| The bass guitar is a bass stringed instrument | | | | mass produced bass guitars. |
| played with the fingers either by plucking, | | | | |
| slapping, popping, or tapping or using a | | | | Different components of the bass guitar |
| pick. The bass is similar in appearance and | | | | |
| construction like an electric guitar, but | | | | Thi skind of guitar uses various components |
| with a larger body, a longer neck and scale | | | | to produce music. Some of these components |
| length, and usually four strings tuned, one | | | | are strings and its tuning, fret or fretless |
| octave lower in pitch than the four lower | | | | bass, pickups, amplification and effects. |
| strings of a guitar. | | | | |
| | | | Frets and fretless bass |
| Materials used for making a bass guitar | | | | |
| | | | Frets are a raised metal strips inserted into |
| The bodies of these special instruments are | | | | the fingerboard that extend across the full |
| typically made of wood although other | | | | width of the neck. On a fretted bass, the |
| materials such as graphite have also been | | | | frets divide the fingerboard into semitone |
| used. The most common type of wood used for | | | | divisions. The original Fender basses had 20 |
| the body is alder, for the neck is maple, and | | | | frets. Fretless basses have a distinct sound, |
| for the fret board is rosewood, though a wide | | | | because the absence of frets means that the |
| variety of woods may be used to make the | | | | strings must be pressed down directly onto |
| body. | | | | the wood of the fingerboard. |
| | | | |
| Other regularly used woods include mahogany, | | | | Strings and tuning |
| maple, ash, and poplar for bodies, mahogany | | | | |
| for necks, and ebony for fret boards. The | | | | The standard design for the bass guitar has |
| choice of body material and shape of these | | | | four strings, tuned E, A, D and G, with the |
| guitars can have a significant impact on the | | | | original frequency of the E string set at |
| timbre of the completed instrument as well as | | | | about 41 Hz, making the tuning of all four |
| on aesthetic considerations. Other design | | | | strings the same as that of the double bass. |
| options include finishes, such as lacquer, | | | | This tuning is also the same as the standard |
| wax and oil along with flat and carved | | | | tuning on the lower four strings on a 6 |
| designs. Bass guitar necks, which are longer | | | | string guitar, only an octave lower. |
| than regular electric guitar necks, are | | | | |
| generally made of maple. | | | | Pickups |
| | | | |
| A brief history | | | | Most electric basses use magnetic pickups. |
| | | | The vibrations of the instrument metal |
| In the 1930s, inventor Paul Tutmarc from | | | | strings within the magnetic field of the |
| Seattle, Washington, developed a guitar style | | | | permanent magnets in magnetic pickups produce |
| electric bass instrument that was fretted and | | | | small variations in the magnetic flux |
| designed to be held and played horizontally. | | | | threading the coils of the pickups. |
| Unfortunately, Tutmarc inventions never | | | | |
| caught the public imagination, and little | | | | Amplification and effects |
| further development of the instrument took | | | | |
| place until the 1950s. | | | | The electric bass is always connected to an |
| | | | amplifier for live performances. Electric |
| In the 1950s, Leo Fender developed the first | | | | bass guitarists use either a combo amplifier, |
| mass produced electric bass. In the 1950s and | | | | which combines an amplifier and a speaker in |
| 1960s, the term Fender bass was widely used | | | | a single cabinet, or an amplifier and a |
| to describe the bass guitars, because of | | | | separate speaker cabinet. |
| early popularity of Fender in the market for | | | | |