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For most bands, except the real traditionalist jazz and modern jazz outfits, the bass guitar is the favourite being easier to get about than a big double bass and easier to sound balance within a band.
Electric stand up basses are far and few between these days although they became popular in the early sixties.
Being a bass player is not for the soloist as it is difficult to play a bass for your own pleasure without other instruments for very long.
Bass guitars also tend to be of solid construction so need an amplifier to give them sound.
You can get acoustic bass guitars for that ‘unplugged’ session but these can really only be used in conjunction with other acoustic instruments because the low resonance of the bass strings make the sound difficult to project without amplification.
Bass guitars come in various shapes and sizes but there are 3 main types, the standard 4 string fretboard bass, the 4 string fretless bass and the 5 string fretboard bass. There are 6 string versions and fretless 5 strings versions but these are not very common.
All the above require an amplifier, and having very low notes a bass amplifier will have bigger speakers to handle the low resonance.
The History
In the fifties when skiffle, with its tea chest bass then double bass gave way to rock and roll, the need for a more convenient and powerful bass emerged. The bass guitar was born. In the early sixties semi acoustic and solid bass guitars were becoming very popular and soon every major electric guitar manufacturer was adding bass guitars to their range. Probably the most popular bass guitar of all the professional players was the Fender Precision bass, which complemented the famous Fender Stratocaster both in shape and colour.
But the most famous bass guitar of all was Paul Macartney’s, Hofner, violin shaped bass guitar, although not used by many other groups at the time. The bass guitarist of the searchers used one for some time but the Hofner became known as the ‘beatle bass ‘ so not used by professional groups who wanted their own identity.
One of the reasons Paul picked this particular model was, being left handed the Hofner was symmetrical in shape and only needed the control panel moved from top to bottom and the strings changed round to make the perfect left handed guitar.
Playing styles have also changed a lot since bass guitars were first introduced, because it was a ‘guitar’ most players automatically used a plectrum, as they did when playing a normal guitar, but this did not always give the soft sound of a stringed bass that was plucked with the fingers. So bass guitarist started to throw away their plectrums and adopt the finger plucking style which lost the ‘click’ that a plectrum caused and allowed them to play quicker and be more versatile by using more fingers and thumb.
Buying
If you are seriously going out to buy a Bass guitar then you are most likely to either play guitar or be in the throws of forming a band, or both.
If you are a guitar player and for whatever reason you want to change to bass you will already know were your best music shop is and you can go and try out the bass guitars to see which ones feel comfortable and sound right.
If on the other hand you are forming a band, can’t play but are starting from scratch, then you can buy very good ‘learn to play ‘ books, videos and CD’s. either from your local music store or on the internet.
You will need advice when buying so I would go to a large store who’s sales staff are musicians and they will be able to demonstrate the different makes to help you make your choice. This will also apply to the amplifier that you will need. (you can’t play a bass through your hi-fi.)
At first you will find the fretboard large and the frets much wider apart than a normal guitar and you will have to stretch your fingers a lot more.
The Bass guitar is not just for the boy’s either, Suzy Quatro being the first famous female bass player followed by the early girl bands that actually played instruments.
Even Robbie Williams has a tremendous female bass player in his backing band.
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