The Electric Bass

Beginning A Bassics
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Retrieved Agustus 23, 2009
The electric bass was invented by none other than Leo Fender, the same guy
that invented the Stratocaster, in the early 1950's. It was developed to be able
to compete with more and more amplification for guitars and other
instruments. The traditional acoustic bass was not loud enough to be heard
above the other instruments.

Using many of the techniques and electronics from building electric guitars, he
built the electric bass. The bass Leo built is what all electric basses from then
on are based upon. Things like having four strings, 34" between the bridge
and nut, the types of pickups, and even the bridge design are standards still in
use today.
The more popular basses out there are the Fender Precision and Jazz,
Gibson, Alembic, Rickenbacker, Spector, and Carvin just to name but a few.
They come in many shapes, sizes, sounds, control knobs, number of strings,
electronics and pickups.
Your choice of a bass is going to depend on three main things;
sound, feel and budget. And the formula usually works like this, if the
budget goes up, the sound and feel go up. If the budget goes down,
the sound and feel goes down. Just be realistic
and if you are just getting started, there is no
reason to invest in an expensive bass.

Selecting a Bass
I would suggest starting with a fretted four string bass and
working your way up to the five and six string basses and
even fretless basses. Fretless basses are difficult to learn to
play.

Hipshot Bass
Xtender

If you go with the five or six strings, they have the low "B"
string and they will require a real good amplifier and
speakers with a good low end response. That "B" string is very low and many
amplifiers can't handle it without distorting or just not producing a good
volume.
If you need to get lower than "E" try tuning down to "C" or "D". Check out a
"Hipshot Bass Xtender ". It is a device that attaches to your "E" string tuning
head and allows you to tune down and back up at the flick of a lever.

Electronics

The electronics on the bass include the pickups, volume controls, tone
controls, bass boost or cut, switches and so forth. There are two basic types
of electronics on basses. Active electronics or passive electronices.

Passive Electronics
Passive electronics refers to the type of circuitry used to produce a signal from
the strings through the pickups and to the output jack. Most basses made
before about the early to mid '70s had passive electroncs. Most low-cost
basses today use passive electronics.
The way the signal is created is when the strings vibrate above the magnetic
field of the pickups, they distrupt that magnetic field. As the strings vibrate at a
certain frequency (note), the magnetic field of the pickups start to change at
the same frequency of the strings.
This is in essence the "signal" that is then sent to your tone and volume
controls and finnaly to your output jack. Passive electronics don't use batteries
and they don't amplify the signal. The tone controls don't boost as well, they
only cut.
For instance, the treble knob will not increase the treble but allows the full
treble at one end and some amount of reduction in treble at the other end of
the turn of the knob.
With passive electronics, you don't get as much versatility at the bass in
controlling your sound. Typically, you set your bass to one setting and leave it
there. The range of tones isn't very large.
You don't get as good of a signal when running it direct into the mixing board
for recording and such. You will typically need at least a pre-amp to run direct
into a mixing-board or recorder.

Active Electronics
Active electronics require a battery inside the bass to power the electronics.
This can be a drag because you usually have to take an access cover off or
the pick guard off to get at it. Usually they are activated when you plug the
cord into the bass. So, if you leave your cord plugged in overnight, you will
probably find that you have a dead battery the next day. Real drag! You can

usually tell when the battery is low or dead when your bass distorts easy, you
are not getting a loud signal from the bass, or you get no signal at all.
The good news is that under normal usage, the battery will usually last a
couple of months at least. Active electronics are very popular now because
they give such a hot, higher voltage, output signal and provide a greater range
of sounds right at the bass.
This is good for both recording and playing live. It is much easier to process a
good clean sound and color it. Playing live, you get more flexibility in your
sound with less engineering of your amp and the PA sound.

Pickups
The pickups are what picks up the vibration of the string and converts that
motion into electronic pulses that get amplified. The pickups are electromagnets that generate a magnetic field.
The strings run through these magnet fields and because the strings are
metalic, when they vibrate or move, they disturbe the electro-magnetic field of
the pickup. This disturbance creates pulses in electricity and that can be
amplified. After all, music is just vibrations.
The pickups are made up of several magnetic posts wrapped by a copper
wire. The posts are the metalic round things on top of the pickup.
What you are looking for with the pickups is a good clean sound. Does the
sound distort? Use all the switches and make sure they do what they are
supposed to do. Listen for scratchy switches and knobs. Often times the
switches will select between multiple pickups and make a single output from
combinations of those pickups.
Single Coil Pickups
A single coil pickup is a set of magnets with a single wrapping of copper wire
around the magnet. Single coil pickups have a good high end response. The
price you pay is that single coil pickups tend to hum. If you don't have a good
amp the noise can drive you crazy.
Make sure that the bass is shielded. This will help keep the noise down.
Shielding the bass simply means lining with copper strips or plates and or
using a special coating on the inside cavities of the bass where the pickups

and electronics are. If you hear a radio station from your amp, which does
happen, it usually means your bass is not shielded very well.
Double Coil and Stacked Pickups
A double coil or stacked pickup is two sets of magnets with each wrapped with
their own set of copper wire. Double coil pickups are generally more quite
than a single coil pickup.
The noise you experience with single coil picks cancels themselves out on
double coil and stacked pickups. Double coil pickups have three packagings
or form factors. Double row of poles, two separate offset pieces ( one for two
strings, one for the other two strings) or single stacked (looks like a single coil
but it's not).

The Neck

The Neck is one of the most important parts of your bass. It has the most
effect as to how your bass will play and to a great degree how well it will
sound and how long the notes will sustain. They come with different types of
wood and finishes for the fretboard. The popular surfaces are rose wood,
ebony and finished maple.
The neck is usually made of three or more laminated pieces of wood running
the length of the neck. The more layers you have the stronger the neck is.

The Frets

The frets are the metal bars that run across the neck. They are counted from
the head stock to the body starting with the first fret next to the nut and the
22nd or 24th frets at the body of the bass.
The neck has almost everything to do with how the bass plays. What you
should look for in so far as how the bass plays, is you should try to play each
note at every fret on each string to make sure there are no dead spots or
areas that buzz. Make sure that you are using good solid fingering.
In other words, make sure you press firmly but not too hard. If you press too
lightly, it will buzz or the sound will be very weak. Look at the frets to see if
they are worn. Look for grooves or low spots on the top of the frets. Uneven or
worn frets will cause a lot of buzzing when fretting the strings.
If the frets look worn, they can be fixed either by replacement or by filing them
down to the lowest common height. Fret work can be expensive especially if
you have a binding around your neck or have a finished maple neck. But they
can be fixed, so if you really want to buy that bass with the worn frets, just
figure the cost of the fret job into the price of the bass.

The Nut
The nut separates the fingerboard from the head stock. It is what the strings
run across before they reach the tuning heads. Look at the nut. No not the
drummer! If it is plastic, you will need to replace it.
Brass nuts are good for a bright open string sound, harmonics and longer
sustain, however, they don't have much effect after that, meaning that nut has
very little affect on fretted notes.

A bone nut will give you a thicker sound, however, as with the brass nut, it
only matters on open strings. Brass nuts tend to wear out faster than bone
nuts.
To see if the nut has worn, look at how close the string comes to touching the
fretboard at the bass of the nut. If it is almost touching, your action is probably
real low and you have a lot of buzzing when you fret notes. Even the open
strings may buzz.
You will need to replace or shim the the nut in this case. If the space is too
high, your action will be difficult to adjust to a low setting and you will need to
file down the string grooves.

The Bridge
The bridge is what anchors the strings to the body of the bass. Some basses
will also have the tuning heads at this end as well. When you look at the
bridge, make sure that each string has its own saddle so they can be
individually adjusted for height and string length. This is important for setting
the intonation and the action of the bass.

The Trusrod
The trusrod is a metal rod that is inside your neck and runs from one end of
the neck to the other. The trusrod is used to adjust the amount of bow the
neck has. There is usually a place to adjust the trusrod located at the
headstock of the neck or at the point where the fretboard ends and the body
of the bass begins.
To adjust the trusrod, tighten it to decrease the bow. In other words, when you
tighten the trusrod, the middle of the neck will move closer towards the
strings. So, if the neck is extreemly bowed, the action is too high, or you just
changed to lighter guage strings, you will want to tighten the trusrod.
When you losen the trusrod, you will create more of a bow in the neck. Do this
if your action is too low or you are changing to a heavier guage of strings.

The Action
Check the action of the bass. The action refers to the distance between the
strings and the frets. A lower action makes it easier to press the string down to

the fret. This also allows you to play faster because it requires less movement
to finger the notes. With low action it is much more critical that the frets are
not worn or you will get a lot of buzzing.
A higher action will make it harder to fret notes, however you won't tend to
have as much buzzing. What I usually do to check the action is to finger the
first fret with your left hand and then finger the last fret with your little finger on
your right hand and then the first finger to reach as far up the neck towards
the nut as you can.
Usually this is the 12th fret. Use that finger to tap on the string. It should only
be just off the fret and when you tap it, the string should buzz very lightly. If the
string is way off the neck, your action is very high and usually not desirable. If
the string is against the fret, your action is too low and will probably cause a
lot of buzzing.
If you play real hard using a pick, you will probably want higher action to
reduce the buzzing. If you play much softer, you can get away with real low
action. The buzzing, by the way is caused by the string vibrating and touching
other frets on the neck. Again, all of this is really personal preference.
Another thing to check is the trueness of the neck. Contrary to what many
people think, your neck should not be perfectly straight. It will have a slight
bow to it. What you are looking for is to see if it is flat from the first string to the
fourth string across the fret board.
Hold the bass so that the head stock is away from you. Face a light source
and then look down the neck. Try to line up the frets so that they line up with
no shadows or dips. It should look like a railroad track. If the neck has waves
or has more than one bow to it or the bow is extreme, you probably wont want
to purchase this bass.
The only exception is the depth of the bow. This can usually be fixed by
adjusting the truss rod. The truss rod is a metal rod that runs up and down the
neck to provide additional strength.

Neck Attachments
There are three ways you can connect the neck to the body; neck through the
body, bolt on, or glue on.
Neck Through the Body

A neck through the body means that the neck piece runs from the head stock
to the bottom of the bass and the body of the bass is actually the two sides of
the body and they are glued onto the neck. This type of bass gives the best
sustain and usually the best action and ability to reach the upper frets by the
body.
Because there is no bulky junction where the neck meets the body, unlike bolt
on and glue on necks, it is easier to play the upper frets. Because of the
strength of this type of neck and lack of a neck/body junction they easily
accomodate a full two octave (24 frets) fretboard length. Most two octave
necks will be neck through the body rather than glue ons necks.
Popular neckthrough the body basses are the Rickenbacker 4001 and 4003,
Alembic, and Spector. Neck through the body basses are usually more
expensive but worth the extra price. A Steinberger bass is simply a neck
through the body bass without the body glued on.
Bolt on Neck
A bolt on neck is what Fender as well as most other low end basses use. This
is not to say Fender is a low end bass. It is just very inexpensive for the
manufacturer to build this type of bass as compared to a neck through the
body or a glue on neck.
The disadvantage to this type of bass is that you don't get as much sustain
because of the junction where the neck is bolted to the body. This junction can
also make it more difficult to fret the notes towards the body of the bass.
One advantage of the bolt on neck is you can replace the neck if you don't like
it and you have more control in regards to adjusting the action.
Glue on Neck

A glue on neck, which Gibson basses use, is kind of a cross between bolt on
and glue on and gives you most of the advantages of both of the other types
of neck attachments. Like the neck through the body, glue on necks are
impossible to replace and can get to a point where short of major work, you
are not going to get good and low action on the neck.

Neck Laminates
Another important factor is the number of laminates of the neck. Usually the
neck will be made up of three or more pieces of wood glued together. This
adds additional strength to the neck. Avoid necks that do not have laminates
as they will eventually go out of alignment and are very difficult to fix.

Wood Type
One last factor to the bass is the actual wood it is made from. I won't get into
that because there are many nuances each wood gives and is beyond the
scope of this document. If you know a good luthier, try to corner them for a
few minutes to get their thought on the various woods. Woods most widely
used are mahogany, poplar, alder, and maple.

Selecting Strings
There are three basic types of strings. Round wound, Flat wound and Ground
wound. All of these come in sets of various gauges.

String Guages
Strings come in several thicknesses. Not only from one string to the next but
also for each individual string. The name for this measurement and
signification of thickness is guage. The guages used in a particular set of
strings is usually defined by the individual string manufacturer.
Sets are usually found in Extra Lite, Lite, Medium, and Heavy. The lighter
guage strings are usually easiest to play and bend but may not give as good
of a bottom end as the heavier guages. Be careful about what guage you put
on your bass. The heavier guages will put more tension on the neck and
create more of a bow.
If you are switching from lite to heavy, you will need to adjust the trusrod in
your neck. Medium guage strings are a good start unless the manufacturer of
your bass specifically indicates you must use a certain guage.

Round Wound Strings

Round wound strings have a center core round piece of wire and it is wrapped
with another round wire for the length of the string. These types of strings give
you a bright fat sound with lots of sustain.
These types of strings are the most abusive on your fret board, especially if
you like to bend your strings or do vibratos. However, if the sound is what you
like, then the price is new frets every few years or so.

Flat Wound Strings

The flat wound strings have a round center core wrapped by a flat wire for the
length of the string. This type of string is very common in the jazz world and
will give you more of a mushy, midrange sound and not much sustain.

Ground Wound Strings

The ground wound strings are basically round wound strings that have had
the outer part of the wrap string ground down so that it is flat. As you might
suspect this will give you the in between sounds of the round and flat wound
strings.

Care and Maintenance

The things you will probably have to do to maintain your bass is replace the
battery if you have active electronics, change the strings and keep it clean.
How often you change the strings will depend on how bright you want your
sound, the quality of the strings, how clean you keep your hands, and the
humidity where you live.
As a string gets older and diritier or if the strings are of a low quality, they will
lose their brightness sooner and you may have to replace your strings once a
month to maintain a bright "live" sound. New strings are critical if you are
playing tap. Older strings won't sustain as long as newer, high quality strings.
If you are using flat wound strings, they will last much longer as far as the
consistancy of their sound. They will sound pretty much the same when you
first put them on as they do when they get older. Round wound strings will
sound very different from the first day to when they are a month or two old.
Keeping your hands clean and living in a dry climate will prolong the life of
your strings. Some people have tried boiling thier strings after they are old and
are able to get a second life out of them. You can try this and it does help to
remove any dirt build up. Dirty strings will also wear the frets down faster.
Look at the string and notice how it vibrates. If it vibrates in a round pattern,
the string is probably okay. If you notice that it doesn't have an even vibration
pattern, or kind of has a wobble to it, the string is old or of poor quality.

Keeping the Fretboard Clean

Keeping the fret board clean will go a long way to keeping the strings clean
and prolonging the life of the strings. On finished surfaces, such as are
common on Rickenbacker and Fender basses, you can use special cleaners
like Tres Amigos, or Martin Guitar Polish, or you can just use your regular
furnature polish.
Pay special attention to the sides of the frets where the frets meet the
fretboard. Don't let dirt build up there. Clean your frets with Brasso or some
other non-abraisive metal cleaner. Again, keeping your frets clean will prolong
the life of not only your strings but the frets as well.
On basses with an unfinished fretboard, you can use 000 guage steel wool or
a special posish to clean it. Be sure to rub back and forth, up and down the
neck which is with the grain of the wood. Don't rub across the grain as this will
damage the wood and as well as the look.
It's harder to get the areas where the frets meet the fretboard so use a cotton
swab to clean these areas. These types of fretboards are more difficult to
keep clean, however, if they provide the sound and feel you like, then that's
the price you have to pay.

Keep Your Body Beautiful

Keeping the rest of the bass clean only helps to retain the value and beauty of
the bass. If the rest of the bass is clean, you are less likely to get the neck
dirty. If you sweat a lot, be sure to wipe down the metalic parts such as the
pickups and the bridge, etc. Your sweat will rust and corrode these parts very
quickly.

When Frets Aren't Flat

After several years you may have to plane or level the frets. You will find that
you play certain areas of the neck more frequently than others and those
areas will begin to wear faster than the other areas. You will see grooves or
dips in the frets. This will cause buzzing when you try to play.
If you have room, and the grooves are not too deep, you can file the frets
down so that they are all level. If the frets are too far gone or you have already
planed them down a few times, you will need to replace them. Most likely you
will need to take it to a guitar repair shop to have this type of work done. The

nut and the saddles on the bridge will also wear down over time and need to
be replaced or regrooved.