Bass guitar

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

Design considerations

The classic 4-string Fender bass designs remain popular choices. In some musical settings departing from these de facto standards is discouraged.

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General open-mindedness toward new technologies and musical instrument design as well as appreciation of fine luthery by bassists has given the modern bass player a wide range of choices when choosing an instrument. Design options include:

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Body

Bodies are typically made of wood. A wide variety of woods is used, among the most common being alder, mahogany and ash. The choice of body woods influences the sound of the instrument - more so with bolt on and set neck instruments than neck through. Other design considerations include:

Related Topics:
Alder - Mahogany - Ash

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• A wide range of colored or clear lacquer, wax and oil finishes exploiting the amazing variety of natural wood forms
• Various flat and carved industrial designs for different types of both traditional and exotic woods, large percentage of luthier-produced unique instruments (affecting weight, balance and aesthetics)
• Headed and headless (with tuning done at the bridge) designs
• Several artificial materials developed especially for instrument building, most notable being luthite
• Unique production techniques for artificial materials, including die-casting for cost-effective complex body shapes

One further variable is the solidity of the body. Most basses have solid bodies but variations include chambers for increased resonance or to reduce weight. Basses are also built with entirely hollow bodies. Many of these have enough volume for unamplified performance and are discussed in the article on acoustic bass guitars.

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Number of strings (and tuning)

Leo Fender's classic design had four strings, tuned E, A, D, G (with the fundamental frequency of the E string vibrating at 41.3 Hz). Modern variants include:

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• Five strings (normally B, E, A, D, G but sometimes E, A, D, G, C)
• Six strings (B, E, A, D, G, C or B, E, A, D, G, B?although E, A, D, G, B, E has also been used). Basses with seven, eight or even more strings are also available.
• Double and triple courses of strings (eg, an 8-string bass would be strung Ee, Aa, Dd, Gg while a 12 string bass might be Eee Aaa Ddd Ggg, with standard pitch strings augmented by two strings an octave higher)
• Tenor bass: A, D, G, C
• Piccolo bass: e, a, d, g (an octave higher than standard bass tuning?same as the bottom four strings of a guitar)
• Detuners, commonly called Hipshots, allow one or more strings to be easily adjusted while playing (most commonly used to give the option of dropping the E string down to D on a four string bass)This type of tuning peg is descended from the Scruggs peg, used on banjos.

Pickups

the earliest basses had a single coil, later split coil magnetic pickup. Modern choices include:

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• Active or passive electronics (active circuits use a battery (usually a 9V PP3) to boost the signal and/or provide active equalization)
• Magnetic pickup type (single coil, split coil, dual coil "humbucker", triple coil "humbucker")

Pickup type:

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• "P-" pickups (name taken from the original Fender Precision) are actually two distinct single-coil halves, wired in opposite direction to reduce hum, each offset a small amount along the length of the body so that each half is underneath two strings.
• "J-" pickups (name taken from the original Fender Jazz) are wider single-coil pickups which lie underneath all four strings.
• Soapbar pickups, found, for example, in MusicMan basses, are the same width as a J pickup, but about twice is tall (much like an electric guitar's humbucker). The name comes from the rectangular shape being similar to a bar of soap.
• Non-magnetic systems, eg. piezos or the innovative new optical systems (by Lightwave Systems) allowing the bassist to use non-metallic strings
• Pickup configuration. Many inexpensive basses (as well as older/vintage basses) have just one pickup (typically a "P" or "J"), but multiple pickups are also quite common, the two most common configurations being a P near the neck and a J near the bridge (e.g. Fender Precision Deluxe), or two J pickups (e.g. Fender Jazz). For single pickup systems, the placement of the pickup greatly affects the sound, with a pickup near the neck joint thought to sound "fatter" or "warmer" while a pickup near the bridge is thought to sound "tighter" or "sharper."

Frets

Basses can be fretted, like a guitar, or fretless, like Double basses. The original Fender basses had 20 frets, but today basses commonly have 24 or more frets to cover two octaves per string. Some fretless basses have fret lines inlaid in the fingerboard in a contrasting color. This is sometimes the result of the player removing the frets from a fretted bass and filling the spaces with wood or some other filler. Jaco Pastorius was noted for having done this.

Related Topics:
Guitar - Double bass - Jaco Pastorius

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Some fretted high-end basses feature a "zero fret" on the fingerboard just in front of the nut. The zero fret then determines the string height instead of the depth of the slots cut into the nut. This is said to offer tonal and setup advantages, although this of some debate.

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Scale length

Scale length is the distance from bridge to nut. A wide range scale lengths are used including:

Related Topics:
Bridge - Nut

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• Standard 34 inches (864 mm) length
• Long scale, 35 or 36 inches (889 or 914 mm) in length, frequently used on five or six string basses
• Medium scale, between short and standard scale such as Rickenbacker's 4001 and 4003 models at 33-1/4" (844.55 mm).
• Short scale, down to 30 inches (762 mm) scale lengths (most notably Paul McCartney's 1962 Höfner Violin/"Beatle" Bass).
• Very short scale, a small number of basses exist with scale lengths below 30 inches eg. Fender Precision Jr (28.59"), Fernandes Nomad (25-1/2") and the silicone rubber stringed Ashbory (18")
• Variable scale length systems developed for more balanced string tension and response, especially for basses with five or more strings, the most notable design of which is the Novax Fanned Fret System.