What is a bass guitar? What makes it different from a regular guitar? Does it need special equipment? How do you play one?
If these questions have been keeping you awake at night, then let me sing you to sleep with some easy answers. I’ll put you straight on all things bass, and you can rest the easy rest of the knowledgeable!
Follow me this way!
What is a Bass Guitar?
A bass guitar is a fretted instrument, similar to a guitar. What makes it different is its length and low-register sound. The bass guitar uses long, thick strings in order to sound big and low-pitched.
A bass guitar typically plays similar, but fundamentally different parts of a song compared to a regular guitar. The role of a bass guitar is mostly supportive: it provides the ‘anchor’ upon which the rest of the music - guitars, vocals, keys etc - all rest upon.
Who Invented the Bass Guitar?
The bass guitar was invented by Leo Fender, of Fender guitars. It was released in 1951 and offered double bassists at the time an alternative to their large and unwieldy double basses. The Fender Precision bass was the first commercially available electric bass guitar with a fretted neck. Prior to this, it was always a traditional upright or double bass, which could be described as being a giant cello with a fretless neck. These were being drowned out, volume-wise, by the use of electric guitars in modern music, so Leo Fender saw an opportunity to innovate and took it.
What Does The Bass Guitar Sound Like?
The bass guitar typically sounds a full octave lower than a standard guitar. It uses long, thick strings and a longer neck to provide a very deep, rumbling tone that is perfect as a sonic foundation for a song.
Bassists can play higher up the neck on lighter strings to get a different sound. Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Peter Hook (New Order) are two good examples of using such a style, but even then, the bass still sounds bigger and ‘bassier’ than equivalent notes played on an electric guitar.
Most people agree that JJ Burnel's Precision Bass tone (above) is one of the best ever.
Is the Bass Guitar Difficult to Play?
To begin with, the bass guitar is a relatively easy instrument to get to grips with. The neck is long, so it’s never difficult to reach the correct note, and basses rarely make use of chords, so you’ll be primarily playing single notes.
Naturally, there is a learning curve and there are gradually more difficult pieces of music to learn on bass, but speaking generally, it’s not the most difficult instrument to get started on. This is great news! You’ll progress quickly and it’ll feel great when you can play the basslines of your favourite songs.
Do I Need Special Equipment to Play the Bass Guitar?
Yes, you do require a few bits of specific equipment in order to play the bass guitar. You need a bass, of course, but then you’ll need a cable, a tuner and a specific bass amplifier. What I mean by that is, it’s best not to use an amplifier that’s designed for electric guitars. You won’t ruin anything (not in the short term, at least), but guitar amps aren’t designed to deal with those low frequencies, so a proper bass amplifier is what you need. Browse some good, smaller ‘house amps’ for bass in the carousel below.
Bass Amplifiers
Do I Use My Fingers or a Plectrum With a Bass Guitar?
Both! You can (and should) use both fingerstyle and plectrum techniques when playing bass. They each have a different sound, and it’s fun to try both. Fingerstyle is softer and ‘rounder’ sounding, whilst plectrums add a lot of ‘attack’ to your sound.
Some songs call for one particular sound over another, and so knowing how to play with a plectrum and with your fingers means you’ll be able to do it all!
What are Some Good Bass Guitars?
Most bass guitars nowadays are at least pretty good, so whatever you have available is probably going to work. Having said that, there are some stand-out basses in the world, and I’ll show you a few here…
Fender Precision: the original bass guitar, and still the most popular bass design in the world. It uses what we call a ‘split-coil’ pickup to get its distinctive sound. This is available in a great many variations of colour, specification and price from Fender, their sub brand Squier, and third parties who make similar models.
Fender Jazz Bass: Fender’s other main style, which uses an ‘offset’ body shape and a pair of single coil pickups which can be blended for specific tones. The Jazz bass used to have a noticeably thinner neck than the P-Bass, but that isn’t so much the case these days.
Music Man StingRay: Music Man is another of Leo Fender’s companies, started some years after selling Fender. The StingRay is a powerful sounding bass that utilises a humbucking pickup (or more than one!) and an ‘active’ set of tone controls which use a 9v battery in order to create more extreme tone changes.
Bass Guitars
Bass Guitar: A Music Essential
The bass is an essential instrument. It's a fundamental requirement to every style and every genre of music that exists. Just think about it: if you are a bassist, then you can play in literally any band in the world! There isn’t a type of modern music that doesn’t need a bass guitar, and since the instrument’s rudiments are relatively easy to learn, you could be having fun playing live music sooner than you imagine!
