.5 Hz, for heavier music. There is no switch for it here, so tune the four upper strings, then fret the low string at the 2nd fret and tune that to the tuner's B; or match its 12th-fret harmonic to the open A string. Drop C: a band in drop C, guitars at C G C F A D, needs a low C, and on a five-string that is the 1st fret of the B, so standard tuning already plays it. For an open C, raise the B a semitone, C E A D G. C1 is 32.70 Hz; the any-note tuner reads it, or check its 12th-fret harmonic, C2, against the A string's 3rd fret. For a 4-string bass in E A D G, the bass tuner has standard and drop D.

Why the B string feels floppy, and what helps

A string's tension goes with the square of its length and of its pitch. The B is the lowest note at the same scale length as the rest, so it is the slackest string unless it is very heavy: on a 34-inch scale, B strings usually run .125 to .135 inch. A 35-inch scale gives the same string about 6 % more tension, (35/34)² = 1.06, which is why many five-strings are built longer or with fanned frets. A slack B wobbles in pitch with every note and reads unsteady on any tuner. A heavier or tapered B, or a longer scale, steadies it; a new B also needs a day of stretching and retuning before it holds.

Intonation: in tune open, out of tune up the neck

If the open string is in tune but the note at the 12th fret reads sharp, the saddle has to move back, away from the neck, to lengthen the string; flat, forward. Fret with your normal pressure and check each string, the B last, because it is thickest and its saddle usually ends up furthest back. Do it after every change of string gauge.

Is a 5-string bass harder to play?

A little, at first. The neck is wider, the strings often sit closer, and there is one more string to mute: an open B rings along under everything unless the thumb or the fretting hand rests on it. Most players settle in within a few weeks. Why would you want one: the five notes under the E, down to B, without retuning, and more notes in one hand position.

The best tuner for a 5-string bass

Any tuner that reads 31 Hz. A pedal tuner hears the pickup directly and tracks the low B at once; clip-ons read the headstock's vibration, and cheap ones sometimes miss the B altogether, as bassists on Reddit report. A microphone tuner, an app or this page, reads the B too, a moment slower, from a clean, firm pluck in a quiet room.

The notes you tuned go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat.