Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
What exactly is the difference between a guitar and a bass?
- Thread starter Mezzo
- Start date
gnjpowell
Inactive
- Nov 12, 2010
- 562
- 2
- Disclosures
- Bass & guitar tech, FOH sound, backline rentals
Anyone can play a guitar, takes a MAN to play a bass! Just look - lotsah bands have multiple guitars they are so common. Very rarely would you see a band with more than one bass player 'cause we are sooo special and rare. Uh- huh. Just try taking the top two strings off your guitar and tuning down a bit - you'll see exactly what I'm talkin' about!
I know just what he's talking about. After all a bass is only a supporting instrument. So guitar players are called musicians and bass players are called sidemen.
This question is sort of like saying "Violin and a Double Bass are the same instrument except ones bigger and played a little different".(Also a piano and a harpsichord are different instruments too...)
Basically what it boils down to (IMO) is, different instruments in the same family of instruments.
Exactly.... trumpet is a brass instrument... so is a trombone.... but they are different instruments in the same family.... sure you can get a valve trombone and a slide trumpet... and you know that changes those as well... but saying Coronet = Tuba would be a very large mistake (same kinda deal here to me)... cause sure you could add the extra metal to make your coronet a tuba... may or maynot be worth the work in the end
So yes and no... if you go technically, a bass guitar was just the laterally played version of a Double bass... just that when electrics came about the guitarists thought they were the Holy Grail and turned up.... so we had to do it too, to bring them back down from thier soapbox...
I also saw adding a bass neck to a tele body the neckdive would be horrendous... but like stated if you had a very dense wood/hardware you could balance it out....
By the time you get all of this together and put the work into it, it would have just been easier/cheaper to get the G&L or Warmoth =D
I find that bassists are the tru musicians.... guitarists fake a lot of their everyday life because as stated before they have NO SOUL!!! or funk
Are you really this starved for attention?
And some people think bass players are dull and have no sense of humor...
The concept of the electronics may be the same but the actual electronics are very different.
I like to think of a song as a living, breathing thing. The guitar, keys and vocals are the personality. The drums and bass are what give it life. They are the heartbeat of the song. When you see people dancing, tapping their foot, tapping their hand, bobbing their head, etc, they are doing so to the bass and drums. Bassists not only have to keep time, they also have to play in the correct key. They are the link between the rythym and melody. In may cases, the bassist plays the same notes/chords as a guitarist or keyboard player but in a lower octave. Sometimes, they play other notes that are in the key of the song. In my opinion, bass is the most important and most under appreciated part of any song.
Everything is different. This coming from a guy who started on guitar. Your approach to the instrument is totally different. Most materials used are different. The bass is generally quite a bit larger than guitar. The string standards are BASS: 4strings, and GUITAR: 6strings. Bass strings are much thicker and longer. Not to mention that bass is an octave lower in pitch than guitar (obvious).
They're just two different instruments. The only real similarities are body shape and electronics.
Hope this helps!
They're just two different instruments. The only real similarities are body shape and electronics.
Hope this helps!
A bass is a guitar. We are all guitar players. It is a certan type of guitar.
A bass drum is a drum.
A bass trombone is a trombone.
A bass clarinet is a clarinet.
A baritone sax is a sax.
etc.
We just don't say it because it is commonly understood what is meant when someone says bass. They mean shorthand for bass guitar.
A bass drum is a drum.
A bass trombone is a trombone.
A bass clarinet is a clarinet.
A baritone sax is a sax.
etc.
We just don't say it because it is commonly understood what is meant when someone says bass. They mean shorthand for bass guitar.
TN WOODMAN said:
John E. Played basses better than most, liked basses, collected basses.
I drive cars better than most, like cars, collect cars.
I am not the end-all be-all authority on all cars. I am at best an authority on what I like in a car. I'd give John E. The same level of authority wrt basses. He knew a lot about them and had definite opinions about what HE liked.
An "electric" guitar includes electrified versions of your good old standard acoustic guitar and were developed to enhance and amplify the sound of the acoustic guitar.
A "bass" guitar was designed to provide a more convenient and practical way of producing the sound of the upright bass that has been around for hundreds of years. The fact that a guitar innovator unlocked the door to the answer to that influenced heavily the appearance and construction philosophy of the electric bass to make it very similar to the electric guitar. But they started from two very different places to arrive at a point of similarity. Go back to where they started and ask how similar an upright bass is to a folk guitar to find the remaining differences between an electric bass guitar and an electric guitar.
no.
The full name of a bass is bass guitar.
The full name of a cello is a cello.
If it was called a cello violin then yes the cello would be part of the violin family like the bass guitar is part of the guitar family.
