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The Electric Bass Guitar

Guitarschools bass players also play at Rockschools

The electric bass (also called “bass guitar” or “bass”) was first developed in the 1930s as a fretted, horizontally held instrument but it wasn't mass-produced until Fender's Precision Bass in the 1950s. The bass is used in many different styles of music. It can be a solo instrument but is primarily used to provide a beat and to hold the music together.

The look and build of a bass guitar is similar to that of an electric guitar except that the bass has a longer neck and scale length (the length of the strings from the nut to the bridge). There are variations of the instrument but the standard design has four strings tuned in fourths, (E, A, D and G), the same as a double bass and an octave lower than the bottom four strings on a six-string guitar. Five and 6 string basses are also found. Music for the bass guitar is written in the bass clef, an octave higher than it sounds.

The body of an electric bass guitar is usually made from hardwood and the strings are metal or metal covered. Beyond that there can be enormous variety in the materials, construction and set up of a bass, according to personal preference.

Most electric basses have solid bodies. A solid body relies on an electric pickup (magnetic or non-magnetic) and amplification to give a good volume of sound.

Magnetic pick ups create small electrical voltages from the vibrations of the metal guitar strings within the magnetic field of the pickup. These are amplified and played through speakers. There are different types of magnetic pickup designed to create different effects and sounds.

Non-magnetic pickups allow the use of non-metal strings. They work by converting vibrations in the instrument's body or bridge into an electrical signal (e.g. Piezoelectric or “piezo” pickups) or by using infrared LEDs to track the movement of the string (optical pick-ups). Optical pickups are better at reproducing low frequencies but are not good at picking up high frequencies or percussive sounds so are often used in conjunction with a Piezo pickup.

Acoustic bass guitars have hollow chambers in the body or completely hollow bodies to increase natural resonance. They have magnetic or non-magnetic pickups and are usually amplified.

Early basses had 20 frets, more modern ones have 24 plus. Some players prefer the fretless bass which lends itself better to vibrato and to smaller variations of intonation. The string being pressed directly onto the wood of the fingerboard (as with the violin, for example) creates a distinctive and very different timbre from that of the fretted bass.