Evertune Bass

fretmeister

When recording it is good practice to retune with every single take.
This would certainly resolve that time problem leaving more time for actually playing.

The guitar version is excellent for that, and if I was in the market to upgrade / replace my usual recording guitar then I'd definitely look at something with the Evertune bridge on it just to save that time.

I saw a great vid about setting it up differently for rhythm and lead parts. When set for rhythm bent notes did not change the pitch at all. It negated the effect of inadvertent bends or pressing too hard on the board. None of that caused the pitch to go sharp.

Then set it differently to allow for bending for solos and vibrato etc, but still maintaining rock solid tuning even with string slippage from bending.

Very clever indeed.

Musicman20

fretmeister said:

When recording it is good practice to retune with every single take.
This would certainly resolve that time problem leaving more time for actually playing.

The guitar version is excellent for that, and if I was in the market to upgrade / replace my usual recording guitar then I'd definitely look at something with the Evertune bridge on it just to save that time.

I saw a great vid about setting it up differently for rhythm and lead parts. When set for rhythm bent notes did not change the pitch at all. It negated the effect of inadvertent bends or pressing too hard on the board. None of that caused the pitch to go sharp.

Then set it differently to allow for bending for solos and vibrato etc, but still maintaining rock solid tuning even with string slippage from bending.

Very clever indeed.

Yeah I would like a HH setup high output guitar with one as standard from the factory. 

guitarfishbay

Musicman20 said:

I can certainly see why guitarists use them, and they are exceptional for the super low tuned heavy riffers.

However, after playing 4 and 5 string bass since I was about 13, I don't think I've ever had issues with bass tuning in my life. In fact, my Musicman 5 string basses were perfectly in tune after moving them (in cases) from temporary storage at a friend's house to my new house, and that was a period of 9 months and various temperatures.

That's not the exact problem it's trying to solve.  It's one of them, but the main one it solves is the decoupling of how hard you play and how sharp the note goes.

It's definitely possible to send a bass note sharp if you need to play it hard, and not always desirable.  It's even more noticeable on a typical 34" 5 string low B.  

This doesn't mean the string doesn't return to the original pitch afterwards, but would mean if your goal was to layer in a hard played sustained note with another instrument that had a flat[er] pitch arc (e.g. synth, piano) then the note would start sharp and decay flatter.

You can test this by plugging in to a tuner and playing softly, then playing hard, and watching the difference in how sharp the initial attack goes.  With evertune that difference is reduced to where it basically can't be heard in use, it'll show as a few cents on the tuner on lower strings (so I'm interested to see how it works on bass) but in practical terms you could play a series of takes and they'd all sound in tune with each other, and in my experience, other instruments tuned to the same reference pitch with flatter pitch arcs.

Without evertune, if you wanted that same result for a recording, you'd have to do a lot of punch ins re-tuned for how each part is played.  And even change technique to play certain notes more softly to avoid too much pitch arc.  It can also correct for finger pressure on the fretboard, of which there's currently no other mechanical solution.  Or, and what is currently common on bass as it's easier to get a good result with monophonic tuning, you'd tune it using something like Melodyne.  

guitarfishbay

fretmeister said:

When recording it is good practice to retune with every single take.
This would certainly resolve that time problem leaving more time for actually playing.

The guitar version is excellent for that, and if I was in the market to upgrade / replace my usual recording guitar then I'd definitely look at something with the Evertune bridge on it just to save that time.

I saw a great vid about setting it up differently for rhythm and lead parts. When set for rhythm bent notes did not change the pitch at all. It negated the effect of inadvertent bends or pressing too hard on the board. None of that caused the pitch to go sharp.

Then set it differently to allow for bending for solos and vibrato etc, but still maintaining rock solid tuning even with string slippage from bending.

Very clever indeed.

I disagree it's good practice to retune after every take, but it takes experience to know when to and when not to re-tune, and also depends on the limitation of the instrument itself and the way it's being used.

It's notoriously difficult to record a guitar perfectly in tune - in fact even evertune isn't perfectly in tune, just significantly closer to.  But that's also part of the sound of guitar.

If you record a good take that's in tune enough for the style of music, and the tuning of the guitar hasn't shifted from start to end of take, then the best match for tuning is going to be doing the next take straight away.  If you're not doing lots of bending and the temperature in the room is pretty consistent you can often record multiple takes without re-tuning, especially if the player is decent and the style doesn't need lots of punch ins.

With regards to setting evertune up for rhythm or lead, I find that's often not needed if the player is decent.  If you set it up on the edge of where it transitions for bending it'll work for both rhythm and string bending, you'll just feel a tiny bit more pressure as you start to bend.  If your fretting hand is decent then it's very hard to knock it out of 'evertuning' even with heavy picking, but you'll still be able to bend.  For my own playing I've never found it necessary to turn bending off completely.

Cirrus

stickyfiddle said:

fretmeister said:

I do have to say though Pitch Arc is only a problem is you aren't using proper heavy flatwounds like some sort of dilettante...   

And if you're picking like a heavy-handed chump... 

Is this something mostly suffered by slappy muppets? 

I'd forgotten about this travesty of a post. It was a Friday, right? I remember the first time I read it I checked what time it was in the UAE to establish the chance that my theory was correct: You'd had one too many pints at lunch and fired this off just before getting up for your 3rd wee of the afternoon.

PolarityMan

fretmeister said:

I have 1 bass set up for slap and I don't have any trouble with it. And I've got 40-100 flexible round core strings on it too.

Yeah but you probably play in E standard like a boomer. 

stickyfiddle

Cirrus said:

stickyfiddle said:

fretmeister said:

I do have to say though Pitch Arc is only a problem is you aren't using proper heavy flatwounds like some sort of dilettante...   

And if you're picking like a heavy-handed chump... 

Is this something mostly suffered by slappy muppets? 

I'd forgotten about this travesty of a post. It was a Friday, right? I remember the first time I read it I checked what time it was in the UAE to establish the chance that my theory was correct: You'd had one too many pints at lunch and fired this off just before getting up for your 3rd wee of the afternoon.

I can’t remember what time I posted but entirely possible I was either in the emergency vet waiting room or the airport waiting for a much-delayed flight to go to Italy. I honestly don’t remember

That said I stand by every word :P 

I genuinely understand the pitch variance/envelope thing, I just don’t believe it’s a real issue suffered by anyone doing anything musically interesting. 

I will happily add that I’m writing this in Tuscany after a phenomenal meal and bottle of wine and feeling very calm in my own self righteousness  

guitarfishbay

Define suffer

You can do in a single take with an Evertune what could require multiple punch ins on a regular guitar. And those punch ins do get done on musically interesting albums, if they’re done well you’ll never know as a listener but it does often take considerable time and effort. It’s rare to hear out of tune guitars these days though aesthetics do vary.

Evertunes sometimes get used even when artists play other instruments live. Many producers have them as studio guitars.

I don’t know what you listen to but if it’s anything in the last 10 years you may have listened to Evertune guitars without knowing. 

Enjoy Italy

PolarityMan

stickyfiddle said:

, I just don’t believe it’s a real issue suffered by anyone doing anything musically interesting. 

 

There truly is nothing more interesting than playing the same 20+ year old boomer  rock songs that every other band does. 

Cirrus

stickyfiddle said:

I will happily add that I’m writing this in Tuscany after a phenomenal meal and bottle of wine and feeling very calm in my own self righteousness  

Nice, band gone on tour?

stickyfiddle

PolarityMan said:

stickyfiddle said:

, I just don’t believe it’s a real issue suffered by anyone doing anything musically interesting. 

 

There truly is nothing more interesting than playing the same 20+ year old boomer  rock songs that every other band does. 

If that was what I was interested in you might have a point :P 

PolarityMan

stickyfiddle said:

PolarityMan said:

stickyfiddle said:

, I just don’t believe it’s a real issue suffered by anyone doing anything musically interesting. 

 

There truly is nothing more interesting than playing the same 20+ year old boomer  rock songs that every other band does. 

If that was what I was interested in you might have a point :P 

Summer of 69 is indeed a deep cut.

stickyfiddle

PolarityMan said:

stickyfiddle said:

PolarityMan said:

stickyfiddle said:

, I just don’t believe it’s a real issue suffered by anyone doing anything musically interesting. 

 

There truly is nothing more interesting than playing the same 20+ year old boomer  rock songs that every other band does. 

If that was what I was interested in you might have a point :P 

Summer of 69 is indeed a deep cut.

Cover band in playing-popular-song-liked-by-people* shocker. Never mind what’s in my regular personal rotation. 

*that was recorded without evertune…

I just don’t get why some people are so zealous about it - the little intricacies between notes and where tuning or timing aren’t literally pitch/grid- perfect are a huge part of what makes a great performance. Why would you ever want to take that away?

guitarfishbay

Interesting you mention timing 

One thing I enjoy with Evertune is I can keep the original timing without worrying about how I’m going to piece together punch ins / section by section recording. 

So I actually get a more natural playing performance, with less or often no editing, in less time.

I don’t use it every time, in fact most recently all the tracking I’ve done has been on regular bridges because I wanted that sound. 

But when I do use evertune the recording process is enjoyable, and I find that comes across in the end result. 

I’ve often used both normal and Evertune bridges in the same song. Nobody has ever asked me which bridges I’ve used when. 

I don’t think it’s as obvious as people think - there’s not no pitch arc otherwise it’d constantly be phasing. It’s just reduced to the point you can play as soft or as hard as you like and it won’t perceptively change the pitch. And you can play awkward chord voicings anywhere on the neck against open strings and it won’t sound sour. 

PolarityMan

Personally I haven't tried an evertune but I'd really like one for the downtuned stuff. For me there's always a compromise when tuning as to whether you tune to a hard picked note or a soft one or somewhere in the middle and you definitely get tuning discrepancies as a result. I mean I guess people like John Browne solve it by just being full on beast mode all the time but that's not appropriate for out music and is actually really fucking hard to do as well.

The only thing stopping me is its pretty pricy to get a retrofit so at some point will prob try to pick up an existing guitar with one already fitted as it seems like a more cost effective version. 

Of course that's just for the musically uninteresting bits. 

guitarfishbay

A used LTD is a solid choice, they’ve got models at a few different scale lengths. I use a .056 low B on my 24.75” EC1000 ET and it works really well. 

Iirc you’re a Les Paul fan. If you can find a model with 22 frets that’s closer ergonomically, but be aware on any of the F bridge installs they’ve not got the typical Les Paul back angle. They’re flatter more like a super strat. The 24 fret models move things over towards the neck, like on an SG

guitarfishbay

Some more info released https://www.evertune.com/news/2023/06/EverTune_Bass_Bridge_QandA.php

The bass version being top routed is very interesting. I wonder if they’ve managed to significantly shorten the spring design vs the current guitar version