About The Bass - Online information

Learn a little bit more in depth about the bass guitar and how it came to be.

Bass guitar (pronounced base) is an electrical instrument which uses an amp to be able to be heard louder. The bass guitar is a direct descendant from the upright double bass. Other types of bass include fretless bass which has no frets and acoustic hollow-bodied bass which can be played without an amp. A standard bass comes with four strings which are named: E, A, D, and G. The bass has become a popular instrument with almost all music shops selling them and most manufacturers producing 5 and 6 stringed basses. There are many strings a bass can have contrary to what people may think that you should/can only have 4 strings. There is in fact a bass that has been made with 12 strings.

The parts on a bass all have different names (see my lesson on “The Bass Diagram “for the part names.) The body is made out of wood (the wood can vary) and the pickups are a mixture of metal and plastic. The strings and the tuning pegs are made out of metal (read my lesson on "different bass strings" to see what the differences between different strings are).

The strings on a standard four stringed bass are named after the note they produce when open: E, A, D, G. Five stringed bass would be normal tuned to: B, E, A, D, G and a six stringed bass would be normal tuned to: B, E, A, D, G, C. Every open string is a fourth apart from each other.

E, F, F#, G, G# A, A#, B C, C# D, D#

The bass is tuned an octave lower than that of the open strings of a guitar also the scales of a bass is larger than that of a guitar making the fretboard and body bigger on a bass, this is what makes the strings on a bass a lot bigger and also deeper than them on a guitar.

The first bass that resembled a bass what was played horizontally and also made to be played standing up was made In the 1930s by someone called Paul Tutmarc who lived in Seattle, Washington. It wasn’t until between 1950s–1960s that someone by the name of Leo Fender started mass producing the bass which became known as The Precision Bass. Fender is now hugely popular and nearly everyone i knows of the word fender or the instruments they make.

Electric basses use pick-ups called magnetic pick-ups which vary in what they can do to the sound but all share the same basic principles in which they are, simply electro-magnetic devices. The pickups consist of magnets which are wrapped around with copper wire called coils. This produces a magnetic flux. When the metal bass strings move they change the magnetic flux of the magnet and this induces a voltage in the coiled copper wire around the magnet. These low-level signals are then amplified and played through an amp.

A bass can be played with your fingers (using 2, 3 or even 4 fingers), using a guitar pick or even your finger nails. Other ways of playing bass include slap bass and tapping on the bass, each producing a different sound. The style of playing can change depending on what style of music is being played or what suits the player best.