What Is A Bass Guitar - Eric Sardinas

A bass guitar has the same tuning and pitch as the double bass. You must know that the bass instrument is electrically amplified, but first, What Is A Bass Guitar?

The bass guitar, also known as the electric bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It has the appearance of an acoustic guitar but does not have a long scale and neck like the acoustic guitar.

The distinctiveness between the guitar and the bass guitar is the range of the instrument’s pitch. The bass guitar plays the note an octave below the normal guitar.

The bass guitar is used to play low musical sounds in different genres of music. The musical sounds made by the bass guitar are called bass lines.

The bass is easier to play than the guitar. The electric guitar has six strings, while the bass has four strings. Therefore, the bass instrument is played differently from the electric guitar.

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Difference Between The Bass And The Guitar

The Bass

The bass guitar is a bit larger than the acoustic guitar. It has four strings that are similar to the guitar, except that the notes are an octave below the note of the guitar.

As a result of this, the bass serves as a backup instrument. It gives an excellent foundation to enable the guitar to the playoff. In addition, the bass is likely to function closely with the drums to form a melody based on the music genre.

The Guitar

The advanced and regular guitar has six strings. The electric or acoustic guitar has the duty of lifting the song’s main melody.

Countless times, the guitars also perform the duty of a solo instrument. The bass and the guitar are played similarly, but the guitar has some factors that the bass does not have.

What Instrument To Go For? Is It The Bass Or Guitar?

It is advisable and recommendable for younger kids to play the instrument whose strings are harder and difficult to pull. The instrument should be the guitar. If you want to learn an instrument for fun, you should go for the bass instrument.

The guitar calls for additional practice to play it perfectly, irrespective of the kind of guitar you go for.

Types Of Bass Guitar

The bass guitar is a core instrument in the majority of musical bands. However, they can carry out different roles. The main function of the bass is to hold up the low end of the musical notes.

The bass guitar comes in different shapes and sizes and is usually longer than the electric guitar with up to 5 thick strings. They are different types of bass guitars which we will be discussing below. They are;

1. Acoustic Bass Guitar

This type of guitar does not have anything electrical attached to it. Most beginners prefer this instrument because it produces a much audible sound than the electric guitar.

The downside to this type of instrument is that it does not provide much audible sound. You can never compare it with a bass that is plugged into an amplifier.

To get a more audible acoustic Bass, go search for large body bass. This type of bass tends to produce a more audible sound.

The double bass and the acoustic bass make the same sound. In other words, the acoustic bass can produce an additional resonant sound. On the other hand, the bass guitar is distinct from the standard guitar, being that it is minimal in pitch.

2. Fretless Bass Guitar

The fretless bass guitar does not come with any fret on the fretboard. Frets are metal wires placed above and beneath the neck of the bass. The aim of the fret is to orderly divide the notes on each of the strings when it is pressed down.

In the absence of the frets, the player is given the option to find and play the notes beneath each string, ensuring that they are in tune.

Playing a fretless bass guitar is more challenging than playing a fretless bass. Therefore, when the need comes for you to purchase your bass guitar, you might get confused as to which one you should buy. In addition, it takes additional practice to play the musical notes on the fretless bass appropriately.

Not all playing styles works on fretless bass. For example, tapping seems to be a bit difficult when playing the fretless bass. Also, playing chords seem to be almost impossible as well.

3. Short Scale Bass Guitar

A standard and regular bass guitar are designed to have a larger body and a much heavier weight. For this reason, some people lose interest in learning the bass guitar. The short-scale bass guitar has different features that attract people to it. It makes it simple and easier to tune and play.

This type of bass guitar gives tones distinct from what may be expected from a regular scale length bass guitar.

The particular distinction between the short-scale bass guitar and the long-scale bass guitar is that the short-scale bass guitar is usually used for children while the large-scale bass guitar is usually used for adults.

The short-scale bass guitar is one of the most common types of bass guitar that is well known by instrumentalists today. Therefore, additional bass players go for smaller bass guitars that are built that are constructed with high-quality parts and possess great audibility like the large-scale bass guitars.

4. Hollowbody Bass Guitar

This type of bass guitar fits very well for unplugged playing. It is much lighter than the other type of solid bass instruments. The hollow body bass guitar is similar to the acoustic guitar. However, as much as there is hollow body bass guitar, there is also semi-hollow bass guitar.

5. The Electric Bass Guitar

The regular electric bass guitar comes with four strings. The six strings model electric bass guitar gained popularity in the early 1980s. The extra strings give the player a more low-end range.

Playing a four-stringed bass guitar helps the player know the orderly playing technique and improve their use of a self-playing method.

If an individual has experience playing the bass guitar, such an individual will be able to advance to a six-string bass guitar. When one advances to playing a six-stringed bass guitar, you will stretch the fingers around the neck.

Starting with the four-stringed instrument is advisable for beginners with no idea how the bass instrument works.

A bass guitar becomes more complex to play when more than four strings. Unfortunately, the majority of the beginners are unaware that the moment they have more than four strings on a bass instrument, there is a lot more work to do.

You now have to concentrate on the two additional keys while making the strings you are playing sound audible. Also, as one advances to playing the six-string instrument, the neck on the bass instrument tends to get wider and has a maximum accuracy rate. Therefore, beginners should always start with four strings bass.

Instrument because they can always learn the advanced type of bass guitar later. They must know all about the four-string instrument before upgrading to the five or even six-string instrument.

4. Acoustic-Electric Bass Guitar

These types of bass guitars feature a set of electronics in them, and with the presence of this type of electronics, you can fit in different output levels using different instruments. Unfortunately, few electronics come with simple electronics, while others have a more upgraded system.

6. Long Scale Bass Guitar

One of the factors to consider when purchasing a long-scale bass guitar is the length of the scale. That is the gap between the bridge and the nut. It is important because it plays an important role in the instrument’s sound.

The standard version of this bass guitar is known as the long-scale basses. It also has short, medium, and extra-long scale basses. The essence of the scale length is to help players that find it difficult to select the length of their strings.

The most common bass guitars are the large-scale bass guitar.

7. Stand Up Bass Guitar

It is a type of stringed bass musical instrument. It falls under the lowest-pitched member of the violin family. For example, the double bass guitar has four heavy bass instruments that are pitched E A D G. many basses ought to have a fifth string.

Instead, they come with mechanical devices that possess levers. These levers aid in maximizing the length of the fourth string. With the presence of this mechanical device, the pitch of the E string tends to be lowered to E sound in a situation where the lower notes are not required.

With this type of bass guitar, two types of bass bow are being used. They are the German bow and the French bow.

The majority of the bass guitars make use of four strings. However, some use up to six strings tuned at an octave below the electric guitar. The strings are named accordingly as EADGBE. It is advisable, to begin with, four-stringed instruments for beginners. Only then can you advance to using the five to six bass guitar.

Conclusion

Brass instruments are usually designed with four strings. Three different types of bass pickups feature different casings. There are also three different types of bass guitar necks. The two main categories of bass guitars are acoustic and electric.