The Bass Geek

Yes, there is a certain amount of unnecessary anal-retentiveness that goes into making a store clerk demo four different models of tuners.  After all, it’s just a tuner – it just helps you tune your bass guitar.  It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) sit in your signal path, it doesn’t overtly affect your playing, and it’s certainly possible to live without one if you have a good reference tone and decent ears.  And I already own a pedal tuner – the new one is just to use for changing strings and quick tuning when I’m not using my pedalboard.  It’s tiny and fits in the gig bag.

And yet I went through the demo nonetheless, because as I kept looking at models, my requirements for the perfect tuner revealed themselves.

1. It has to be chromatic.  Tuners built specifically for bass or guitar are handy, but they’re useful only in those instances.  What if you have to help another instrument find a pitch that isn’t handled by those tuners?  As somebody who has played with bagpipes and sitar, I can vouch for this significance.  To be fair, the bagpipes never made it into the correct pitch in any case, but that wasn’t the fault of the tuner.
2. It has to have a line in.  It’s always better to tune in silence when possible, because you don’t want to annoy the audience with either sour notes or bad tuning jokes.  Especially the jokes.  Stop that.
3. It has to use easy-to-find batteries.  I passed on a couple models because they used watch batteries, and I just don’t have faith in finding them when emergency strikes.  AAA batteries fill me with more confidence, I guess.

So, $34.24 later, I have my tuner.  There’s no specific brand loyalty here – it’s just the one that fulfills these needs.  Hope it’s helpful to those looking to tune up.

And please, for God’s sake, tune first.

The American Cabaret Theater started the run of its country Christmas show this weekend to a decent crowd and reception, and it’s running through December 21st, I think.  I’m using the old P-bass on this one – it just seems the most appropriate instrument for this gig, and it’s working well for now.  I’m noticing a loose tone pot, though, so I may need to do some work on it soon.

The new amp is still in the shop, too.  No word on its availability, as of yet.  Hopefully it’s a quick fix, ’cause I’d like to be able to use it for . . .

The Playboy Psychonauts have a show coming up this Sunday at the Melody Inn for the Cocoanut Grove lounge night.  It’s all us, and it’s all new costumes and a few new songs.

I hate having all of this stuff coming up the week after a vacation – it feels like a car that’s suddenly taken off from zero to 60 in a half-second.  Did I mention there’s another Google book deadline next Monday?