Evertune Bass

guitarfishbay · April 2023

Incredibly excited for this. The guitar version is an absolute game changer for many reasons, this has the potential to do the same for bass

Funkfingers · April 2023

Er, how big does the routed cavity around the back of the instrument need to be?

I have seen photographs of the rear cavity required for Telecaster style guitar bodies. The cavity is complex and removes nearly as much wood as a Parsons-White B Bender.

The body of a RIC 4001/4003 is probably to skinny to accept the EverTune bass bridge. TFFT!

guitarfishbay · April 2023

I don’t think that info is released yet. I have an Evertune installed on a Tele and it sounds great!

I don’t think you install an Evertune if you want vintage accurate tone - the pitch arc is part of that tone imo

But if you find yourself fighting the pitch arc then the Evertune is the solution.

In terms of Evertune bass this will make it so much easier to use bass on recordings with lots of synths etc.

A lot of modern music uses programmed bass to get the consistency, and it’s common for real basses to be tuned using Melodyne to get more pitch consistency especially in denser arrangements, or where there are programmed instruments with straighter pitch arcs. Evertune bass should make it so much faster to use a real bass for that scenario. Sessions which could’ve taken a while for re-tuned punch ins/post editing could literally get done in a few takes, at least based on my experiences with the guitar version.

Also anyone who gigs in a band with a keys player will be able to more closely match their pitch, at any playing velocity

So far they’ve announced 4 and 5 string models. It’ll be interesting to hear how a low B sounds on the system, especially at 34” scale.

stickyfiddle · April 2023

@crunchman ; All I'm hearing is this will help people to make terrible un-human music

sgosden · April 2023

stickyfiddle said:

@crunchman ; All I'm hearing is this will help people to make terrible un-human music

have you listened to the top 100 charts in the last 5 years?

very unusual to hear actual instruments.

fretmeister · April 2023

sgosden said:

stickyfiddle said:

@crunchman ; All I'm hearing is this will help people to make terrible un-human music

have you listened to the top 100 charts in the last 5 years?

very unusual to hear actual instruments.

This is why I don't listen to the charts.

stickyfiddle · April 2023

fretmeister said:

sgosden said:

stickyfiddle said:

@crunchman ; All I'm hearing is this will help people to make terrible un-human music

have you listened to the top 100 charts in the last 5 years?

very unusual to hear actual instruments.

This is why I don't listen to the charts.

Bingo!

guitarfishbay · April 2023

Well, I’m excited for it. I think it’ll be really helpful for making music the way I want to.

The guitar version hugely improved my playing for non Evertune bridges too, I’m much better at intonating and controlling pitch arc musically now than I was before.

I’m very much in the why not both camp here.

Instruments are tools for the creation of music, certain tools work better for certain results. Some, in the case of Evertune, can do things nothing else can. Whether that’s useful depends on the goal. I can definitely think of situations where I’d have picked it if I had the choice

Jonathanthomas83 · April 2023

Something like this would be tempting to have on a Dingwall for the ultimate modern bass, IMO.

fretmeister · April 2023

guitarfishbay said:

Well, I’m excited for it. I think it’ll be really helpful for making music the way I want to.

The guitar version hugely improved my playing for non Evertune bridges too, I’m much better at intonating and controlling pitch arc musically now than I was before.

I’m very much in the why not both camp here.

Instruments are tools for the creation of music, certain tools work better for certain results. Some, in the case of Evertune, can do things nothing else can. Whether that’s useful depends on the goal. I can definitely think of situations where I’d have picked it if I had the choice

I can certainly see the usefulness for a recording bass but I am concerned about how much more a bass would weight with all that extra metal in it.

Many years ago the 2-Tek bridge was popular for about 5 minutes. It was claimed that it offered better tone, adjustability and better (traditional) tuning stability.

The problem was that it weighed a massive amount and needed big rout in the bass. It added so much weight that even on a modest bass it turned into a back breaker.

I have the same concerns with the Evertune.

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...

stickyfiddle · April 2023

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?

fretmeister · April 2023

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.

guitarfishbay · April 2023

fretmeister said:

guitarfishbay said:

Well, I’m excited for it. I think it’ll be really helpful for making music the way I want to.

The guitar version hugely improved my playing for non Evertune bridges too, I’m much better at intonating and controlling pitch arc musically now than I was before.

I’m very much in the why not both camp here.

Instruments are tools for the creation of music, certain tools work better for certain results. Some, in the case of Evertune, can do things nothing else can. Whether that’s useful depends on the goal. I can definitely think of situations where I’d have picked it if I had the choice

I can certainly see the usefulness for a recording bass but I am concerned about how much more a bass would weight with all that extra metal in it.

Many years ago the 2-Tek bridge was popular for about 5 minutes. It was claimed that it offered better tone, adjustability and better (traditional) tuning stability.

The problem was that it weighed a massive amount and needed big rout in the bass. It added so much weight that even on a modest bass it turned into a back breaker.

I have the same concerns with the Evertune.

I don’t think it’s known yet how much it weighs. And as with my experience of guitar installs goes, it depends what you started with too. I’ve had 3 installs done by Shuker, and none have become noticeably heavier. But I don’t think any got lighter.

One useful thing for bass though is it should counteract neck dive. Neck dive tends to make basses feel heavier than they are, just by distribution of weight.

guitarfishbay · April 2023

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Something like this would be tempting to have on a Dingwall for the ultimate modern bass, IMO.

Fan fret models are planned, but I think they’re just starting with regular 4 and 5 string bridges.

I actually don’t know if I’d put one on my Dingwall 5 string, I really like it as it is!

I think I’d love to try one on a P bass though, or a Jazz.

Funkfingers · April 2023

guitarfishbay said:
if you find yourself fighting the pitch arc then the Evertune is the solution.

I play a fair amount of fretless bass. I don't fight the pitch arc so much as deliberately warp it all over the place.

Cirrus · April 2023

Hello my name is UM*|?|"£ from the lost island of Utopio. Our species diverged from human evolution over 5 million years ago. We have a form of music that is alien to you, with no shared culture, and our perception of sound bears no relation to yours. However, as we are not psychopaths and narcissists we can conceive of tastes, needs and aesthetics beyond our own, and so will not complain about the existence of this music making tool.

PrecisionGuided · April 2023

A solution looking for a problem? What is this gubbins supposed to achieve?
It can't make it any more in tune...

Funkfingers · April 2023

The point is that the mechanical nature of fretted stringed instruments means that they are, inherently, fractionally out of tune nearly all of the time. (Something to do with Pythagorean pitch interval ratios and the act of pushing a string out of the straightest possible line in order to fret it.) This is why somebody devised those strangely shaped frets that Frank Gambale uses on some of his guitars.

Cirrus said:

we can conceive of tastes, needs and aesthetics beyond our own and, so, will not complain about the existence of this music making tool.

I'd like to see Evertune develop something to fix the intonation of brass instruments, played outdoors, on cold mornings, by humans who may have overimbibed from their hip flasks.

Kittyfrisk · April 2023

I'll say, What! Tally Ho! and don't spare the horses.

fretmeister · April 2023

PrecisionGuided said:

A solution looking for a problem? What is this gubbins supposed to achieve?
It can't make it any more in tune...

It can maintain the tuning better than any other bridge

Musicman20 · April 2023

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.

fretmeister · April 2023

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 · April 2023

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 · April 2023

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 · April 2023

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 · April 2023

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 · April 2023

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 · April 2023

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 · April 2023

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 · April 2023

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 · April 2023

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?

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