Anatomy of the modern electric bass guitar

Play the strings to hear the sound they make. The modern bass guitar has three main parts joined together.

1. The Body
2. The Head Stock
3. The Neck

We have added a few brief descriptions to help you understand your instrument’s construction.

An EZ-AG guitar is shown below for comparison. It is MIDI enabled to allow you to record your performances into Xtractor. Set the EZ-AG to Sounds 10–17 for Bass:

10. Acoustic Bass
11. Finger Bass
12. Pick Bass
13. Fretless Bass
14. Slap Bass
15. Synth Bass
16. Hi-Q Bass
17. Dance Bass

Machine heads

The machine heads can be tightened and loosened to tune the guitar strings. Tightening them sharpens the sound and loosening flattens the sound.

Frets

Each fret creates a different note. The nearer the fret to the body, the higher the sound.

Pick-ups

The pick-ups ‘pick up’ the sound of the strings and act like a microphone sending the sound down the cable from the jack input to an amplifier.

Bridge

The strings are connected from the bridge of the bass to the machine heads. The height of the bridge can be adjusted to make the strings lower or higher on the bass neck. This allows tha bassist to adjust the sound and feel of the bass.

Nut

Separates and gives height to the strings at the top of the fretboard.

Volume and tone controls

You control the volume of your bass on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being loudest. The tone is controlled in the same way with 10 being the brightest.

Jack input

One end of the bass guitar lead is plugged in here. The sound comes though the jack into the lead from the pickups. The other end of the lead connects the amplifier.

You finished this lesson, well done. Share your achievement with your friends!

Next: Lesson 1 | Lesson Index

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