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More Information on Bass Guitars
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This article was written some years ago when Dick Thomas was our Peavey rep. Dick was a member of Sounds Incorporated a legendary 60’s band who toured with the Beatles on their world tour and backed all of the Rock N Roll stars visiting the UK including Little Richard and Gerry Lee Lewis. Dick wrote this for us a few years ago and it all still stands true now.
When Eddie of Fret Music asked me to write something on the above subject I decided that the way to go would be to target the beginner / intermediate player as the professional / virtuoso guys would, having reached those giddy heights, one assumes, have all the qualifications necessary to make their own judgements.
Simply put, it is an instrument that provides the low end harmonic and rhythmic content in nearly all forms of popular music. Taking over from the double bass in an ever increasing way, since Leo Fender, first brought it to the world many many years ago. His 'P' precision , and 'J' jazz models have become the benchmarks for bass guitar design for more than four decades. It is a testament to his original designs that they are still used today in a brand new century in bands seen on current TV music programmes, promo videos etc., the bass player, more often than not is using a Leo Fender based instrument.
The instrument itself has, as its name suggests, a 'guitar' type body coupled to a longer neck to give the increased scale length necessary to accommodate the longer and heavier gauge strings. These reproduce the lower frequencies required to emulate the double bass. These scale lengths can vary from short / medium (some of the early Gibson models like the EB2 had a 30 inch scale ), to long, like the Fender's which is 34 inches. The longer scale gives, without doubt, the superior sound and has become the accepted norm for four stringed bass guitars. In recent times, some five string instruments have had their scale length increased to 35 inches to allow the much heavier low 'b' string to achieve its intended potential.
From the above, we can deduce that the beginner would probably benefit by choosing a long scale bass either in the 'P' or 'J' pick-up configurations. While an American built instrument would have a price penalty there are many instruments of similar construction in the market place that would from both playability and price considerations. Less than £150.00 will get you a very playable instrument. Some models to consider are the Squire Affinity P-bass , the Peavey Milestone , which has a lovely slim neck, a plus for the total beginner, and the Aria Legend Squire Affinity P-bass.
When addressing the needs of the intermediate player, they almost fall into the professional virtuoso category. It really depends on how they wish to develop their playing styles and sounds, types of music etc. The options are many-fold including the following:
Simply put, the difference between the two is that passive eq is normally just an unpowered (passive) treble cut circuit, giving the impression to the ear of adding more bass. Active eq is a powered circuit usually using one 9 volt battery allowing the addition as well as cut-off the selected bass / treble frequencies. This renders a much enhanced variety of tonal options becoming available, especially on a multi pick up instrument which usually has a plus/minus eq circuit for each pick up.
Physics tells us that bass frequencies demand a lot of power to reproduce them as opposed to high end ones; the lower the frequency the more power needed. So the conclusion here is, for the intermediate player upwards, to buy the most powerful amp you can afford, bearing in mind transportation considerations. For the beginner practising at home, price is usually the number one consideration, especially if buying the complete starter package.
