Bassplaying and tuning

[Ola Andersson]

I have been tuning for a year now and learned everything mainly from this 
list.  With me I have 25 years of bass playing experiencer and I would like 
to chear my view  of a temprement. There are some wrong spellings here but I 
don't care.

Stretch.
I have noticed two kinds of stretch.
First playing in a rock or Jazz band with guitarist there no tuning 
problems. The guitars tune with little stretch and has low 5ths. I can 
sometimes here if a Doublebass player is classical trained (pure 5ths) or 
started as a electricbass player (low 5ths).
The problem comes when playing classical. The violins and cellos tune pure 
5ths and strech the octavs. I tune fourths and get very streched fourths. To 
be in tune I often tune to the notes I hear in the orchestra instead of 
tuning my strings compared to my "A". The biggest problem is the low E 
string, when the cello tune the cello 3 pure 5ths down from an "A" it gets 
very low. When playing a pure E in a C chord the bass is much to high 
compared to the cello wich has tuned and intonated low. So to get the bass 
in tune. for the symfoni orchstra I have to strech the fourths twice the 
amount of ET (I beleave). I also heard cello player tune temered  5ths but 
not as low as in ET.

Temprement:
When playing without piano or tempered instruments I try to play pure to the 
key I'm playing in.I mean I try to intonate A diffrently if it is  a third, 
seventh, fith or a first not. Playing blues or Norwigian folkmusic the major 
third should be lower than pure and the 5th pure. Guitars has there own 
intonating also. Keyboards we know about. The trumpet players MilesDavis and 
Don Cherry had there own way to intonate giving a flavour to the Orchestra 
sound like sugar in the tea.

Conclution:
I found ET  to be out of tune. If I tune the piano and find it equal out of 
tune then I know I have an ET. If there is some thing purer there are 
something wrong as long as I didn't try to tune a HT. Tuning a piano is a 
compromize and ET is the same kind of compromize as HT. It is fun to tell 
people when I finish to tune this piano there isn't a single note intune. 
Maybe we shouldn't call us tuners but "out of tuners".

This doesn't mean I always get my doublebass to play the note I wan't or the 
piano to sound pefect ET or HT but I try. Just wanted to chear a bassplayers 
point of view to a techs.

Hope nobody gets pissed, because that was not the point.

Ola Andersson
Bergen
Norway
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