Posts Tagged ‘Bass Guitar’
Simple Bass Guitar Accessories That Will Help You In Your Guitar Playing
Picking out my very first bass guitar was an exciting event. I am sure it would be the same for you. Some peole has said that the bass guitar is easier to learn than the acoustic guitar. Before you get too excited about your new guitar, there are a few essentials you may want to keep in mind. Here are some of the accessories that you will want to have.
Cases For Your Bass Guitar
The first thing you will want to do is protect your new investment. This requires a sturdy bass guitar case. As cases come in different forms, it is wise to do your homework first. The lower-end cases are very thin and don’t offer much protection if you plan on toting your bass around town. There are sturdier cases which are molded and padded on the inside. These cases have a hard shell and the padding keeps the bass secure. I would definietly recommend that you spend a bit more to get a moulded case especially if you are going to carry your guitar around.
Extra Bass Strings
Bass guitar strings are relatively sturdy but it doesn’t hurt to keep some spare strings handy. There are several types of bass strings available to include flatwound, roundwound, and groundwound.
Bass Guitar Straps
Depending on the bass you purchase, it may already come with a strap included. There are different types of straps and the most popular ones are those made of leather or suede. There are a range of straps to choose from so do pick and choose your favorite strap.
Extra Guitar Picks
Out of all of the accessories you can have for your bass, the pick comes in more styles than anything else. You can choose from hundreds of colors as well as the thickness of the pick. Guitar picks are small and can be lost easily so it makes sense to have a few picks on hand. You never know when you are going to need it.
Guitar Tuner
Want your guitar to sound good? Then you must have a guitar turner. A basic turner can cost you anything from to more than 0. For a start, a basic model would suit your needs just fine.
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The Early Start Of The Fender Bass Guitar
In the 1950s, Fender put out the very first mass-produced electric bass guitar that anyone could purchase to start their music career. Quickly after its release, the Fender Bass Guitar found a place with some of the most popular musicians of the day like William ‘Monk’ Montgomery, Lionel Hampton and Roy Johnson, who had unique musical visions and visionary players in their bands, taking the Fender electric bass and making it a respectable, important instrument in the musical landscape. Within a moment of the Precision Bass being released by Fender, another electric bass guitar was brought forward by Gibson. This new bass guitar looked more of a violin than the Fender bass. Now, electric instruments were here to stay and play a significant role in the musical industry as we now know it.
Fender bass guitars have changed very little since their introduction, despite a few cosmetic changes over the years. There is a significant demand for original vintage Fender basses from the fifties, sixties, and even seventies, because Fender began to create basses that significantly deviated from the original models and they were met with extreme dissatisfaction from many bass players.
Despite the huge conflict about which makes a better bass guitar, you can now find bass guitars in many shapes and materials. Which guitar you want to get depends on your sensibilities. Wood is the most normally used construction material for bass guitars. Different types of woods are, however, being used, and received well, such as alder and ebony as well as graphite. The sound of each different variety of guitar varies, and as such you should try out each one in order to find your preference. An additional, most professionals select whether or not the neck should have frets. This gives a distinctive effect on the guitar’s sound, as a bass missing frets will have the strings vibrate on the wooden neck itself.
No matter the style of bass anyone would purchase, they are fun and have aided in making music more entertaining to listen to.
Origins of the Electric Bass Guitar
Most music has always had a bass line be it written or implied, today the bass part is fundamental to most of the music we listen to. From the pedal board for the bass notes of an organ, the orchestra double bass, contra bassoon or tuba, bass instruments serve as a needed harmonic reference point and a bass foundation for the music. We tend to notice the emptiness of when music lacks a bass line or implicit bass line. With styles of popular music changing and evolving, plus the increasing demands of the working musician for portability, playability and loud volume, there was a strong need for a new type of bass instrument. This is when the bass guitar came into play.
Bass guitars have been around since the 1930’s though not quite in the exact same form as the Fender bass guitars that we know today, but you could say that their predecessors, the acoustic Basses, have been around for many years longer. With it’s range of tone, techniques and amplification the bass guitar offered a bass sound that was different from any other that had been heard before from more traditional bass instruments. Held and played horizontally like a regular guitar, the electric bass differed from it’s predecessor, the upright bass not only in it’s orientation during playing but also in it’s ease of use and portability. Electric bass players were no longer burdened with a huge lumbering akward instrument to carry and protect. With the exception of a longer neck and having 4 strings instead of 6, the electric bass guitar looks very much like the electric guitar as they both have a solid body that is often shaped the same. Also, unlike an acoustic guitar which is hollow, with a sound hole to allow for amplification, the sound of a Fender bass guitar is amplified by plugging it in to an amplifier and speaker. A bass guitar typically has four strings which are tuned an octave lower than the lowest strings of a regular guitar. While guitars are primarily strummed and picked, the bass can be played with a variety of techniques as well including, fingering, picking, slapping,thumb play, muting thumping and more. Because of it’s close relationship to the drums and the pulse of the music, the bass guitar is considered to be a rhythm section instrument.