Tuning a bass guitar without an amp

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So, I went out and bought a bass today from one of the local pawn shops, specifically a Fender Squier P Bass. It was in pretty nice shape, sounded pretty good, but after I played with it for a while and put it back in its bag, I managed to bump some of the tuning knobs. I tried retuning it by ear, but I think I just made it worse. Now, do I need an amp in order to be able to tune it, or is there some other way? I'd like to be able to get a small amp eventually, but I've already spent too much money in the last few days, so I'd rather not.

Its a bit of a stretch, but I just put my ear up against the neck and do it that way *shrugs*. Works best when sitting, obviously.

That's sort of what I did earlier on. Tomorrow, I'm going to talk to the guy who runs the local guitar shop, and see if he can help me tune it. Maybe he'll have a lead and tuner for sale as well.

Yeah, it's easiest if you have one of those tuning devices. New strings also go out of tune pretty fast, at least with a normal guitar, probably the same for bass. If you have a microphone on your pc, there are also tuning programs you can run on your computer I think.

If you use the harmonics on the 5th and 7th frets (string above) and pluck them hard you should be able to hear the phase effect without an amp (find which way turning the head makes the pulsing sound slower and then slowly turn that way till it disappears).