BandUp
Bass Tuner

Bass Guitar Tuner

Tune your bass by microphone and lock the low end with your band. A chromatic tuner — 4 or 5-string alike, with no app and no account.

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Allow the microphone and play a string to start tuning.

How to tune a bass guitar

A bass guitar tuner captures the low frequencies of your bass through the microphone and shows each string's pitch to the cent: flat, in tune or sharp. To read those low notes accurately it analyses the signal over a wider window, so the thick E and even the 5-string B lock in steadily. Allow the microphone, play an open string and turn the peg until the needle centers.

Because it is chromatic there is no mode to pick for the number of strings: a standard 4-string and the extra low string on a 5-string are read exactly the same way — look up the target notes in the table below. Readings settle a little slower down low than they do on guitar; let the string ring longer, pluck nearer the middle of it and work in a quiet room. When the bass sits right on the kick drum the rhythm section locks together and the whole band sounds like one thing.

String notes and frequencies

The tuner is chromatic — find your target note here, then turn the peg until the needle centres on it. Frequencies are given against A4 = 440 Hz.

4-string standard

StringNoteFrequency
1E141.20 Hz
2A155.00 Hz
3D273.42 Hz
4G298.00 Hz

5-string standard

StringNoteFrequency
1B030.87 Hz
2E141.20 Hz
3A155.00 Hz
4D273.42 Hz
5G298.00 Hz

Frequently asked questions

The tuner can't hear my microphone. What should I do?
Your browser needs to grant permission first. Click the padlock icon at the left of the address bar, set "Microphone" to "Allow" and reload the page. If the needle still doesn't move: make sure the right microphone is selected and that its input volume isn't muted. Background noise throws the reading off too, so try a quiet room. On an acoustic guitar bring the sound hole close to the mic; on an electric, point it at your amp's speaker.
What does a chromatic tuner mean?
A chromatic tuner doesn't expect a preset tuning: it listens to whatever you play and names the closest note as it is, with the semitone below and above shown alongside. In practice that means it works with any tuning. Standard, drop D, a baritone ukulele or a 5-string bass: all you need is to know the note each string should reach, then turn the peg until the needle centres on it.
Can I tune without granting microphone access?
No. The tuner works out the pitch by analysing sound from your microphone, so it can't read anything without permission. The interface stays available, so you can still use the string table and note reference on this page. The permission applies only to this tab, and no audio is sent anywhere or stored: the whole analysis happens inside your browser.
Why does the tuner struggle with my low B string?
The B string on a 5-string bass sits around 30.9 Hz, the hardest region for pitch detection: as the frequency drops the algorithm has a harder time and laptop or phone microphones may not capture something that low cleanly. For a better reading: work in a quiet room, let the string ring longer, pluck nearer the middle (hitting close to the bridge brings out upper harmonics) and don't hit it hard. If the display shows the octave above, play more softly.
What notes are 4 and 5-string basses tuned to?
On a 4-string bass, standard tuning runs thickest to thinnest: E1 (41.20 Hz), A1 (55.00 Hz), D2 (73.42 Hz), G2 (98.00 Hz). A 5-string adds one thicker string below those: B0 (30.87 Hz), making it B-E-A-D-G with the other four unchanged. Bass strings sit an octave below a guitar's, which is why the reading takes a little longer to settle.
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Your bass is tuned and the low end is solid. On stage the next question is the signal: BandUp's tech rider hands the sound engineer your DI, channel count and stage plot on one page, so setup is never guesswork.

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