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Archive-name: music/bass-faq/part1
Version: 2.3 Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 1996/2/12 See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
REC.MUSIC.MAKERS.BASS
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Part 1: Answers to Questions 1-11
Version 2.4
Revision Date - 28/3/96
Revisions since 2.3:
Added the location for Japanese version
This FAQ list was created by Stephen Schmidt. Minor additions made by
Kalle Kivimaa. Copyrights to the various answers are owned by several
people from rec.music.makers.bass. Permission granted to propagate
this list freely on Internet, otherwise contact the list keeper
(killer@iki.fi). This list may NOT be included on any publication.
The Japanese version of this FAQ may be found at
http://www.tcp-ip.or.jp/~h-aki/hba.html or at the newsgroup
fj.rec.music.
[Administrivia: Sorry for this long delay in posting the FAQ.
I have started a full-time job and my automated posting process
didn't work. From now on the FAQ should follow the normal 10th
of each month -schedule.]
Topics
Procedural
1. What is the purpose of rec.music.makers.bass?
2. What styles of bass playing are appropriate for discussion on
rec.music.makers.bass?
3. What other sources of information on bass playing exist?
Getting Started
4. What should I look for when buying my first bass and amplifier?
5. What is tabulature?
6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of tabulature?
7. Where can I get TAB to learn?
8. Who are some major makers of bass equipment? How much does their
equipment cost? How can I get in touch with a particular
manufacturer?
9. What are some good books on bass instruction?
10. How is standard music notation written for bass?
11. To what pitches are bass strings normally tuned?
Intermediate Questions
12. How are 5 and 6 string basses tuned? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of them? How are 8 and 12 string basses tuned and
what are their advantages and disadvantages?
13. Can I detune my 4-string to B-E-A-D?
14. What is the difference between a preamplifier and a power
amplifier?
15. What is biamping, and how is it done?
16. How do I adjust the setup on my bass (action, intonation, etc?)
17. What is the difference between the various types of strings?
18. How does a bass pickup work? What is the difference between the
various kinds of pickups?
Advanced Questions
19. How do I record my bass to tape?
20. What are some popular effects for bass and what do they do? Is
there a difference between guitar effects and bass effects?
21. What is the difference between digital and analog electronics?
22. What do the ratings of amplifiers and speakers mean? What is a
watt, or an ohm? What factors must I consider in connecting
amplifiers to speakers?
Answers
1. What is the purpose of rec.music.makers.bass?
rec.music.makers.bass is a forum for the discussion of:
+ styles and techniques of playing bass guitars and acoustic
bass viols;
+ the role of the bass in musical groups;
+ the merits of particular models of basses, amplifiers, and
other equipment used in playing the bass;
+ music written for the bass, including TAB (tablature).
2. What styles of bass playing are appropriate for discussion on
rec.music.makers.bass?
rec.music.makers.bass exists to serve both electric bass players
and acoustic bass players. Rock, funk, and jazz music are the most
common styles discussed but all styles of music are welcome, as
long as they include music written for bass.
3. What other sources of information on bass playing exist?
On-line:
There is an electronic mail magazine devoted to bass playing
called The Bottom Line, distributed on a basis depending on the
amount of material received (currently averaging about one issue
per day.) To subscribe to The Bottom Line, or for other
administrative correspondence, send email to majordomo@magpie.com
with the message body containing lines such as help, info
bass-digest, or subscribe bass-digest. To submit an article for
publications, send email to bass@magpie.com. Please do not send
personal correspodance to these addresses.
There is also a mailing list for bassists who play in Christian
churches called ChurchBass. It is available in individual messages
and digest forms and has been picking up traffic steadily
averaging one digest daily. The list processor arddress is
listproc@ccad.uiowa.edu.
The newsgroup alt.guitar.bass is a previous version of this
newsgroup. It is still used by people who cannot access rmm.bass
for one reason or another, and some people crosspost when the
topic is of general interest. If you use both groups, PLEASE
crosspost rather than posting seperately to each group. Ask your
sysadmin how to crosspost if you do not know how.
There is no specific newgroup for TAB for bass, so it is usually
carried in rmm.bass. Sometimes bass TAB is posted to
rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature which is a newsgroup which is
mostly devoted to TAB for guitar.
Off-line:
There is a magazine called (appropriately) Bass Player which
features interviews with famous bassists, product reviews, lesson
columns, and TAB transcriptions of famous bass lines. Bass Player
can be bought at most music stores. There is another magazine,
called Bassics which also carries information on bass playing and
bass players, but which may be harder to find than Bass Player.
Also in the UK, a magazine called Bassist and Bass Techniques is
out. In addition, most guitar magazines such as Guitar World have
a bass column and occasionally print articles related to bass
playing or bass tablature.
4. What should I look for when buying my first bass and amplifier?
Presumably you're going to be buying both a bass and an amplifier,
and there are things to know about both. In buying a first bass,
there's really three things you want to look for: comfort, tone,
and value, probably in that order.
The most important thing is that you get an instrument you can
play easily and comfortably. This is because the habits that you
form on your first instrument are the ones that are going to
follow you onto all your others, so you want to get one which
doesn't give you major hand cramps, on which you can easily fret
all the strings a fair ways up the neck, and which isn't too heavy
for you, or too neck-heavy. If playing this bass is uncomfortable
or painful, you'll probably never get to a better one, so you
should be sure that this is something you want to be strapped into
for a few hours a week while you're learning to play it. Bear in
mind that the bass can be adjusted: in particular, the strings can
be raised and lowered to a different distance from the
fingerboard. If you find the strings too high off the board, or
too close to it, ask the shop to raise or lower them for you.
Other things, like a warped neck or bad frets, are a lot harder to
fix and you definitely want to avoid basses which have these
flaws.
The second most important thing is tone. This is more or less the
same issue, you're going to be playing this bass a few hours a
week (at least!) and if you hate the sound, you'll probably stop.
Think about the style of playing you're likely to develop. Do you
want to play jazz, hard rock, funk? Do you want to use a pick,
fingers, or slap? Get a bass that sounds good for the style of
music you're going to play. If you're going to play blues, then
don't worry if the bass has a lousy slap tone, and if you're gonna
play slap funk, then don't worry too much about the pick sound.
But if you're going to play in several styles, then you need a
bass that has a good tone for all of them. The first thing you
should do is listen to the bass without plugging it into the amp:
just hold your ear down close to the string and play a note and
see how it sounds. If it doesn't sound good unamplified, the
amplifier probably won't make it sound a whole lot better. So this
should be the first and most importaat test of tone. On the other
hand, your amp will be able to affect the tone of the bass using
EQ, at least to some degree. So, tone is less important than
comfort, but not very much less important.
The third thing to worry about is value. There are two effects.
First, you'll be happier with a better bass and (again) more
likely to stick with the instrument, so get the best one you can.
Second, as you get better, you're probably going to buy another
bass and sell this one, so you should try to buy one that will not
lose too much value. The main point here is that name brands like
Fender or Ibanez will hold their value better than less well know
brands, so there is some advantage to them.
Another thing that's important is to get a bass that looks
attractive to you. If your bass is attractive, you'll look over at
it, pick it up, and play it, whereas if it's ugly you'll look over
at it, shiver, and look quickly in the other direction :) So, even
though the look of the bass has no effect on the sound or your
ability to play it, if it has an effect on your _willingness_ to
play it, which it usually does, then get one that looks nice.
For amps, there are also three important things, tone, weight, and
power handling. Tone is important for the same reason as for
basses: if you hate the sound you will probably stop playing.
However, there are two considerations to keep in mind. First, amp
EQ can have a big effect on the tone of your bass. The more bands
of EQ the amp has, and the more effect the amp can have, then the
more it can do to help the sound of your bass (or hurt it). So
getting an amp with a fairly good EQ can help. The second thing is
the size of the speaker in the amp. Generally bigger speakers have
better bottom end, but smaller speakers have a tighter sound and
are lighter. You should probably get either a 10" speaker or a 15"
speaker, depending on which one you think has the better sound for
you.
Weight is another consideration that goes both ways: heavier amps
usually sound better but are a pain to carry around. If you can
get an amp with wheels you can save yourself some carrying effort:
but remember that it won't help you going up stairs, so it's not a
cure-all. Before buying an amp, pick it up and carry it around a
bit (don't drop it!) and see how heavy it is. Don't buy an amp
that you're not willing to haul around a fair bit.
The third factor is power handling. The more power an amp has, the
louder it can get but the more it will cost and weigh. For
practicing by yourself, you can get by with 10 or 20 watts.
(Always measure the watts in watts RMS and not in maximum power
handling. Watts RMS is usually about half the max power.) To play
with other musicians, you're going to need 50 or 60 watts, or 100
watts if the drummer is loud. To play in front of an audience at
rock volumes you'll need 200 watts or more. Note, however, that
two amps with the same wattage can have very different volumes,
depending on what materials are used in their construction and how
good the speakers are. So, don't worry too much about the number
on the box; just make sure it's loud enough for what you need to
do. If you're just going to play by yourself, then you can get
away with a smaller amp, though you're more likely to want to buy
a new (louder) amp later. If you already have a drummer to play
with, then you probably need to get something larger.
The last issue is whether you should buy new or used. Used basses
cost about half as much, and aren't likely to fall apart or go bad
unless it already has. If you do buy used, try very hard to get an
experienced bass player to look at it for you before you buy and
identify any problems it may have, because if a bass's neck is
warping or its finish is peeling than it may not be a good buy no
matter how cheap it is. However, if a used bass is in good
condition it will usually be an excellent bargain. For $250, you
can buy a used bass that might cost you $400 or $500 if you bought
it new. So, for the same amount of money you can usually get a
better bass if you go used.
Used amps rarely have anything wrong with them that you wouldn't
notice right away (such as not making any volume or humming
loudly). However, because they don't go bad they also aren't that
much cheaper than new gear. They are somewhat cheaper, though, so
it's worth looking into them and seeing what you can find.
You should always try to look at as many basses and amps as you
can before you buy one, at least 5 or 6 of each. Different people
like different things, and even among cheap equipment some pieces
will be much more suited to you than others will. You should also
look at several shops, if you can, because pricing policies vary
widely from one shop to another and some comparison shopping can
save you a lot of money. Some shops will negotiate over prices
with you, and sometimes you can knock them down as much as 20% or
more. In other shops, the price listed is the price and they won't
come down at all. So, if you see the same bass listed at two
different prices, ask the higher-priced shop if they can give you
a lower price, and if you want, mention what some of your
alternatives are. You can do this even if they're not the same
model: you might say "well, I'd like to buy this Fender P-bass,
but you're charging $300 and I can get a Peavey for $250 at X
shop. Can you come down in price a little bit?" If they do, great:
but if they don't, then don't push them, because you don't have
anything to gain by irritating them. Another thing to bear in mind
is that some shops will give you a package deal if you buy both an
amp and a bass from them, so you might save some money by doing
that.
When you try a bass, the salesperson may want you to try it
through a very expensive amp. Don't do that, because the bass will
sound much better through a $1000 amp than it will through the one
you're likely to buy, and you want to hear what it'll sound like
for you. If you think you know what amp you want to buy, then play
basses through the same amp or as close to it as you can come. The
same is true for amps: don't try them out with a $2000 bass
because they won't sound nearly as good with a beginning bass. Use
a bass as close to one that you might buy as you can.
5. What is tabulature?
Bass tabulature, or TAB for short, is a simple method for writing
bass music. There are several different versions of tabulature,
but the following features are common to most of them.
Bass tab is written on four-line staves. In text interfaces these
are usually written using dashed characters. Each space
corresponds to one string on the bass: the lowest space
corresponds to the E string, the next lowest to the A string, the
next to the D string, and the highest to the G string. A number on
a given space represents a note played at the given fret on the
corresponding string; thus, to indicate playing a G at the third
fret on the E string, one would write:
G------------------------------------
D------------------------------------
A------------------------------------
E----3-------------------------------
Notes are played from the left of the staff to the right; thus, an
ascending G major scale might be written:
G------------------------------------
D-------------------2--4--5----------
A----------2--3--5-------------------
E----3--5----------------------------
Or, using open strings, it might be written like this:
G-------------------------0----------
D----------------0--2--4-------------
A-------0--2--3----------------------
E----3-------------------------------
Chords can be written by writing two numbers in the same vertical bar.
Thus one might write a simple A major chord as:
G-----9------------------------------
D-----11-----------------------------
A-----0------------------------------
E------------------------------------
which means to play an open note on the A string, to play a C# at the
11th fret on the D string, and an E at the 9th fret on the G
string.
Various fingering techniques can be noted in TAB as well. This is
done by writing a single character after the note being fingered.
The most common of these are:
h - hammer-on from previous note
p - pull off from previous note
\ - slide up to note
b - bend note
S - slap the note with the right-hand thumb (left hand if left-handed)
P - pop the note with the right hand (ditto)
t - tap the note with the right hand (ditto)
H - harmonic
Thus a funky bass line might be written like this:
G---------5P-7h-5p-------------------
D------------------------3b----------
A---0S\5-----------3S-5S----5S-5H---
E------------------------------------
A muted note (one that is not fingered cleanly and makes a percussive
sound rather than a clear tone) is written by placing an x on a
line instead of a number:
G------------5--7--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---5--x--x--------5--x--5-----------
E------------------------------------
When it is not obvious which left-hand (right-hand to lefties) finger
should be used to to fret a particular note, this may be indicated
by writing a number under the note, with 1=index finger, 2=middle
finger, 3=ring finger, 4=pinkie finger, and rarely, 5-thumb:
G---------5--7--5--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---0--5-----------------------------
E------------------------------------
1 1 3
It is becoming popular to indicate time in TAB by writing over each
note a letter indicating the time value of the note: s=sixteenth
note, e=eighth note, q=quarter note, h=half note, w=whole note. It
is possible to add dots to this system as is done with normal
notes though it is not common. In addition, vertical bars are
usually used to indicate measure breaks. TAB noted this way might
look like this:
w q s s e q h q. e e e s s e h
G-----|----5--7--5-------|-------------5--7--7-|----
D-----|------------------|-3--3--5--7----------|----
A---0-|-5-----------8--5-|---------------------|-5--
E-----|------------------|---------------------|----
6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of tabulature?
The major advantage of TAB as a notation system is that it clearly
indicates how the music is to be played technically, ie which note
are fingered by which fingers using which techniques. Other
advantages include: no need to use sharps or flats.
The major disadvantage is that time marking in TAB is still rather
primitive and will probably never be as flexible as regular music
notation due to the limitations of the ASCII character set. In
printed sheet music, this problem is commonly addressed by writing
TAB and conventional music notation simultaneouly. This is
inconvenient for ASCII representations, but some people are
attempting to develop useful systems for it. None have become
widely followed at this time, however. Other disadvantages
include: not widely known among classicly trained musicians
(though this is changing) believed by some to discourage
improvisation and ear training.
7. Where can I get TAB to learn?
There are several sites where you can get TAB for bass by
anonymous FTP.
+ ftp.uwp.edu has the archives for The Bottom Line mailing
list, and it has a lot of other things music-related things
as well. Look in /pub/music.
+ ftp.nevada.edu (131.216.1.11) has a lot of TAB for both
guitar and bass. Feel free to write to
jamesb@redrock.nevada.edu if you have questions or comments.
Please do NOT sent requests or submissions to root@nevada, or
to any other account except the jamesb account. The local
sysadmin is not connected to the bass TAB site and doesn't
appreciate getting his mailbox spammed up :)
+ ftp.uu.net is accessible from UUNET and has copies of
everything that is available from the first two sets for
people without Internet access. Try this if you can't figure
out how to reach the others.
8. Who are some major makers of bass equipment? How much does their
equipment cost? How can I get in touch with a particular
manufacturer?
The best source for answers to questions like this is the Bass
Player Buyer's Guide, put out annually by Bass Player magazine. It
lists nearly all available equipment, divided into instruments,
amps and cabinets, signal processors, parts and accessories, and
strings. It includes some basic information about the gear, list
price, and references to product reviews that appeared in BP where
relevant.
List price is the manufacturer's suggested retail price. In actual
practice, retail prices tend to be about 20% below list price, so
that equipment is not as expensive as it appears to be.
Competitive shopping can often turn up a lot of bargains as well.
In addition, used equipment tends to be cheaper than new, although
when buying used things you will want to make sure that they're in
serviceable condition.
The Buyer's Guide lists the addresses and phone numbers of all
manufacturers who are listed in it at the back of the guide. Most
manufacturers put their addresses and numbers in their
advertisements which appear in Bass Player and in many guitar
magazines as well. Check your local music store.
9. What are some good books on bass instruction?
There are lots of books on introductry bass playing, and there
aren't all that many differences between them. There is a six-book
series written by Dan Dean called "Electric Bass" (the last three
books are also known as "The Studio Bassist") which presents a
comprehensive approach to learning the bass. There is a series of
books by Chuck Rainey which also present a comprehensive bass
playing method: the first book is an excellent introduction to the
bass while the other books cover advanced topics in bass playing.
Carole Kaye has also written a six-book series on bass playing
which many people recommend highly.
There is also a book called "Electric Bass Guitar" which is a
compilation of old bass columns from Guitar Player magazine
(before BP existed [gasp]) which is definitive if a little
eclectic.
Somewhat more advanced books which a lot of people find useful
include "Modern Electric Bass" by Jaco Pastorius and "Electric
Bass" by John Patitucci. A good book on bass harmonics is
"Harmonics for Electric Bass" by Adam Novick.
These are only a few of the many books on bass playing that are
available for beginning and advanced bassists. Most music stores
carry a selection of instruction books and you should be able to
find something that will work well for you without too much
effort.
10. How is standard music notation written for bass?
Standard music notation is written for bass in exactly the same
way that it is for piano, except that it is written one octave
higher than played; that is, the note to be played on the bass is
one octave lower than the one written on the page. This is done to
avoid using a very large number of ledger lines, since most bass
parts go well below the lowest line of the bass clef.
For example, the lowest note on a 4-string bass, open E, would be written
as:
-------|------------------- (lowest line of staff)
|
---O---
The written note is E above low C, but the actual note on the bass is
E below low C. Writing this note as played would take 4 ledger
lines.
As a second example, when the written music calls for middle C,
you should play the C one octave below that, which is the 5th fret
on the G string.
11. To what pitches are bass strings normally tuned?
A. Pitch is measured in hertz (hz), which is the rate at which the
string is vibrating back and forth (measured in cycles per
second). The standard definition of pitch is that the A above
middle C is exactly 440 hz. The open A string on a bass is three
octaves below that A, and dropping one octave divides the
frequency by 2. So the A below middle C is 220 hz, the A below
that is 110 hz, and the open A string on the bass is 55 hz.
You can get the pitches for the other two strings in either of two
ways. The first is to use natural tuning, and the second is to use
even-tempered tuning.
Natural tuning is based on the fact that a major chord sounds most
pure if the ratio of the frequencies of the three notes is exactly
4:5:6:8. Thus an A major chord starting on the 440 hz A would be
tuned as follows: A 440 hz, C# 550 hz, E 660 hz, A 880hz. A bass
is tuned in perfect fourths, and as you can see from the E-A
example in the A major chord, the frequencies of two notes in a
perfect fourth are always 6:8, or 3:4. Using this ratio, and
knowing that the open A string on a bass is 55 hz, we can find the
pitches of the other strings just by multiplying or dividing by
4/3, or 1.33333. The problem with natural tuning is that it is
internally inconsistent, because it can produce several different
"correct" pitches for a given note. For example, consider starting
with the 440 hz A, and trying to find the pitch of the A one
octave above it. One way to do that is to say "octaves are in the
ratio 4:8" and conclude that the A one octave above is 880 hz.
However, an equally valid way is to reason as follows. The C# that
is above the A is in the ratio 5:4 with that A, so its pitch must
be 550 hz. Starting on that C#, we can build a C# major chord,
which will have F as its third. The ratio of C# to F must also be
5:4, so that F must have a pitch of 550 * (5/4) = 687.5 hz. Now,
starting on that F, we can build an F major chord with A as the
third. The pitch of that A must be 687.5 * (5/4) = 859 hz, which
is rather different from 880 hz. If you tuned an instrument to
F=687, A=880, and played an F major chord on it, it would sounds
very out of tune.
The solution, which was popularized by JS Bach, is to slightly
fudge the "natural" tuning of each note to average out the errors
so that, while each chord will be a little off, no one chord will
be very wrong and you can play in any key you like. Bach's piece,
"The Well Tempered Clavier", which modulates through all 12 keys,
was written to demonstrate the power of even-tempered tuning.
The formula for even tempering is based on the number of
half-steps between two notes. The ratio of pitch between two notes
that are N half-steps apart is given by
2^(N/12)
This formula was chosen because it makes the octave work out
perfectly; an octave is 12 half steps so the ratio of two notes an
octave apart is just 2 ^ (12/12) or 2^1, or 2. The advantange of
this formula is that it gives the same answer for the pitch of a
note, regardless of what intervals are used to calculate it. In
the above example, the ratio between A and A an octave higher is
2^(12/12) or 2. The ratio of a major third is 2^(4/12) or 1.260.
Starting with A 440, and going up by major thirds, we get C# =
554, F = 698, A = 880, because
1.26^3 = [2^(4/12)]^3 = 2^(12/12) = 2.
For a perfect fourth, which is 5 half-steps, the formula gives a
ratio of 2^(5/12) or 1.33484. Note that this is just slightly
bigger than the ratio of 1.33333 given by the natural tuning, so
it doesn't make a whole lot of difference which one you use in
practice.
Now, to answer the question :) The pitch of an A string is 55hz,
and the other pitches depend on whether you use even-tempered
tuning or natural tuning. The two cases are, for a six-string
bass:
B E A D G C
Natural 30.938 41.250 55.000 73.333 97.777 130.369
Even-tempered 30.868 41.203 55.000 73.416 97.999 130.812
Other tunings are rare but not unknown. Most common is to tune the E
string down to D, giving the tuning D-A-D-G. This has become less
common since 5-string basses became popular but is found on many
older records. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd uses it a lot. Another
common tuning is to tune all strings one half-step flat: Eb, Ag,
Db, Gb (or D#, G#, C#, F# if you like to think of it that way.)
This reduces the tension on the strings, making string bending
easier. Most groups that use this tuning, notably Van Halen,
actually tune down so the guitarist can have the benefits of lower
tension: the bass player just tunes down to match. However, it can
be convenient to have lower string tension on bass as well. Also,
being tuned to E flat instead of E can make things easier if you
are playing with a horn section, since horn music is often written
in such keys as E flat and B flat.
Other artists use even weirder tunings, often setting the string
intervals to fifths, major thirds, tritones, or even unisons.
Michael Manring is probably the most notable artist who does this.
It should be noted that this isn't all that good a thing for the
bass, because the strings are designed so that all four strings
will have the same tension in normal tuning, and thus apply the
same pressure to the neck. If you change the tuning, so that some
strings apply more pressure to the neck than others, the neck can
warp in very odd ways that are not easy to fix. Michael solves
this problem by using a bass with a graphite neck, and if you can
afford to do this, you don't need to worry about the neck warping
(for any reason). But if you have a wooden-necked bass, you might
want to put the bass back into normal tuning after you experiment
with other tunings.
--
* "Let's see if we can spot any colorful exotic natives in colorful *
* exotic costumes singing colorful exotic songs with their colorful *
* exotic hands out for bakshoesh." - Zebadiah Carter *
* PGP public key available - try finger killer@niksula.cs.hut.fi *
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