After using my electronic tuner, when I play an open A and an A on the 5th fret, they sound identical, same for open D and D on the 5th fret but when i play open G and G on the 5th fret they often sound more like an octave of some sort vs identical, at least initially, anyone else experience this or have suggestions?
do you have the G tuned to the right octave? It should sound very similar the the 5th fret on the D string. If you play the open strings, they all go up in pitch as you move “down” the strings (from E to G), right?
Another possibility, G string may be bad. Did you listen to a tuning example and see if your strings are roughly the same?
Good luck, and welcome!
Yeah it sounds like one of the strings is tunes an octave off.
I think what you might be experiencing is the different timbre of the D and G strings. The same pitch sounds a bit different played on the two strings due to their physical size differences. I tried a couple basses and it’s enough to be noticed. It’s more subtly noticeable for the other strings.
i am thinking it’s just my ear picking up this…thx
Most tuners are only telling that it’s a G, not which G. What I’d recommend as a test is to tune it manually using the 5th and open to get them as close as possible to each other using your ear and then see what your tuner says after that.
Also, some tuners can be set to all kinds of funky alternate tunings. I accidentally set my little Korg clip-on tuner to some funky one and spent almost a month wondering why my bass didn’t sound right will all my backing tracks until I figured out what happened.