The electric bass guitar.

The electric bass guitar is an essential instrument in most forms of popular music today. It is used in jazz and rock, of course, but is also used in country. It provides a pleasant rhythmic addition when combined with any other instruments. The bass usually has four strings, but there are specialty models available that have 5, 6, or more strings.

The electric bass guitar was an improvement over the upright basses because it is so much easier to transport. It is also a fairly easy instrument to learn. The four strings are tuned to E, A, D, and G, just like the lower four strings of a guitar, except they are an octave lower. This means that anyone who knows how to do simple bass runs on a guitar can transfer that knowledge over to the bass.

Other guitarists transferring over to a bass prefer to tune it alternatively to D, G, B, and E, like the top strings of a guitar, but two octaves lower. This is an alternative tuning, however, and not the standard tuning designed for an electric bass.

The electric bass guitar is amplified by the use of pick ups. These pick ups can use either battery operated electronics or a magnetic method of picking up the signals from the strings. There can be one or more than one pick up, and they can be split under two or three strings each, or placed under all four strings.

Like a standard guitar, usually a bass guitar has frets on the neck. The Fender "Precision" bass was so called because the frets gave the bassist help in being precise in finding notes. There are fretless basses on the market, but by far the basses with frets are more frequently used. The average bass has around 24 frets along its neck, which allows for two full octaves.

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