Electric Bass Buying Guide for Beginners

Bass is one of the essential parts of any musical genre. A solid and catchy bassline can change the dimension of a song and take it to a different level. A bass line is not just another layer of music in a song, but a mandatory portion in almost all the songs there is. Hence there is a never demand for bass guitarists, and also there are thousands of aspiring soul to start their journey in the world of music with a bass guitar.

But as there are so many brands and manufacturer making the electric bass guitar, buying the best bass guitar can be difficult for beginners. As a solution to reduce this difficulty, we are providing you with an Electric Bass buying guide for Beginners, especially.

Following this buying guide, you will be able to choose The best beginner bass guitar and start your journey in the musical world with ease.

Electric Bass buying guide for beginners

When you are about to buy an instrument, it is essential to know about your instrument, the component of it, what are the types and other equipment and requirements. Know about your instrument will also help you to buy it. Ones you know your instrument, you will be able to judge what is right and bad and figure out what is comfortable, long-lasting, and finally buy the best bass guitar for a beginner. In this section, we are going to provide you with all the factors that will give you the idea of a good bass guitar suitable for the starters. SO let’s GO!!

Budget

Budget is an essential factor when it comes to buying a bass guitar. Often many bass starters do not know if they will continue playing it or not. In that case, it is wise to get a low budget bass guitar. Also, you may listen to some bass and find the sound very attractive, but the bass is costly. Do not worry there are plenty of bass guitars in the market within the price range of 200-500$ that can provide an excellent sound. Another important reason for buying a budget bass guitar is that a bass guitar requires a lot of maintenance. If you purchase an expensive guitar as a beginner, then you may fail to maintain it, and damage the guitar. Hence buying a budget bass guitar will help you gain experience and lead you to a higher playing level, and then you can always change to a better guitar.

Number of strings

A standard bass guitar consists of four strings. But you can also get five-strings and six-string bass guitars and even more in many cases. For beginners, it may be not easy to play the higher strings, but it is not also very challenging. Hence it is better to start with a four-string bass guitar because it is standard and when you try to look for video lessons most of the time a standard bass guitar with four strings are available.

Tuning of a standard four-string bass guitar is E-A-D-G. If you add more strings, then it will go accordingly to a guitar, for example, if your bass guitar has five-string E-A-D-G-B like the first four and five-string from the top of a guitar.

Components of guitar

Components of a bass guitar consist of A neck, headstock, tuning peg, fretboard, frets, truss rod pick up and the body.

Neck

The neck of a bass guitar consists of the fretboard, headstock, and a truss rod inside the neck, connecting the neck with the body. A neck of a bass guitar can be made with a solid or one layer of wood or multiple layers which can vary from two to five layers of wood. A neck that consists of multiple layers of woods is attached with glue. The use of wooden layers determines the sound quality of a bass guitar. Some produce excellent sound with one layer some requires more.

Headstock

The wider part at the end of the neck is the headstock where the tuning pegs are fixed.

The tuning peg

The tuning pegs are the rotating keys to adjust the string tension that changes the pitch of a string to change the note of string.

Fretboard

The thin layer of wood on the front side of the neck on which the strings lay is the fretboard. The fretboard is also known as the fingerboard. Rosewood, ebony, or maple are the ideal kind of wood used in the fretboard. And a good fretboard is smooth where you can move your fingers easily.

Frets

The thin metal strips embedded on the fretboard called frets. The frets determine the notes to play. For example, put your finger on the first fret of the first string on your bass guitar, press it, and pluck the string, you will play the F note.

Truss rod

Truss rod connects the neck with the body of a bass guitar. The truss rod also keeps the neck straight.

Pickup

A guitar pickup converts the vibrations of guitar strings into electrical signals.

Body and design

A build of a body is best when it has a wooden build. Harder woods produce a bright and snappier sound. And softer wood provides a mellower, warmer tone. As a beginner, it is better to choose a design that is comfortable for you and produces a good sound.