Bass guitar

:For other uses of the term see Bass (disambiguation).

Amplification and effects

An electric bass must be amplified to be audible in a live setting. The choice of amplification will have a significant impact on the bassist's overall sound.

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Bass amplifiers may be categorised as either:

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• combo units - the amplifier and speaker combined in a single unit; or
• head and speaker(or "cabinet") - amplifier and speaker are separate.

Head units may, in turn, be either:

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• integrated units, in which the preamplifier and power amplifier are combined in a single unit; or
• separate pre/power setups, in which one or more preamplifiers are used to drive one or more power amplifiers.

Amplifiers may be based on solid state (transistor) or thermionic ("tube" or "valve") technology. An increasingly common setup is the use of a tube preamplifier with a solidstate power amplifier.

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Loudspeakers

The requirement to reproduce low frequencies at high sound pressure levels means that most loudspeakers used for bass guitar amplification are designed around large diameter drivers, with 10", 12" and 15" being most common. Some speakers are 18" or larger, while there are also commercially available systems using drivers of 8" or smaller.

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The speakers are built into speaker cabinets, which contain one or more driver. The sound of these cabinets is influenced not only by the choice of driver but also their construction. Most bass speaker cabinets are either enclosed or ported, with carefully placed holes helping create the desired sound response. Speaker cabinets may be designed around a single type of driver (common examples are 1x15, 1x12 and 2x10 or 4x10) or with a combination of different drivers.

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It is also common for high frequency "tweeters" to be included. These extended range designs were initially developed in the late 1970s in response to the better quality pickups and electronics being built by Alembic and other high end manufacturers and to better reproduce the more percussive bass playing styles that were becoming popular at the time.

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Surveying the sites of the manufacturers mentioned below will give a good indication of the range of speaker cabinets currently available.

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Amplification manufacturers

The 18 watt 1 x 12" Michael-Hull Bassamp, a closed-back amp designed specifically for upright bass, kicked off the modern era of bass amplification in the late 1940's. The upright basses were fitted with an Ampeg (short for "amplified peg") described in the 1946 patent application as a "sound amplifying means for stringed musical instruments of the violin family."

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In 1949, after the Michael-Hull company break-up, the Ampeg Bassamp Company was founded by Everett Hull in New York.

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Other well known manufacturers of bass amplifiers or loudspeakers include: Accugroove loudpeakers, Acme loudpeakers, Acoustic, Aguilar, Alembic (preamps and filters), Crate, Fender, Gallien-Krueger, Hartke, SWR, Marshall Amplification, Orange and Peavey.

Related Topics:
Acoustic - Alembic - Crate - Fender - Gallien-Krueger - Hartke - SWR - Marshall Amplification - Orange - Peavey

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Effects

Due to the particular role the bass plays in modern music, effects are not commonly used compared to the electric guitar, where the use of effects is the norm. Consequently, there is a much smaller variety of bass-specific effects available. Of these, "chorus" and "compression" are the most widely used effects for bass. "Wah" and "synth" bass effects are also commonly associated with funk music. Some bands have experimented with "fuzz bass" where the bass is distorted either by overdriving the amp, using a guitar fuzzbox or a specialised bass distortion unit.

Related Topics:
Funk - Fuzzbox

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