When a piece of musical equipment stops working it starts a puzzling quest to find out what is causing the issue. Sometimes it can be something very simple, sometimes it might require some technical knowledge, and sometimes you might just have to accept it can’t be fixed. This is true for an electric bass…
After about a year of playing my bass guitar when I was younger, it started to sound weird. The sound was crackly, fading in and out. I went to the store where I bought my amp to complain about the sound. But the store manager said it wasn’t the amp that was causing…
When I bought my first bass guitar I had no idea it was an ‘active’ bass until one day it started to sound a bit weird. I thought the amp might be broken so I started looking online for a solution. After a few hours of searching, I found the cause of the problem….
The ‘classic’ rock band template features three instruments: electric guitar, drums, and bass guitar – in addition to the human voice. Many bands will include two or more guitarists, and plenty will include additional instruments – keyboards, trumpets or saxophones, for instance. But a guitar-drums-bass trinity has formed the foundation of most bands since…
Capos are a popular way of transposing the key of a guitar quickly and easily, allowing the player to produce notes of a higher pitch without changing the shape of their fingers. They are essential weapons in the arsenal of both acoustic and electric guitarists, yet it is far less common to see a…
Practising bass guitar without an amplifier just doesn’t sound the same. All you can hear is an annoying twang and not the deep bass sound we all know and love. But with more of us living in apartments or wanting to practice late into the night, using an amplifier isn’t really an option. This leaves…
While listening to live music, I try not to get irritated by people who talk over the bass solo. If you frequently attend live shows, you’ve seen it before. Half of me is just wishing they would shush and listen, but then the other half remembers that it’s not exactly their fault. Bass is…
It seems to be a common occurrence in the music world, needing to play bass through a guitar amp. Maybe you’re a guitarist who wants to try the bass but doesn’t want to buy a bass amp. Or maybe you’re in a situation when you have your bass but not your amp, and the…
Many home producers would like to add a bass line to their instrumental mix, but either don’t have a bass guitar, don’t know how to play one, or simply don’t want to invest in the instrument. Thankfully, there are many options for recording bass on a mix without actually having to record a bass guitar…