Tuning research for brass band bass beginners

Hello, this is Cheena. Continuing from last time, I would like to talk about the performance of the electric bass in brass band.

Tuning stringed instruments in brass band

In a brass band concert, basically, a few songs are played, before which the whole brass band tunes up.
Since the first song to be played is basically an original brass band song such as an overture, electric bass rarely participates in tuning, and since it is only tuned with B♭ in the first place, there is no time to tune all strings. Probably.
You need to tune before the concert itself begins or during the song-by-song conversion.
In general, do you tune up using your favorite combo tuner / metronome before the concert starts?

Well, this is not enough.
Of course, it's not bad, but there are some problems with brass band where the electric bass is not used as the main instrument.
It is assumed that "wind instruments warm up and the pitch goes up as the playing time increases" and "stringed instruments loosen the strings and the pitch goes down".

Problematic tuning methods

If you use a card tuner or clip tuner that comes with a beginner's set, you may end up with "poor tuning accuracy" or "the reference pitch cannot be changed and is out of tune already at the tuning stage".
Although it depends on the policy of the school and department, there are many places where the reference pitch at the time of tuning is set to 442Hz instead of 440Hz, and in that case, only the bass is tuned lower from the beginning.
If you play in that state, the bass pitch will go down from the beginning, while the wind instrument corps tuning will go up, causing chord dissonance.

Tuning methods that will improve your tuning

If you use a tuner / metronome, you can tune it by picking up the live sound with the built-in mic or by attaching the tuner mic to the head or somewhere, but you can rarely do this between songs.
It is not possible to undo the tuning that was lowered during the performance, so it can be dealt with to some extent by keeping it slightly higher from the beginning, but it is not a fundamental improvement.
Similarly, clip tuners are good if they look and sound good, but there are some people who avoid bringing tuners to concerts, so you may want to avoid them. Also, due to the increase in head weight, the sound quality may change slightly.

Ideal tuning method

Use a pedal tuner, to solve these problems. The point is that you can tune at any time, and at the same time, even if you tune, the audience cannot see the tuner.
Also, it is convenient to automatically cut off the sound when tuning, because it can suppress noise during the MC between songs.
You don't have to use expensive TC Electronic or Boss pedal tuners, and Behringer and Ibanez tuners are fine, but be aware that the reference pitch on some pedal tuners, such as the ROWIN LT-920 and the HOTONE TUNER cannot be changed.

■ List of pedal tuners

By the way, some of the high-priced pedal tuners have a built-in buffer (effector that raises the volume and improves the sound quality), and a polyphonic tuner that can tune all strings at the same time.

I wrote about the improving on the basics regarding the sound creation for the electric bass in brass band.
In the world of brass band performances that require strict tuning, stringed instruments can create beautiful harmonies, albeit heretical in the minds of some purists.
Let's have a good musical instrument life!