Good music can touch a person’s very soul, and a lot of times, you can physically feel the music. The part of the music that you can feel deep down in your chest is the baseline. One of the main components of creating a good baseline is a bass guitar. Bass guitars give music the extra nudge it needs to literally touch the listener from the inside out. Like standard guitars, bass guitars have strings that are used to make their music. Most bass guitars have only four strings compared to the normal six strings of the classical guitar. Some bass guitars have five or even six strings, though. The bass guitar is played by plucking, picking or slapping the strings. The strings on bass guitars are tuned one octave below the lowest four strings on a classical guitar. The bass guitar looks very similar to an electric guitar. However, bass guitars tend to have a larger body and longer neck.
The most common bass guitars are made to be plugged in to an amplifier, and they produce virtually no noise at all when not plugged in. However, acoustic bass guitars have recently made their way into the mainstream. Acoustic bass guitars are made to be played along side an acoustic guitar and can be plugged in to enhance the sound or left unplugged. Acoustic bass guitars feature hollow bodies just like an acoustic guitar, but the bodies are larger in size. An electric bass guitar has a thin, solid body rather than a hollow body.
Bass guitars are a key instrument in many different musical styles from jazz and funk to rock and blues. In some styles of music, bass guitars are used as solo instruments, as well. This can often be seen in jazz and funk, as well as, a few other musical genres. The style of bass guitar that is currently used today first originated in the 1930s. Constant evolution and innovation has brought the bass guitar a long way from its original state, but many of the elements remain the same.
The shape of bass guitars is highly customizable. Many exotic looks have emerged over the course of the bass guitar’s history and continue to be produced. There is also a large choice of manufacturers of bass guitars. The skyrocketing popularity of rock music during the 1960s brought bass guitar manufacturers out of the woodwork. Previous to the rock music era, only a handful of companies produced the electric bass guitar.
Wood is the most popular choice for bass guitar construction materials. The type of wood that is used in each component of the bass guitar affects the tone and quality of the music, as well as, the overall appearance of the finished product. Different types of wood are often used for the body, neck and fretboard of the guitar. Whether or not the fingerboard of the guitar has frets is an aspect of the bass guitar that changes based on the players preference and musical style.
