Questions tagged [bass-guitar]
For questions about the bass guitar, whether acoustic or electric.
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Why do notes played on bass strings on the highest frets sound bad?
I notice that on bass guitars or low tuned guitars, the notes played on the lowest strings very high on the fretboard sound bad. This can be heard, e.g., in this video at 1:01–1:10:
It is well known ...
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Is it possible for an unamplified acoustic bass guitar to be loud?
One of the groups I play for, a renaissance-faire-friendly folk act, is considering investing in an acoustic bass guitar, for both amplified and unamplified use. However, acoustic bass guitars have a ...
CommunityBot
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Am I Doing It Wrong? Why Can't I Use Multiple 5-Line Staves to Represent Guitar's Open Strings?
As a rock songwriter with interest in theory, I sometimes score my music to engage with it differently. I’d open MuseScore, create 3 treble clef staves—one for the voice and two for the guitars—and a ...
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Corridos staccato eightnotes or 16th notes? [duplicate]
La mesa del rincon is a song I am transcribing bass for. It is by Los tigres Del Norte.
I am wondering if it is ok to use staccato eighth notes for the bass part, or are they actually supposed to be ...
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Auto-bass accompaniment
Is there any kind of software or a DIY-hack, that can give one the effect of having a bassist, without actually having one. Of course, I do not expect it to be half as good as a real bassist, but ...
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Will a drop Bb tuning damage my bass?
I've been asked to play a gig where one of the tunes is Breaking Benjamin's "I Will Not Bow." The bass tabs I find show the tuning for a 5-string is (low to high) Bb - F - Bb - Eb - Ab . I'...
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Calluses - are they really a necessity for guitarists?
Quite a few times I read on this site about calluses. How they are an important part of being a guitarist. How they help one's playing, how they really can't be avoided.
Fair enough, when I started ...
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Pain in interphalangeal joints of Fretting hand
I'm learning Bass for some months now, and what I noticed is that after practising, I'm having sporadic little events of pain on the sides of my fingers, mostly above and below the proximal ...
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Trouble playing C# on A string with 4th finger
I'm trying to teach my 11 year old son a bit of bass guitar. My main instrument is double bass and my efforts on bass guitar are entirely self-taught.
We've hit a roadblock: he cannot get a clear tone ...
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Filtering noise from (bass) guitar headphone amp?
For bass guitar practice, I'm using a headphone amp - or rather a preamp with a headphone out - which I then put through a small analogue mixer or directly to headphones. I like the sound of this ...
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Has anyone tried playing a Fanned Fret guitar/bass? How did it feel vs standard? Did you stick with it? [closed]
The title says it all. I'm intrigued by fanned frets, but buying an instrument like that is a big leap. If you've tried it, I'd like to hear about your experience.
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What stretches can be done to prevent wrist cramping?
When playing Bass, sometimes my left wrist starts to feel a little crampy- especially when practicing modal scales and chord arpeggios at slightly faster tempos. My right wrist also sometimes starts ...
CommunityBot
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What do bassists normally tune to in thall or in bands that tune to drop E?
I've started writing and recording some thall style music that is tuned to drop E. This is my first time recoring in drop E so and I am wondering what bands normally do with the bass as far as tuning ...
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Bass-Guitar - How much "Bent Wrist" is still ok?
I'm struggling with a good left hand position, and there are multiple things that I'm not sure about. I will concentrate on one particular element here in this question:
What one usually reads (which ...
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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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How difficult is the transition from upright bass to electric bass?
More than 2 decades ago, I started learning upright/double bass (fingerstyle) for a kroncong group in high school. And eventually, after listening folks like Paul McCartney, Bob Babbitt, John ...
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Concentric potentiometer: Inner knob is turning outer knob. Is this intended and is there a fix?
I have a bass with concentric potentiometers/Dual-gang potentiometers for some combined tone and volume controls.
I noticed the other day that, sometimes, when I turn the inner pot it moves the outer ...
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Is there a mistake in the beginning of September's bassline?
I love focusing on the basslines of the songs I like because I used to play the bass.
While listening to September by Earth, Wind & Fire, I noticed that around 0:15 the bass is a bit off.
My ...
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Bass guitar strings
I am playing my bass for the first time in two years. I got it out yesterday to prepare and the g-string was loose. Should I change the strings? It has been stored in its hard case and indoors. Please ...
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Where do the natural harmonics fall on the bass guitar?
Do harmonics work the same on bass guitar as is the case with a regular guitar (Natural harmonics at the 7th and 12th frets) or is it different on the bass?
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My hand hurts after finger-stretching exercises. What can I do about that?
I recently started playing the Bass, and my teacher gave me an exercise to practice stretching my fingers: put my pointer finger on the 5.fret and my pinkie finger on the 8.fret.
My problem is that ...
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What are the most common causes of hand cramps on bass?
There are several questions about getting hand cramps while playing guitar, but I didn't find one on bass. My left hand cramped up midway through the gig last night. I have another gig that's twice ...
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Is it possible to play an electric ukulele slap-bass-style?
I love the sound of slap bass and want to get something like that out of an electric ukulele, specifically a Risa Solid.
I tried techniques from slap bass tutorials and can't get much sound out.
Is it ...
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Practice routine as a self-taught, I have about 1000 hours to invest, what to focus on? [duplicate]
Assuming that talent does not exist and that the skill of a musician is directly related to the time spent learning, it follows that investing 1000 hours into learning, with a daily practice routine ...
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My Ibanez TMB100 sounds input cut in and out and fuzzes
For some reason after not playing my Ibanez TMB100 bass, the sound cuts on and off most especially playing the lower strings. I checked the jack cable but with a different one it doesn't fix anything.
...
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Varying rhythms on bass
I've gotten into something of a bad habit in which I either play things in a steady rhythm, in triplets, or galloping, but without much variation, and I feel like I'm stagnating. What are some good ...
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How do I learn to sight read?
I started my school’s jazz band recently and I really struggle playing with them. It’s just really different to playing by myself alone, where if I make a mistake I can just go back and keep repeating ...
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Fingertip care for guitarists
I have built up calluses enough to avoid most fingertip pain from playing guitar and bass, but I have rough and slightly cracked fingertips. My fretting hand isn’t bad, but my right hand is very rough ...
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Anatomy of plucking hand's motions for a bass guitar
The (following) questions came from analyzing my plucking hand technique. Consider playing 16th notes on one string with two fingers. It is accessible for me to play 8th notes with one finger (...
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How to adjust my bass guitar bridge
I’m trying to adjust my bass guitar bridge but my bridge is quite different compared to the bridges in online tutorials. I tried to find the name of my bridge but I can’t seem to find it.
If anyone ...
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Does playing vocals, instruments and bass in different speakers at the same time give a better experience to the listener?
Does playing vocals, instruments and bass in different speakers at the same time give a better experience to the listener or does playing it whole as a song in multiple speakers??
I recently got ...
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Is it possible to record direct from an amp to Audacity?
Recording my bass amp's output via an external microphone results in subpar sound quality. Is it possible to record direct to my computer (I use Audacity for recording audio) from my amp?
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Do Scale Shapes change with different tunings?
All the scale diagrams I've seen are shown in E standard tuning.
Would the scale shape change in another tuning, like Drop D for example? Alternatively, do I just keep the same scale shape regardless ...
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Six string bass and Guitar Technique
I know some stuff on guitar. By stuff, I mean scales/chords etc...
I would like to have some knowledge for the bass. Maybe for home recording, enriching my sounds.
The bass is a four stringed ...
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What is the difference between the speaker in a bass amp and sub?
I have a 12 inch 100 watt speaker in my bass amp and no subwoofer. The subwoofer I am looking to buy is also 12 inches 100 watts.
Is there a difference between the actual speakers found in a bass amp ...
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Tips on finding notes corresponding to a bass line
I'm a drummer who knows very little about stringed instruments (I can play some basic stuff on the ukulele, but that's about it). I have "written" a bass line for a song I'm working on. By &...
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open tunings for bass?
Long time bass [hack] player, also play a little bit of guitar, working on learning some music theory to expand my understanding of the mechanics of creating music. I'm curious about open tunings on ...
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Could someone explain slapping?
I have tried to mimic the slap/thump sound.
It feels like I don't understand what slap is, even after spending almost an hour watching tutorials. Is any of the below on the right track?
I tried ...
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Mixing question about sidechain compression in the low range with the bass and the kick frequency
I have a mixing question. So I have a kick that's got a pretty good sub frequency, but I also have a bass line that does too. I'm struggling to have both parts hit the way i want. I've been ...
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How to use pentatonic scale(s) for bass lines
In creating bass lines using pentatonic scale, do you use the pentatonic scale of the key you are in or of the chord you are playing?
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Bass G string making loud buzzing noise
My bass recently started making a very loud buzzing noise when ever I play the G string open. That is the only time I hear it. My band director says that my headphone speaker is blown, but I hear it ...
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Finger Picking vs. using a Pick on Bass Guitar
Before I played bass I played guitar, so when I started to play bass I naturally used a pick. Eventually I learned how to finger pick and now typically use both picking techniques interchangeably as a ...
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Is there a name for this common bass line?
I've heard this bass line in a number of songs, including Billy Joel's "Piano Man", "One Day More" from Les Miserables, and "Rambling Through the Avenues of Time" by ...
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Is it common for a 5 string bass to have a high B?
My school jazz band's bass player has a 5 string bass but it is tuned like a guitar with a broken 'E' string, but an octave lower. This means that the highest string is a 'B'. Is this common? I know ...
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Bass guitar - One finger per fret or not?
I have seen a few questions about this on guitar, but none on bass.
When I started guitar, I instinctively used my four fingers to play stuff (five if you count the thumb for over-neck awesomeness) ...
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What is the true definition of Drop C tuning?
Since I play bass I will tackle this question from a bass guitar perspective.
I've had some musicians state that the following tuning is Drop C tuning (E is dropped to D, and then all strings are ...
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Which instrument is used in beginning of Make you mine (by Public) [closed]
In the very beginning of sound I hear piano and hi hat probably, but there is still a 3rd humming kind of sound which follows the chords I think what is it?
I'm trying to make cover for the song and I ...
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Bass Guitar Nomenclature for Intermediate Players
My call for advice involves music nomenclature of intermediate-level bass players who can’t read sheet music. I am such a bass player, self-taught and want to take my playing to the next level. My ...
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Do electric bass players commonly play the notes of the current chord? [closed]
Do electric bass players commonly play the notes of the current chord?
I'm assuming pop genres, rock, folk, etc, where bass is typically electric.
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What should I look for in a metal bass guitar?
I am playing bass in a humorous metal band. The idea is to make parody out of metal using as many cliches as possible (at the same time respecting the scene and having fun, of course). We have some ...
