On the other hand we can’t go through our musical lives just learning how to play our instruments without also learning about how they work. Especially fairly delicate musical instruments like electric bass guitars. So let’s talk about bass guitar fret buzz and some of the causes and possible home remedies, even if eventually you are going to have to take your bass to an expert.

Your bass guitar buzzes at a certain fret. All the time. You have tried changing the strings and adjusting the saddles. That is the limit of your expertise, so now what? If you take it to a guitar shop they might recommend that the neck be reset. This would be better than you making things worse by fooling around in the saddles or anywhere else that looks like it could be adjusted by an enthusiastic amateur.

Sometimes you get vibration when you play certain frets on your bass guitar. Often it’s hard to tell where the buzzing or vibration is coming from. One thing an amateur can do is look for loose parts around the area of the tuning keys. Any small part can be loose and causing an annoying vibration when the bass is fired up. The other place where this can happen is around the bridge. Notice I said an amateur can LOOK for the possible cause of the noise. If you do not feel absolutely confident about what you are doing, do not touch it.

If you choose to go looking for the cause of the fret buzz or vibration yourself, just so you understand what’s going on, you could get a friend to look for the source of the buzz while you play the notes that cause the buzz. It’s alot easier than trying to get the guitar to make the noise while examining it minutely at the same time.

Sometimes what can happen to cause fret buzz, say on the first, second and third strings on the second fret, is the bar between the frets is lower than the others. This makes the strings touch the bar when they are played. Or one fret could be higher than the others. If this is the case a special file can be used to make the fret go deeper into the fretboard. This is an easy job for a luthier, just don’t let him talk you into having ALL the frets adjusted if only one is buzzing.

One thing that could be responsible for bass guitar fret buzz is not adjusting the truss rod when you change to a new string gauge. This will not only cause buzz but warp the guitar neck, too.

When you take your bass guitar into the guitar shop to have it looked at, don’t be afraid to tell the man what areas you have been fooling with. I know it’s embarrassing but even if you lie to him, he’ll find out when he examines it. It’s just that if he has to go to extra trouble and time to look for a fault that you could have told him about, it’s going to cost you.

Various random buzzings can come from your bass guitar without the physical components being at fault. If you are getting an electronic buzz in your speaker, try shutting down any appliances like televisions and cell phones.

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Here are the notes as they appear on the bass guitar fretboard:

G|—G#—|—A—|—A#—|—B—|—C—|—C#—|—D—|—D#—|—E—|—F—|

D|—D#—|—E—|—F—|—F#–|—G—|—G#—|—A—|—A#—|—B—-|—C—|

A|—A#—|—B—|—C—|—C#–|—D—|—D#—|—E—|—F—-|—F#—|—G—|

E|—F—-|—F#–|—G—|—G#–|—A—|—A#—|—B—|—C—-|—C#—|—D—|

You will notice that I have written the sharp symbol (#) on the diagram of the bass fretboard. You probably already know that one man’s sharp is another man’s flat according to which key the song is in. For instance F# could also be called Gb (G flat) because it is both the note above F and the note below G. Easy to understand but complicated to explain.

Usually you begin learning bass guitar by using the E and A strings to play the bass line of some easy songs. You could begin by simply memorizing where the notes are but it will help if you set yourself the task of learning a song or two. Your memory always appreciates some help from your body and your feelings, so trying to learn some songs will help you get the notes under your skin. You will note that I have only given you the first ten frets. You will see that this is one octave on each string. Once you have the notes on those frets off by heart, the remaining notes will be much easier to learn.

If you take a look at the diagram of the fretboard, you will see that the note at the fifth fret of the E string (A) is the note on the next open string, so once you play up to the fifth fret, you can either continue playing up the neck or you can start playing the notes on the next string. If you have already learnt to play the guitar this will not be a surprise to you. Now that I have explained the basics, if your head is spinning a little, just go back to the simplicity of what you are learning: four strings, four octaves made up of seven notes. That is it. Good luck.

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So have you set your price range? You might be looking at somewhere between two and five hundred dollars for a decent bass bought new at a guitar shop. The price of a secondhand bass guitar could start at one hundred and shoot up to over a thousand dollars.

Where to look when buying a bass guitar? The local guitar shop is a logical, but not necessarily the best, choice. Pawn shops usually have a bass guitar or two hanging from the rack, anxious to tell its story. And Craigslist, US Free Ads and your local classifieds will have more choices for you.

It is always wise to try out a range of instruments. You may think that you do not know anything about buying a bass guitar but after you have tried a few you will start to get a feeling for what is good and what is not.

If someone is selling their bass through classifieds they will probably have it set up ready for potential buyers, and your local guitar store should be only too willing to let you try out their bass guitars. If you are tempted to buy sight unseen, do so only if you know you can get your money back if it does not work out. If you see a bass advertised on the net, go to a guitar store and ask about the model and try it out if that is possible.

Of course, before you go buying a bass guitar you should be finding someone who plays bass who would be willing to try instruments out for you. An experienced player will be able to warn you about any adjustments that need to be made or about faults like a warped neck.

Squier is one of the big guitar makers that produces basses and guitars for beginners but they have a reputation for being one of the big producers of poor quality instruments so some care needs to be taken if you become interested in this brand. Ibanez and Epiphone are also brands to go for if you are cruising the guitar retailers.

As far as types of bass guitar go there are probably more kinds of bass than there are regular guitars. There are basses with frets, there are bass guitars without frets. There are instruments with four, five or six strings. The common or garden bass guitar has frets and four strings, and that is the one you should look for if you are a beginner buying a bass guitar.

If you are tempted to go for a new bass guitar from one of the supermarket chains, be careful because quality may not be the main consideration where these instruments were made. If you are really tempted by a bargain but do not know about the brand or model bass you are looking at, check out the guitar forums. Sometimes you can find a forum post about a bargain guitar by typing the name into Google.

Here is a video on buying a bass and here’s some advice on buying a guitar.

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Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake And Palmer changed between guitar and bass during concerts and, of course, played both on different tracks on records. Not many people have done this, usually a bass guitar player just plays bass.

Let us take a close look at how a bass guitar works. The usual tuning of a four string bass guitar is E A D G. The tunings are the same on a five string bass except there is a low B string. The six string bass is the same but it has a high C string. So on a 6 string bass you have the tuning of B E A D G C. Also there are seven string basses that have a high F string.

There are quite a few ways you can tune a bass guitar but they are much the same as those used to tune a regular guitar, so it is unnecessary to mention them. As with other guitars, you tune your bass guitar by loosening the string and then tuning it UP to the correct note. You should tune each string separately, always being meticulous about matching the sound of the string to your bass guitar tuner. While we are on the matter of tuning, you should remember to do a search for a free online bass guitar tuner.

With your electric bass guitar, the music is achieved by plucking using the index and middle fingers or striking the string with a pick. The early Fender basses used to have a thumb rest attached to the pickguard situated just below the strings. This was meant to give the fingers somewhere to rest while the thumb plucked the strings. Alot of people think that the pick is used by rock bass players but the truth is players of all styles develop their own individual techniques, sometimes using thumb, fingers or pick depending on the sound they want to make. If the bass guitar player uses all upstrokes the guitar sounds different from if he uses all downstrokes or alternates his strokes of the pick.

Some bass guitar players, Les Claypool and John Entwistle are two examples played using their fingernails just like a classical acoustic guitar player.

The accomplished bass guitar player must be on top of his technique. Nimble fingers and a certain amount of fast playing are often needed. Also, bass guitar music will demand that you develop your own individual style. To get some ideas, listen to and copy the work of the most popular and innovative bass guitar players of recent decades, like Paul McCartney, Pino Palladino – the guy who took over from John Entwistle in The Who, Flea the bass player in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jaco Pastorius – an original bass player universally looked up to by bassists of all styles – Mark King, an extremely fast English bass guitarist, and not forgetting John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.

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Use a clean rag to polish the body. The first time you polish your bass, get the hang of it by polishing the back first. Put a little polish on the guitar body, then use the rag to spread it without rubbing it too much in one spot. Go all over the back, front and the back of the neck.

It is not necessary to use a metal polish on the metal parts of your guitar, and you should only use it sparingly if it is really, really necessary. And don’t get it on any of the fingerboard.

Use cotton wool balls on the pickups. No liquid – just the cotton balls to get the dust off. Under no circumstances get polish or liquid of any kind on the pickups.

Putting new strings on and leaving them till they need changing is not good enough. Every time you play your bass give the strings a clean with some alcohol on a rag. Don’t rub the alcohol into the fretboard, just clean each string individually by grabbing it between your fingers with the rag.

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The bass player’s role is just to keep time. It is very simple. A lot like bass players. Keeping time is done by playing a ‘bassline’ which is usually a rhythmic’ sequence of notes. The bass player unites the rhythmic playing of the drummer with the chords and melodies played by the lead guitar. Does this take talent? Yes it does. The bass guitar player is the guy who turns off his brain and becomes one with the music. He then turns his brain back on and assumes the mantle of the designated driver for the rest of the band.

The bass guitar tab gives the guitarist written directions on what to play to give the bass line to a piece of music. Tablature is a written representation of the strings of the guitar using numbers to show the frets. If you want to learn the bass guitar quickly tab is the way to go. It is easy to pick up and to remember, and it enables you to learn very quickly the riffs and phrases you need to give your group’s music that something extra.

A bass guitar tab is a picture of the fretboard which can be drawn using Notepad on your computer or by hand. The frets are numbered on lines representing the guitar strings. If you have a four string bass, the upper string is the G string, next the D string, the A string, and the E string. The numbers below the lines are the frets where the notes are played. If there is zero below the line it means the open string is played. A chord is represented in bass guitar tabs by two numbers, one above the other. Most bass guitar tabs contain a legend which explains any unfamiliar terms.

The internet is by far the best source for bass guitar tabs. Just do a Google search and you will have more material than you will ever need. All you have to do is learn and practice. Learn and practice your favorite songs first. Bass guitar is not a musical instrument you can approach without passion. Bass guitar riffs can be learnt from tab books but should be played from the heart.

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There is a range of bass guitars with varying numbers of strings and a number of tuning options to expand the number of notes produced. We will stay with the four string bass guitar which is tuned to one octave lower than the standard guitar.

Most guitar players agree that the best way to begin tuning a guitar is to start with the strings tuned lower than you need and then tune them up to the correct pitch. It is best to start with the strings much lower than they need to be so you do not tighten them too much and break a string.

Let us examine tuning the bass guitar to a piano or keyboard. Find Middle C on the keyboard and go down two octaves to find the E below that. This is your note to tune the fourth string of your bass guitar. Play the open fourth string and the E on your piano at the same time. If you hear a sound like the noise a helicopter makes, your guitar is not in tune. Turn the tuning peg on your bass guitar as you play the guitar and the keyboard together, and listen to the “helicopter” sound. It will become slower as the guitar becomes in tune with the keyboard, and it will eventually vanish. Repeat this for your A D G strings.

Another way of tuning the bass guitar is to get the E string as close to tuned as you can and then tune the rest of the strings. Start by playing the note at the fifth fret of the E string together with the open A string. Once these two notes are the same, play the fifth fret of the A string at the same time as the D string open. When the D string sounds the same as the fifth fret on the A string, play the fifth fret of the D string and tune the open G string to that.

You can also tune the bass guitar to itself using harmonics. Touch your finger lightly on the fifth fret of the E string without pressing down. You will hear a chiming note. Now play this harmonic again but at the same time playing the harmonic at the seventh fret of the A string. Tune the A string until it matches the harmonic of the E string. Next play the fifth fret harmonic of the A string and match the seventh fret harmonic of the D string to that. Finally, match the seventh fret harmonic on the G string with the fifth fret harmonic on the D string.

The simplest way to tune the bass guitar is the electronic tuning method. Electronic tuners have a visual way to tell you when your bass is sounding the right note. For the sake of your progress as a guitarist you should first learn to tune the bass guitar using one or all of the other methods, then check it with an electronic tuner. You can buy an electronic tuner at a music store or online. You can even do a search for online bass guitar tuners.

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