Questions tagged [electric-bass-guitar]
For general questions about the electric bass guitar instrument, and associated equipment such as amplifiers. Specific topics include history, general selection criteria, setup and adjustment, playing methods such as picked, fingerstyle (plucking) and "thumbstyle" (slapping), amplification questions,
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Difference between "hi" and "low" on amps?
What is the difference between "hi" and "low" input jacks on guitar / bass amps? Usually bigger amps have both of them (didn't see them on smaller ones really)..
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What are the disadvantages of buying a short-scale bass guitar
I'm considering buying my first bass. I already play guitar, and find that even though I'm an adult, stretching to a fifth is a struggle -- so handling a bass with its more widely spaced frets is ...
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Tuning the lowest bass string a hair flat
I was listening to Abbey Road but it's just Bass and it sounds like the low E string is a hair flat in a lot of the songs. How did they get away with that?
When I was in the pep band many years ago ...
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Basic effects for bass
I’m an amateur bassist looking to get started with effects pedals. Most bassists use effects a lot more sparingly than guitarists, so I’m not sure which ones are common or important. I have AmpKit, so ...
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What features should I look for in my first bass guitar?
I am looking to buy my first bass. What are the various aspects to look out for? I see the neck length as one. An other is the number of knobs it has. The minimum I usually see is 2. One for the ...
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Why the difference between double and electric bass fingering?
Sheet music with tabs is provided for Charles Mingus' Haitian Fight Song. They differ from one another (obviously, or why provide two different tabs). My question, though, is, why? Note that I do not ...
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Lowering the action on a bass guitar
I have obtained a rather cheap P-bass imitation bass and, while it plays well in the lower register, about the 9th fret the action starts to rise and after the 12th fret it's in to the "wow, this ...
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What to expect in a jazz audition
Context:
In my city, the government is going to open a music school for free. In two weeks they going to make auditions for the jazz class for beginners, intermediate and advanced players. I play the ...
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Learning to play bass guitar: Fretless vs Fretted
I took bass guitar lessons years ago, but decided I was going to start self-teaching again. I have 2 basses, a Squire P-Bass, and a Fender fretless J-Bass. I was thinking about teaching myself to ...
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What is the technical term for Bass 'growl' or 'roar'?
I've been looking everywhere for the past 2 days for the terms of these two awesome electric bass techniques and couldn't find 'em.
I want to know their technical or common names..
When you slide ...
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Beginning Slap Bass
Back when I was taking lessons, I had an instructor who did a great job teaching me how to work tapping into my bass lines, but when we tried to expand it into developing slap bass I ended up getting ...
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Left Hander forced to learn ukulele and guitar right handed
I just need your thoughts regarding left hand guitar players.
I come from a piano- and xylophone-playing family. I am the only right hander in my family (my father, mother and 3 brothers are all left ...
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Bass guitar: how to avoid sound when string hits fret
I picked up the bass a few months ago, and I've noticed that when I'm playing something, the strings make loud clicky sounds when they hit the fret. This happens especially when I'm trying to play ...
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What factors contribute most to the tone of an electric guitar?
This question may appear slightly open ended, so I'm trying to word it as carefully as possible to keep it on track.
Looking to change pickups in my basses lead me to looking at Seymour Duncan ...
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String buzz on bass guitar
The A string on my Peavey T-40 bass buzzes quite loudly. I've found that duct tape on the string above the nut will quiet this, but only if it's pulled taut against a neighboring string. It doesn't ...
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Is EQ the only reason pickups sound different?
Do electric guitar (or bass) pickups sound different only because of EQ?
I understand the strength of magnet and totality of wire windings effects the strength of the signal but if one wanted to make ...
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Guitarists: Back Pain After a Gig
I am playing long gigs with my band (6-7 hours long, once/twice a week) and a lot of movement is involved in making a show, also I am constantly "dancing" with the rhythm while playing. Also note that ...
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Low Eb on electric bass
I'm arranging a piece where the electric bass plays a low Eb on the recording. I think it's probably unfair to expect a bass player to perform in an alternate tuning just to appease this demand. ...
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Why can't I hear fret buzz through the amp?
I could hear the fret buzz when playing bass unplugged. But once plugged through the amp. I could not hear the fret buzz anymore.
Why are pickups not picking up the fret buzz?
Or do I have to crank ...
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What is a violin electric bass?
I have seen advertised, electric violin bass guitars such as the following:
Are they really any different from a normal bass guitar, and if so what makes them different and how then should they be ...
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Where should I put my thumb when playing bass guitar?
I just started playing bass guitar one month ago and my bass teacher told me that I should rest my thumb on the pickup. The problem with that is that my thumb slips off the pickup when I play. I find ...
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How do I set up a bass guitar?
How do I set up the pickups, neck, etc. in an electric bass guitar? I'm not concerned with producing a particular sound as I am with keeping the neck from warping, prevent string buzz, improving ...
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Does a guitar ebow work on bass?
I am interested in buying an electronic bow, but the one I found is for guitar. Would this ebow work for my bass?
The description of the product says:
E-Bow Plus - handheld electronic bow for ...
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Bass guitar: Fret distance formula
I just set off a new trip to the wonderful world of fretted instruments. I bought myself an electric bass guitar (cort c4h). My question to you is what is the formula of the fret distances along the ...
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How can an electric bass/guitar without pick ups work?
I have seen electric guitars and basses that don't have any pick ups. For instance, here is an image of two Line 6 electric basses that have no pick ups:
How do these instruments work if they have no ...
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Lower guitar tuning
I know that there are devices to quickly lower a guitar’s E string into drop tuning. Are there also devices or effects pedals to lower the entire guitar? There’s a lot of rock music in E-flat tuning (...
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Using an electric bass guitar with a guitar amp / hi-fi system?
I understand that you should use an amp that was meant to be used with your instrument, but sometimes maybe you just don't have the money, or your amp is not around when you need it, or for whatever ...
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How can I keep my low end level constant across my strings?
I'm a bassist. I play a Warwick Corvette std 5 string with MEC pickups. I use D'addario strings.
Ok now my problem, I play in a band and we play progressive thrash metal (kinda like Metallica meets ...
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How to make a bass growl?
There’s a bass tone I really like, that doesn’t quite sound distorted, but instead is sort of a subtle, warm growling noise. I think this might be what guitarists mean when they talk about “crunch.” ...
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What are some good suggestions for a bass player's plucking fingers?
As a bass player I have run into situations where my fingers feel dry or sweaty and it ends up affecting my playing. When the fingers are dry, I end up getting a lot more friction, which has caused ...
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Why does the neck of a bass get wider?
I've noticed in many basses (not sure if this happens in all of them), the top of the neck starts at a certain width and towards the bottom, it is wider. Here is an example:
This happens to my double ...
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Rocksmith 2014 as a learning tool
I've been using Rocksmith 2014 to help learn guitar and bass. So far it's been great for keeping me motivated to practice, and the riff repeater is excellent for learning difficult phrases. I'd like ...
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My hands hurt while playing bass
I play bass (right handed), I normally play finger style but when I play for minutes straight my fingering hand really hurts, I don't know if it's my fingering, and I have tried playing with a pick ...
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Do I risk damaging bass amp with electronic drums
I have a Roland electronic drum kit and so far mainly used it with headphones and some cheap portable hifi speakers but they sound really tinny - the mechanical noise of the kit is louder than the ...
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What is the "Jazz Bass Mid Scoop"?
I've heard of the "Jazz Bass Mid Scoop", what exactly is this? Some people say that the "Scoop is generally 500-600 Hz", others say "The frequencies that cancel are different ...
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How do I fix a consistent micro-timing error?
I found out while recording (pickstyle) bass tracks into my DAW that I have a tendency to play about 25ms in front of the beat. I'm so consistent about this that I assumed the issue was the DAW's ...
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Should a new player start with flat or round wound strings?
This question discusses the differences in sound between flat/round bass strings: Flat-wound vs round-wound strings
However as someone who doesn't yet play bass this doesn't help me too much. Are ...
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Tone knob usage
How do guitarists and bassists use the tone knob? Are certain tone knob settings preferred according to genre or style of music? For rhythm or soloing? For clean sound or dirt?
An earlier question ...
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When decreasing string gauge on a bass guitar, will I need to adjust the truss rod?
I'm planning to make some changes to my bass guitar. I'd like to:
Moving from heavy to medium strings
From flatwound to roundwound strings
Lower the action
Obviously, the guitar will need a new ...
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Bass pickup height adjustment
I've recently set up my bass with the help of this youtube video:
I'm really happy with it but one question remains. Fender recommends 2mm space between the ...
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Are P-bass pickups noise cancelling?
I'm getting conflicting information as to whether the two halves of a P-bass pickup are configured so that they are noise cancelling, so
Are the pickups in standard P-basses (say a Fender American ...
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Building up stamina with my practice routine
For reference I'm an electric bass player who played three or so years at age 20. I took four years of hiatus and restarted a couple of months ago. My problem has been lately my plucking hand cramping ...
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How do (bass) guitar players stop a note?
I don't play (bass) guitar, nor do I have a desire to. However, this question has been bugging me for quite some time now, as I have yet found the answer myself by viewing guitarists playing, mostly ...
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Is there a way to keep my guitar/bass cable from becoming unplugged when I move?
My guitar/bass cable will sometimes accidentally unplug from my guitar/bass when I am playing at a practice or at a gig. It usually happens when I move around or step on my cable. Is there a way to ...
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Howto: Electric Bass Guitar - Home Recording
My question should be quite clear from the title, but, I want to know what devices should I look to home recording my bass guitar, I've tried connecting my amplifier output to my notebook's microphone ...
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Bass-guitar online exercises for not-beginner
I'm an intermediate bass guitarist, and I want to improve my left arm fingers work, and improvisation during bass solo.
I think I should learn not only by simply remember some tabs by famous bass ...
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What is the function of the black strip on the lower horn of a Fender Precision bass
What is the function of the black strip below the fretboard on the lower horn? Some basses have it, some don't
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Difficulty tuning with strobe tuner
I recently started using Peterson’s iStroboSoft strobe tuner app to tune my guitars, and I'm running into a couple of common problems, especially when tuning my Fender Standard Precision Bass.
I’ll ...
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How do bass effects differ from guitar effects?
I play guitar and often see people that try to use guitar effects with their basses and then share their thoughts. How do bass effects differ from guitar effects? And when does it not matter?
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Bass guitar fret buzz: should I care?
I'm a beginner electric bass guitar player. I've been doing a tonne of practice, mainly late at night, so I've been using headphones.
Today I tried playing something without the headphones, and was ...