Amiga Plus 1995 #2/Amiga Plus CD - 1995 - No. 2.iso/internet/faq/englisch/rec.music.makers.bass

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Archive-name: music/bass-faq/part1
Version: 2.1
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 1995/1/2

                      REC.MUSIC.MAKERS.BASS
                        Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
                 Version 2.0
              Revision Date - 16/10/94

This FAQ is posted monthly to rec.music.makers.bass news.answers and
rec.answer and can also be found by WWW (http://www.hut.fi/~killer/
bass.faq.html).  Mail comments and suggestions to Kalle Kivimaa
([e-mail]).

Revisions since 2.0:
    Added some copyright information as the list keeper is no longer
    the list creator.
    Added the 10-string bass information.
    Changed the Bottom Line archive name.

This FAQ list was created by Stephen Schmidt.  Minor additions made
by Kalle Kivimaa.  Copyrights to various answers are owned by several
people from rec.music.makers.bass.  Permission granted to propagate
this list freely on Internet, otherwise contact the list keeper
([e-mail]).

                                * Topics *

Procedural

1. What is the purpose of rec.music.makers.bass?
2. What styles of bass playing are appropriate for discussion on
   rec.music.makers.bass?
3. What other sources of information on bass playing exist?

Getting Started

4. What should I look for when buying my first bass and amplifier?
5. What is tabulature?
6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of tabulature?
7. Where can I get TAB to learn?
8. Who are some major makers of bass equipment? How much does their
   equipment cost? How can I get in touch with a particular manufacturer?
9. What are some good books on bass instruction?
10. How is standard music notation written for bass?
11. To what pitches are bass strings normally tuned?

Intermediate Questions

11. How are 5 and 6 string basses tuned? What are the advantages and
    disadvantages of them? How are 8 and 12 string basses tuned and what
    are their advantages and disadvantages?
12. What is the difference between a preamplifier and a power amplifier?
13. What is biamping, and how is it done?
14. How do I adjust the setup on my bass (action, intonation, etc?)
15. What is the difference between the various types of strings?
16. How does a bass pickup work? What is the difference between the
    various kinds of pickups?

Advanced Questions

17. How do I record my bass to tape?
18. What are some popular effects for bass and what do they do? Is there
    a difference between guitar effects and bass effects?
19. What is the difference between digital and analog electronics?
20. What do the ratings of amplifiers and speakers mean? What is a watt, or
    an ohm? What factors must I consider in connecting amplifiers to speakers?


                                * Answers *

1. What is the purpose of rec.music.makers.bass?

rec.music.makers.bass is a forum for the discussion of:
   1) styles and techniques of playing bass guitars and acoustic bass viols;
   2) the role of the bass in musical groups;
   3) the merits of particular models of basses, amplifiers, and other
      equipment used in playing the bass;
   4) music written for the bass, including TAB (tablature).

2. What styles of bass playing are appropriate for discussion on
rec.music.makers.bass?

rec.music.makers.bass exists to serve both electric bass players and acoustic
bass players. Rock, funk, and jazz music are the most common styles discussed
but all styles of music are welcome, as long as they include music written for
bass.

3. What other sources of information on bass playing exist?

On-line:
There is an electronic mail magazine devoted to bass playing called The
Bottom Line, distributed on a basis depending on the amount of material
received (currently averaging about 2-3 issues per week.) To subscribe to
The Bottom Line, or for other administrative correspondence, send email
to [e-mail]. To submit an article for publications, send
email to [e-mail]. Please do not send personal correspodance to
these addresses.
The newsgroup alt.guitar.bass is a previous version of this newsgroup.
It is still used by people who cannot access rmm.bass for one reason
or another, and some people crosspost when the topic is of general
interest. If you use both groups, PLEASE crosspost rather than posting
seperately to each group. Ask your sysadmin how to crosspost if you do
not know how.
There is no specific newgroup for TAB for bass, so it is usually carried
in rmm.bass. Sometimes bass TAB is posted to rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature
which is a newsgroup which is mostly devoted to TAB for guitar.

Off-line:
There is a magazine called (appropriately) Bass Player which features
interviews with famous bassists, product reviews, lesson columns, and
TAB transcriptions of famous bass lines. Bass Player can be bought at
most music stores. There is another magazine, fairly new, called Bassics
which also carries information on bass playing and bass players, but
which may be harder to find than Bass Player. In addition, most guitar
magazines such as Guitar World have a bass column and occasionally print
articles related to bass playing or bass tablature.

4. What should I look for when buying my first bass and amplifier?

   Presumably you're going to be buying both a bass and an amplifier, and
there are things to know about both. In buying a first bass, there's really
three things you want to look for: comfort, tone, and value, probably in that
order.
  The most important thing is that you get an instrument you can play
easily and comfortably. This is because the habits that you form on your first
instrument are the ones that are going to follow you onto all your others,
so you want to get one which doesn't give you major hand cramps, on which you
can easily fret all the strings a fair ways up the neck, and which isn't
too heavy for you, or too neck-heavy. If playing this bass is uncomfortable
or painful, you'll probably never get to a better one, so you should be
sure that this is something you want to be strapped into for a few hours
a week while you're learning to play it. Bear in mind that the bass can
be adjusted: in particular, the strings can be raised and lowered to a
different distance from the fingerboard. If you find the strings too high
off the board, or too close to it, ask the shop to raise or lower them
for you. Other things, like a warped neck or bad frets, are a lot harder
to fix and you definitely want to avoid basses which have these flaws.
  The second most important thing is tone. This is more or less the same
issue, you're going to be playing this bass a few hours a week (at least!)
and if you hate the sound, you'll probably stop. Think about the style of
playing you're likely to develop. Do you want to play jazz, hard rock, funk?
Do you want to use a pick, fingers, or slap? Get a bass that sounds good for
the style of music you're going to play. If you're going to play blues, then
don't worry if the bass has a lousy slap tone, and if you're gonna play
slap funk, then don't worry too much about the pick sound. But if you're going
to play in several styles, then you need a bass that has a good tone for
all of them. The first thing you should do is listen to the bass without
plugging it into the amp: just hold your ear down close to the string and
play a note and see how it sounds. If it doesn't sound good unamplified,
the amplifier probably won't make it sound a whole lot better. So this
should be the first and most importaat test of tone. On the other hand,
your amp will be able to affect the tone of the bass using EQ, at least to
some degree. So, tone is less important than comfort, but not very much less
important.
  The third thing to worry about is value. There are two effects. First,
you'll be happier with a better bass and (again) more likely to stick with
the instrument, so get the best one you can. Second, as you get better, you're
probably going to buy another bass and sell this one, so you should try to
buy one that will not lose too much value. The main point here is that
name brands like Fender or Ibanez will hold their value better than less
well know brands, so there is some advantage to them.
  Another thing that's important is to get a bass that looks attractive
to you. If your bass is attractive, you'll look over at it, pick it up,
and play it, whereas if it's ugly you'll look over at it, shiver, and look
quickly in the other direction :)  So, even though the look of the bass
has no effect on the sound or your ability to play it, if it has an effect
on your _willingness_ to play it, which it usually does, then get one that
looks nice.

  For amps, there are also three important things, tone, weight, and power
handling. Tone is important for the same reason as for basses: if you hate the
sound you will probably stop playing. However, there are two considerations to
keep in mind. First, amp EQ can have a big effect on the tone of your bass.
The more bands of EQ the amp has, and the more effect the amp can have, then
the more it can do to help the sound of your bass (or hurt it). So getting
an amp with a fairly good EQ can help. The second thing is the size of the
speaker in the amp. Generally bigger speakers have better bottom end, but
smaller speakers have a tighter sound and are lighter. You should probably
get either a 10" speaker or a 15" speaker, depending on which one you
think has the better sound for you.
   Weight is another consideration that goes both ways: heavier amps
usually sound better but are a pain to carry around. If you can get an
amp with wheels you can save yourself some carrying effort: but remember
that it won't help you going up stairs, so it's not a cure-all. Before
buying an amp, pick it up and carry it around a bit (don't drop it!)
and see how heavy it is. Don't buy an amp that you're not willing to haul
around a fair bit.
  The third factor is power handling. The more power an amp has, the
louder it can get but the more it will cost and weigh. For practicing
by yourself, you can get by with 10 or 20 watts. (Always measure the
watts in watts RMS and not in maximum power handling. Watts RMS is usually
about half the max power.) To play with other musicians, you're going to
need 50 or 60 watts, or 100 watts if the drummer is loud. To play in front
of an audience at rock volumes you'll need 200 watts or more. Note, however,
that two amps with the same wattage can have very different volumes,
depending on what materials are used in their construction and how good
the speakers are. So, don't worry too much about the number on the box;
just make sure it's loud enough for what you need to do. If you're just
going to play by yourself, then you can get away with a smaller amp,
though you're more likely to want to buy a new (louder) amp later. If
you already have a drummer to play with, then you probably need to get
something larger.

  The last issue is whether you should buy new or used. Used basses
cost about half as much, and aren't likely to fall apart or go bad unless
it already has. If you do buy used, try very hard to get an experienced
bass player to look at it for you before you buy and identify any problems
it may have, because if a bass's neck is warping or its finish is peeling
than it may not be a good buy no matter how cheap it is. However, if a used
bass is in good condition it will usually be an excellent bargain. For
$250, you can buy a used bass that might cost you $400 or $500 if you
bought it new. So, for the same amount of money you can usually get a better
bass if you go used.
  Used amps rarely have anything wrong with them that you wouldn't notice
right away (such as not making any volume or humming loudly). However,
because they don't go bad they also aren't that much cheaper than new
gear. They are somewhat cheaper, though, so it's worth looking into them
and seeing what you can find.

  You should always try to look at as many basses and amps as you can
before you buy one, at least 5 or 6 of each. Different people like
different things, and even among cheap equipment some pieces will be
much more suited to you than others will. You should also look at several
shops, if you can, because pricing policies vary widely from one shop to
another and some comparison shopping can save you a lot of money. Some
shops will negotiate over prices with you, and sometimes you can knock
them down as much as 20% or more. In other shops, the price listed is
the price and they won't come down at all. So, if you see the same bass
listed at two different prices, ask the higher-priced shop if they can
give you a lower price, and if you want, mention what some of your
alternatives are. You can do this even if they're not the same model:
you might say "well, I'd like to buy this Fender P-bass, but you're
charging $300 and I can get a Peavey for $250 at X shop. Can you
come down in price a little bit?" If they do, great: but if they
don't, then don't push them, because you don't have anything to
gain by irritating them. Another thing to bear in mind is that some
shops will give you a package deal if you buy both an amp and a bass
from them, so you might save some money by doing that.
  When you try a bass, the salesperson may want you to try it through a
very expensive amp. Don't do that, because the bass will sound much better
through a $1000 amp than it will through the one you're likely to buy,
and you want to hear what it'll sound like for you. If you think you
know what amp you want to buy, then play basses through the same amp
or as close to it as you can come. The same is true for amps: don't
try them out with a $2000 bass because they won't sound nearly as good
with a beginning bass. Use a bass as close to one that you might buy
as you can.


5. What is tabulature?

Bass tabulature, or TAB for short, is a simple method for writing bass
music. There are several different versions of tabulature, but the
following features are common to most of them.

Bass tab is written on four-line staves. In text interfaces these are usually
written using dashed characters. Each space corresponds to one string on the
bass: the lowest space corresponds to the E string, the next lowest to the A
string, the next to the D string, and the highest to the G string. A number on
a given space represents a note played at the given fret on the corresponding
string; thus, to indicate playing a G at the third fret on the E string,
one would write:

G------------------------------------
D------------------------------------
A------------------------------------
E----3-------------------------------

Notes are played from the left of the staff to the right; thus, an
ascending G major scale might be written:

G------------------------------------
D-------------------2--4--5----------
A----------2--3--5-------------------
E----3--5----------------------------

Or, using open strings, it might be written like this:

G-------------------------0----------
D----------------0--2--4-------------
A-------0--2--3----------------------
E----3-------------------------------

Chords can be written by writing two numbers in the same vertical bar. Thus
one might write a simple A major chord as:

G-----9------------------------------
D-----11-----------------------------
A-----0------------------------------
E------------------------------------

which means to play an open note on the A string, to play a C# at the 11th
fret on the D string, and an E at the 9th fret on the G string.

Various fingering techniques can be noted in TAB as well. This is done by
writing a single character after the note being fingered. The most common of
these are:
   h - hammer-on from previous note
   p - pull off from previous note
   \ - slide up to note
   b - bend note
   S - slap the note with the right-hand thumb (left hand if left-handed)
   P - pop the note with the right hand (ditto)
   t - tap the note with the right hand (ditto)
   H - harmonic

Thus a funky bass line might be written like this:

G---------5P-7h-5p-------------------
D------------------------3b----------
A---0S\5-----------3S-5S----5S-5H---
E------------------------------------

A muted note (one that is not fingered cleanly and makes a percussive
sound rather than a clear tone) is written by placing an x on a line
instead of a number:

G------------5--7--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---5--x--x--------5--x--5-----------
E------------------------------------

When it is not obvious which left-hand (right-hand to lefties) finger should
be used to to fret a particular note, this may be indicated by writing a
number under the note, with 1=index finger, 2=middle finger, 3=ring
finger, 4=pinkie finger, and rarely, 5-thumb:

G---------5--7--5--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---0--5-----------------------------
E------------------------------------
    1  1     3

It is becoming popular to indicate time in TAB by writing over each note
a letter indicating the time value of the note: s=sixteenth note, e=eighth
note, q=quarter note, h=half note, w=whole note. It is possible to add
dots to this system as is done with normal notes though it is not common.
In addition, vertical bars are usually used to indicate measure breaks.
TAB noted this way might look like this:

    w   q  s  s  e  q  h   q. e  e  e  s  s  e   h
G-----|----5--7--5-------|-------------5--7--7-|----
D-----|------------------|-3--3--5--7----------|----
A---0-|-5-----------8--5-|---------------------|-5--
E-----|------------------|---------------------|----

6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of tabulature?

The major advantage of TAB as a notation system is that it clearly
indicates how the music is to be played technically, ie which note are
fingered by which fingers using which techniques. Other advantages include:
no need to use sharps or flats.
The major disadvantage is that time marking in TAB is still rather primitive
and will probably never be as flexible as regular music notation due to the
limitations of the ASCII character set. In printed sheet music, this problem
is commonly addressed by writing TAB and conventional music notation
simultaneouly. This is inconvenient for ASCII representations, but some
people are attempting to develop useful systems for it. None have become
widely followed at this time, however. Other disadvantages include: not
widely known among classicly trained musicians (though this is changing)
believed by some to discourage improvisation and ear training.

7. Where can I get TAB to learn?

There are several sites where you can get TAB for bass by anonymous FTP.

a) ftp.uwp.edu has the archives for The Bottom Line mailing list, and
it has a lot of other things music-related things as well. Look in
/pub/music.

b) ftp.nevada.edu (131.216.1.11) has a lot of TAB for both guitar and bass.
Feel free to write to [e-mail] if you have questions or
comments. Please do NOT sent requests or submissions to root@nevada, or
to any other account except the jamesb account. The local sysadmin is
not connected to the bass TAB site and doesn't appreciate getting his
mailbox spammed up :)

c) ftp.uu.net is accessible from UUNET and has copies of everything that is
available from the first two sets for people without Internet access. Try
this if you can't figure out how to reach the others.

8. Who are some major makers of bass equipment? How much does their
equipment cost? How can I get in touch with a particular manufacturer?

The best source for answers to questions like this is the Bass Player
Buyer's Guide, put out annually by Bass Player magazine. It lists nearly
all available equipment, divided into instruments, amps and cabinets,
signal processors, parts and accessories, and strings. It includes some
basic information about the gear, list price, and references to product
reviews that appeared in BP where relevant.
List price is the manufacturer's suggested retail price. In actual practice,
retail prices tend to be about 20% below list price, so that equipment is
not as expensive as it appears to be. Competitive shopping can often turn
up a lot of bargains as well. In addition, used equipment tends to be
cheaper than new, although when buying used things you will want to make
sure that they're in serviceable condition.
The Buyer's Guide lists the addresses and phone numbers of all manufacturers
who are listed in it at the back of the guide. Most manufacturers put their
addresses and numbers in their advertisements which appear in Bass Player
and in many guitar magazines as well. Check your local music store.

9. What are some good books on bass instruction?

   There are lots of books on introductry bass playing, and there aren't all
that many differences between them. There is a six-book series written
by Dan Dean called "Electric Bass" (the last three books are also known
as "The Studio Bassist") which presents a comprehensive approach to
learning the bass. There is a series of books by Chuck Rainey which also
present a comprehensive bass playing method: the first book is an excellent
introduction to the bass while the other books cover advanced topics in
bass playing. Carole Kaye has also written a six-book series on bass playing
which many people recommend highly.
   There is also a book called "Electric Bass Guitar" which is a compilation
of old bass columns from Guitar Player magazine (before BP existed [gasp])
which is definitive if a little eclectic.
   Somewhat more advanced books which a lot of people find useful include
"Modern Electric Bass" by Jaco Pastorius and "Electric Bass" by John
Patitucci. A good book on bass harmonics is "Harmonics for Electric Bass"
by Adam Novick.
   These are only a few of the many books on bass playing that are available
for beginning and advanced bassists. Most music stores carry a selection of
instruction books and you should be able to find something that will work well
for you without too much effort.

11. How is standard music notation written for bass?

   Standard music notation is written for bass in exactly the same way
that it is for piano, except that it is written one octave higher than
played; that is, the note to be played on the bass is one octave lower
than the one written on the page. This is done to avoid using a very large
number of ledger lines, since most bass parts go well below the lowest
line of the bass clef.
  For example, the lowest note on a 4-string bass, open E, would be written
as:
-------|------------------- (lowest line of staff)
       |
   ---O---

The written note is E above low C, but the actual note on the bass is E
below low C. Writing this note as played would take 4 ledger lines.
  As a second example, when the written music calls for middle C, you
should play the C one octave below that, which is the 5th fret on the G
string.

11. To what pitches are bass strings normally tuned?

A. Pitch is measured in hertz (hz), which is the rate at which the
string is vibrating back and forth (measured in cycles per second).
The standard definition of pitch is that the A above middle C is
exactly 440 hz. The open A string on a bass is three octaves below
that A, and dropping one octave divides the frequency by 2. So the
A below middle C is 220 hz, the A below that is 110 hz, and the open
A string on the bass is 55 hz.
You can get the pitches for the other two strings in either of two
ways. The first is to use natural tuning, and the second is to use
even-tempered tuning.
Natural tuning is based on the fact that a major chord sounds most
pure if the ratio of the frequencies of the three notes is exactly
4:5:6:8. Thus an A major chord starting on the 440 hz A would be
tuned as follows: A 440 hz, C# 550 hz, E 660 hz, A 880hz. A bass
is tuned in perfect fourths, and as you can see from the E-A example
in the A major chord, the frequencies of two notes in a perfect
fourth are always 6:8, or 3:4. Using this ratio, and knowing that the
open A string on a bass is 55 hz, we can find the pitches of the other
strings just by multiplying or dividing by 4/3, or 1.33333.
The problem with natural tuning is that it is internally inconsistent,
because it can produce several different "correct" pitches for a given
note. For example, consider starting with the 440 hz A, and trying to
find the pitch of the A one octave above it. One way to do that is to
say "octaves are in the ratio 4:8" and conclude that the A one octave
above is 880 hz.
However, an equally valid way is to reason as follows. The C# that is
above the A is in the ratio 5:4 with that A, so its pitch must be 550 hz.
Starting on that C#, we can build a C# major chord, which will have F
as its third. The ratio of C# to F must also be 5:4, so that F must
have a pitch of 550 * (5/4) = 687.5 hz. Now, starting on that F, we
can build an F major chord with A as the third. The pitch of that A
must be 687.5 * (5/4) = 859 hz, which is rather different from 880
hz. If you tuned an instrument to F=687, A=880, and played an F major
chord on it, it would sounds very out of tune.
The solution, which was popularized by JS Bach, is to slightly fudge
the "natural" tuning of each note to average out the errors so that,
while each chord will be a little off, no one chord will be very wrong
and you can play in any key you like. Bach's piece, "The Well Tempered
Clavier", which modulates through all 12 keys, was written to demonstrate
the power of even-tempered tuning.
The formula for even tempering is based on the number of half-steps
between two notes. The ratio of pitch between two notes that are N
half-steps apart is given by

2^(N/12)

This formula was chosen because it makes the octave work out perfectly;
an octave is 12 half steps so the ratio of two notes an octave apart is
just 2 ^ (12/12) or 2^1, or 2. The advantange of this formula is that
it gives the same answer for the pitch of a note, regardless of what
intervals are used to calculate it. In the above example, the ratio
between A and A an octave higher is 2^(12/12) or 2. The ratio of a
major third is 2^(4/12) or 1.260. Starting with A 440, and going up
by major thirds, we get C# = 554, F = 698, A = 880, because

1.26^3 = [2^(4/12)]^3 = 2^(12/12) = 2.

For a perfect fourth, which is 5 half-steps, the formula gives a
ratio of 2^(5/12) or 1.33484. Note that this is just slightly bigger
than the ratio of 1.33333 given by the natural tuning, so it doesn't
make a whole lot of difference which one you use in practice.

Now, to answer the question :)  The pitch of an A string is 55hz, and
the other pitches depend on whether you use even-tempered tuning or
natural tuning. The two cases are, for a six-string bass:

        B    E    A    D    G    C
Natural        30.938    41.250    55.000    73.333    97.777    130.369
Even-tempered    30.868    41.203    55.000    73.416    97.999    130.812


Other tunings are rare but not unknown. Most common is to tune the
E string down to D, giving the tuning D-A-D-G. This has become less
common since 5-string basses became popular but is found on many
older records. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd uses it a lot. Another
common tuning is to tune all strings one half-step flat: Eb, Ag, Db,
Gb (or D#, G#, C#, F# if you like to think of it that way.) This
reduces the tension on the strings, making string bending easier.
Most groups that use this tuning, notably Van Halen, actually tune
down so the guitarist can have the benefits of lower tension: the
bass player just tunes down to match. However, it can be convenient
to have lower string tension on bass as well. Also, being tuned to
E flat instead of E can make things easier if you are playing with
a horn section, since horn music is often written in such keys as
E flat and B flat.

Other artists use even weirder tunings, often setting the string
intervals to fifths, major thirds, tritones, or even unisons. Michael
Manring is probably the most notable artist who does this. It should
be noted that this isn't all that good a thing for the bass, because
the strings are designed so that all four strings will have the same
tension in normal tuning, and thus apply the same pressure to the neck.
If you change the tuning, so that some strings apply more pressure to
the neck than others, the neck can warp in very odd ways that are not
easy to fix. Michael solves this problem by using a bass with a graphite
neck, and if you can afford to do this, you don't need to worry about
the neck warping (for any reason). But if you have a wooden-necked bass,
you might want to put the bass back into normal tuning after you experiment
with other tunings.

<answers continue in part 2>

--
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*     PGP public key available - try finger [e-mail]       *
Archive-name: music/bass-faq/part2
Version: 2.1
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 1995/1/2


                              REC.MUSIC.MAKERS.BASS
                         Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

            Part 2: Answers to Questions 12-21

12. How are 5 and 6 string basses tuned? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of them? How are 8 and 12 string basses tuned and what
are their advantages and disadvantages?

  5 and 6 string basses have extra strings either above or below the normal
4 strings. On 5 string basses, the extra string is either tuned to B below
the low E or to C above the high G. Rock and pop players tend to find the
low B more useful, while jazz players and chord players tend to find the
high C more useful. 6 string basses usually add both a low B and a high
C although a few players add a high C and a high F above that. In the 60's
a few makers (notably Danelectro and Fender) made basses that had 6 strings
and were meant to be tuned E-A-D-G-B-E, same as a guitar but one octave
lower. This idea never really caught on, and almost no one tunes a bass
this way anymore.

The advantage to the extra strings are that you can reach more notes in
a given position, and can get some notes you could not otherwise play.
The disadvantages are that the neck must be wider to accomodate the extra
strings and that string sets are more expensive for 5-and-6 string basses.

8 string basses are constructed similarly to 12 string guitars; the strings
come in pairs, each pair containing a string tuned normally and another string
tuned one octave higher. Both strings are plucked or picked simultaneously
Most 12-string basses have the strings in triplets, one at the normal pitch
and two tuned one octave higher, to get a fuller sound on the top note.
There are also some 12 string basses which have 6 pairs of strings instead
of four triplets and a 10 string bass which is similar to an 8-string one.
There have even been a few 18 string basses constructed which had strings
in triplets but these were built more to demonstrate the strength of graphite
necks than for actual use.

The advantage of 8 and 12 string basses is that because several strings are
played simultaneously they have a richer, fuller sound that a regular bass.
The disadvantages are that playing becomes much more difficult because both
strings have to be fingered and plucked. In addition, strings for 8 and 12
string basses can be somewhat difficult to buy as very few companies make them
and not many people buy them. Many manufacturers of such basses either sell
strings directly or can tell you who supplies strings for their basses. If
you are willing to order strings by mail this will usually get you what you
need.


13. What is the difference between a preamplifier and a power amplifier?

   Bass amplifiers, whether they are combo amps or stage rigs, contain three
components: the preamplifer, power amplifier, and the speakers. The signal
from your bass passes to the speakers in three stages, with an amplifier
between each of the stages. The signal from your bass is carried at instrument
level; floor pedals, which your bass plugs into directly, operate on the
signal at this level. The instrument level signal is amplified to line
level by the preamp. The line level signal is passed to rackmounted effects.
Because the line level signal is more powerful than the instrument level
one, rackmounts effects add less noise relative to the level of the signal
than floor effects do, which is why professionals prefer them. Most preamps
sold commercially also include a number of line level effects, though not
all do. After the line level signal is processed it is passed to one or
more power amplifiers. Most rigs use only one power amp but if you are
biamping you would use two. The line level signal can also be sent to the
PA system if your band uses one. The power amp amplifies the signal to the
the much higher levels that are used to drive the speakers. The power
power rating of a guitar or bass amp refers to the total wattage that is
sent to the speakers by the power amplifier stage of the amp.

You can buy a combination ample that contains a preamp, a power amp, and
a speaker all in one box, or you can buy a separate preamp, power amp, and
speaker cabinet. Professionals do the latter -- it's more expensive, and
usually sounds better. It also gives you more flexibility to mix and match
your components to a particular need. Many combination amps have a preamp-out
jack, which allows you want to send the preamp stage's output somewhere other
than the power amp. There are several reasons for doing that:

(a) You could send the preamp out into a mixing board in addition to
your power amp for sound reinforcement.
(b) You could send the preamp out into a tape recorder and record it.
(c) You could send the preamp out into a bunch of effects, and then
connect the effects' output back into "power amp in," thus putting the
effects in between the preamp and the power amp stages.

Some combination amps, though not all, also have a power amplifier in jack
which allows you to send a signal from a separate preamp to the power
amplifier directly. Most combination amps also have a power-amp out jack
which allows you to send the power signal to an external speaker, either
in tandem with the internal speaker or instead of it. Combination amps
that have all three features are almost as flexible as separate stage
rigs.

14. What is biamping, and how is it done?

Biamping refers to using separate power amplifiers to amplify different
frequency ranges. (See question 10 for a discussion of power amplifiers.)
In particular, it allows you to use one power amplifier to amplify your high
freqencies and another to amplify your low frequencies. In most bass
amplifier rigs, the preamp signal is sent to one power amp and the output
from that amplifier is sent to the speaker cabinets, where it may be
divided among the various speakers by a crossover in the cabinet; high
signals to small speakers and horns, low signals to larger speakers.
(A crossover is a filter which separates a signal into high-frequency
and low-frequency components: it may have a knob which allows the bassist
to control the dividing point.)
With biamping, instead of splitting the power amplifier's signal, you split
the preamplifier's signal and send each half to different power amplifiers.
Then, each power amplifier drives its own speaker load; again, usually small
speakers or horns for the high frequencies and large speakers for the lows.
Also, the crossover used in biamping is usually active (ie it requires a power
supply) whereas those found in speaker cabinets are usually passive.

Biamping has several advantages:
    (a) active crossovers don't have inductors, so they exhibit less
        intermodulation distortion;
    (b) active crossovers don't drain the power of the signal to operate ;
    (c) the full power range of each amp is available regardless of the,
        power requirements of other ranges.

For more information on the engineering side of biamping, an excellent
book is Martin Colloms, "High Performance Loudspeakers", 3rd. edition,
pages 188-191 on biamping.

   (c) is important because it takes more power to reproduce low-frequency
sounds than high ones. A typical biamp setup might be to send to highs to
a 4x10 cabinet and the lows to a 1x15, 1x18, or other large subwoofer. If
you send your high end through the subwoofer, your tone will probably
suffer and become muddy, whereas if you send your lows through the 10s they
will not provide as much thump as the subwoofer will. By biamping, you can
send the lows through the subwoofer and still get clarity and tone from the
10s without forcing the 10s to spend most of their energy driving very low
frequencies.
   To get a good sound from biamping requires some fairly close matching
between the crossover, the amplifiers, and the cabinets used. Done poorly,
biamping can sound worse than using a single amplifier and cabinet. If you
biamp, it is better to get a system designed explicitly for biamping than
to assemble components one by one.


15. How do I adjust the setup on my bass (action, intonation, etc?)

   There is an excellent article in issue #153 of the Bottom Line. It
is long but very good. It can be obtained from the Bottom Line archives
by anonymous FTP; the address is freedom.wit.com and the back Bottom Line
issues are in the /music/lists/bass directory.

16. What is the difference between the various types of strings?

   There are basically three factors that affect string sound and playability.
The first is whether the strings are flatwound or roundwound, the second is
the gauge of the strings, and the third is the metal the strings are made
from.
   Almost all bass strings are made of a central string which is wrapped
in a second layer to make the string thicker. The central string is called
the core of the string. These are usually round, although some hexagonal
core strings exist. The wrapping comes in two kinds; some strings are
wrapped with flat ribbon and some are wrapped with a round piece of wire.
The first kind, called flatwounds, have a dark sound and are fairly smooth,
which makes them easy on the fingers and the fretboard. The second kind,
called roundwounds, have a much brighter sound, but tend to wear down your
frets or fretboard and chew up your fingers.
  Most people prefer roundwound strings for their brighter sound. Flatwounds
are mostly used for fretless basses, for which the damage caused by round-
wounds is especially problematic. There are also two kinds of compromise
strings, called groundrounds and half-flatwounds. Both of these kinds of
strings are flat on one side and round on the other: this can be achieved
by taking a roundwound string and grinding it flat, by applying pressure
to the string to flatten it, or by wrapping with wire which is alternately
round and flat, so that one side of the string is flat and the other is
round. These types of strings are not easy to find but some players do
use them.

   The second question is the gauge of the string. The gauge is measured by
the thickness of the string in inches. A typical set of light gauge strings
might have thicknesses of about 0.040, 0.060, 0.075, 0.090 for the G, D,
A, and E strings. A medium gauge might be about 0.050, 0.070, 0.085, 0.105.
Heavy gauge strings are extremely difficult to find now, for some obscure
reason. Most companies make three gauges of strings: light, medium-light,
and medium. Some companies will sell you individual strings, which lets
you mix and match your strings to get a unique combination of gauges, but
not too many people do this.
   Lighter gauge strings tend to have a brighter but thinner sound. Heavier
strings have a more solid sound to them. A major advantage to light gauge
strings is that they require less tension to produce a given pitch, so that
they require less force to fret, pluck, and bend, whereas heavier gauge
strings call for a little more finger strength.
   The third factor is the metal used to make the strings. Almost all
strings are made of either stainless steel or nickel. Stainless steel has
a brighter sound at the expense of being a little harder on the fingers. The
difference is not very great, however. You can also get strings which are
plated with chrome or gold, or various black metals. These are more for
effect than because the plating does anything to the tone.
   Acoustic strings can also be made of nylon or gut as well as metal.
Gut strings are quite expensive but sound very nice. You can also get
strings made of silicon and other exotic materials for unusual basses,
but non-metal strings will not work with magentic pickups so most people
don't use them.
   There are a few other factors to consider when buying strings. Many
strings come with a silk wrap around the end of the string which helps to
keep the wrapping on the string from coming unwound. Cheaper strings don't
have this winding. However, if the string is made with a hex core (as
opposed to a round core) then the wrapping is much less likely to come
unwound (it grips a hex core better) and in that case, the silk wrapping
is not as important. Another important thing to remember is that the strings
have to go on your bass! Most basses require single-ball strings, with the
ball end going at the bridge and the non-ball end being wrapped around the
tuning peg. However, Steinburgers and most other headless basses require
double-ball strings, one ball going behind the nut and the other behind the
bridge. And, to keep things confusing, some headless basses, notably
Kubickis, use single-ball strings by putting the ball end at the end of the
next andtaking the non-ball end onto a post on the body of the bass. You cannot
use single-ball strings on a double-ball bass and vice-versa, so  make sure you
know what you need before you buy.
  You also need to buy strings of the appropriate scale. The scale length
of a bass is the distance from the bridge to the nut, ie the length over
which the string vibrates. Most basses are "long scale" or 34-inch scale
length. A few basses, notably old Gibsons, are "short-scale" or 30-inch
scale length. Modulus Graphite basses are all built to a 35-inch scale
length, as are a few other basses. There is also a "medium-scale" or 32-inch
scale length, and some acoustic bass guitars are built to this scale. When
you buy strings, they need to be the same length as the bass they're going
on, so make sure you know the scale of your bass, and buy the appropriate
strings for it.
   Also worth noting is the fact that there are only three major American
manufacturers of strings, and a few more European ones. Although there are
many brands of strings, a lot of those brands buy their strings from one of
the main manufacturers and repackage them under their own name. Thus, there
is less variety in strings than the number of brands available might suggest.
Obviously the advertising does't affect the sound, so shop intelligently
when you go looking for strings.


17. How does a bass pickup work? What is the difference between the
various kinds of pickups?

   A bass pickup works by detecting the changes made by the moving string
in the magnetic field of the pickup. A normal bass pickup consists of one or
more magnets wrapped in coils of thin wire. The vibration of the metal strings
changes the magnetic field of the pickup, and the changing magnetic field
produces a voltage across the two ends of the wire wrap. This voltage can be
detected and amplified by a bass amp, and then converted back to sound by a
speaker.
   This signal needs to be amplified in order to be audible. Passive pickups
do not amplify the signal at all: they require the bass amp to do all of
the amplification. Active pickups contain a small amplifier inside the
pickup housing. This amp boosts the pickups signal to a higher level which
is then sent down the instrument cable into the amplifier. (Good amplifiers
have two input jacks, one for active basses and one for passive basses, to
reflect this difference.)  You can also get basses which have onboard preamps
which take the pickup signal and pass into into an amplifier which is on the
bass but not part of the pickup. These onboard preamps can also contain
tone controls and other electronics; a few expensive active pickups also
contain tone controls inside the pickup housing.
   You can make the pickup stronger or "hotter" by doing any of three things:
using a stronger magnet, wrapping it in more windings of wire, or raising it
closer to the strings. Using a stronger magnet causes the magnetic field
to be stronger, raising the pickup puts it into a stronger area of the
magnetic field, and using more wrappings of wire causes the moving string
to induce a greater voltage difference within a given magnetic field. Any
of these lets the string create a larger voltage differential across the
pickup, resulting in a louder signal. However, they can also have an effect on
the tone of the bass which you may or may not like. Also, if you set the pickup
too high the string can actually hit the pickup casing when slapped or
plucked hard, and this is usually not good.  There is no optimal height
for the pickups: you can put them anywhere you like as long as you are
getting sufficient signal strength and you're happy with the tone of the
bass. You can also balance your pickups by setting them at different distances
from the different strings, which is useful if one string tends to be louder
or quieter than the others. Most basses have bridges which let you adjust
the string height, but this affects the action of the string as well as
the distance from string to pickup. Some pickups allow you to adjust the
height of the individual magnets so that you can set the strings at different
distances from the magnets while keeping the action the same on all strings.
  Pickups come in two kinds: single-coil and double coil. Double-coil
pickups pass the signal through two sets of magnets and wire coils (hence
the name) whereas single-coil pickups use a single set of magnets. The
advantage of most double-coil pickups is that the coils are wired backwards,
and the magnets are out of phase with one another. Since the magnets are
inverted in the two coils, they pick up the string signal out of phase, but
they pick up any noise and hum in phase. Because the coils are wired
backwards, the signal from one of the coils is effectively inverted before
the two signals are added back together: this puts the string signals back
into phase but effectively cancels out any noise that the pickup received.
These pickups are sometimes known as "humbuckers" for this reason. Not all
double-coil pickups are humbuckers, however: you only get the hum cancelling
effect if the two coils are out of phase _and_ the magnets are out of phase.
In some double-coil pickups the two coils are in phase, not out of phase, so
these pickups do not cancel hum in the way that humbuckers do.
  Another side effect of having two coils in one pickup is that the
two coils do not pick up exactly the same signal from the string, since
they are not located in exactly the same place on the bass. As a result,
when the signals are added back together, some of the high frequencies
of the signal are cancelled out along with the noise and hum. This gives
the pickup a particular sound associated with humbucking pickups that some
people find unattractive, but others find desirable.
  Some double-coil pickups do not place each coil under all four of the
strings. These pickups are sometimes called "split coil" and the most
common configuration is to have one coil under the E and A strings and
the other under the D and G strings. The pickup on a Precision bass is
of this type. This pickup design doesn't cancel hum quite as effectively
as a regular double-coil, since the coils are farther apart, but it also
doesn't cause cancellation of the high frequncies of the string signal
since the signal from each string is only picked up by one coil, not both.
  Single coil pickups, split coil pickups, and humbuckers all have somewhat
different characteristic sounds, though, so all three kinds of pickups are
fairly widely used regardless of their noise levels. A bass with two single
coil pickups or in-phase double-coil pickups can also cancel hum if the
if the two pickups are of opposite phase and are set at equal volume: in
this case each single-coil pickup acts exactly like one coil of a double-
coil pickup. Since the pickups are farther apart than the two coils of a
single pickup would be, the high frequency cancellation is somewhat
different, less pronounced but affected more frequencies.Most Fender Jazz
basses are built with two single coil pickups that are out of phase and can
therefore be used to cancel hum this way. Some basses have "phase switches"
which let you change the phase of a pickup's wiring, so that you can get
the "out of phase" sound with the hum cancellation, or you can get the
in phase sound but also get some noise, as you choose.
   Some double-coil pickups also have a switch called a "pickup tap";
this lets you pass the signal through only one of the two coils, thus
converting a double-coil pickup to a single-coil. And some pickups, both
single and double coil, have a switch called a "coil tap" which takes the
signal out of the pickup after passing through only some (usually about
half) of the wire wrap. Since the sound of the pickup is affected by
the number of turns of wire in each coil, having a coil tap lets you
get two different sounds from one pickup.
   Some expensive basses also have non-magnetic pickups call piezo pickups
or piezoelectric pickups. These do not contain magnets: instead, they work
by having a small crystal in the bridge of the bass. When the string vibrates
against the crystal, this vibration produces an electric signal through the
crystal, which is sent out to the amplifier. Basses that use non-metal strings
are built with piezo pickups, and some basses use piezo pickups in addition
to magnetic pickups in order to get more variation in tone. However, piezo
pickups have a much much higher impedance than magnetic pickups do, and
piezo pickups require special onboard preamps or other amplification tricks
in order to sound good.



18. How do I record my bass to tape?

This is a fairly difficult thing to do because most recording equipment
is designed to work best with frequencies higher than those delivered by
bass. However, with the right equipment it is not hard to achieve a
nearly professional quality recording of your playing.

The simplest thing to do is to get a tape recorder with a microphone
input and plug your bass into it directly, or send it your preamp signal.
This will only allow you to record on one track, but it's very easy to do
and most people have the necessary equipment at hand. You can also record
using a microphone placed in front of your amplifier, but you will tend
to introduce extraneous noise and unless you are in a recording studio you
are better off using a direct input.

If you want to record multiple instruments, or multiple tracks of a
single instrument, you will need to obtain access to a multi-track
recorder. You can buy four-track recorders at most large music stores,
and professional studios have 16, 24, or 32 track recorders.

Once you have access to a recorder, the main decision you have to make
is whether to send your bass signal to the recorder directly, to pass
the signal through a preamp, or to send the signal to speakers and use
a microphone to record the sounds from the speakers.

If you go direct, you will need to convert your signal into a form that
the recorder can take as an input. This can be done using a tool called a
direct box, which most studios have, which will convert it to a balanced,
low-impedance signal of the form that most recorders expect, but leave it
otherwise unaffected. Or, you can use your own preamp to raise the signal
to line level plus doing whatever effects processing you like. Your preamp
may have a balanced output, or if not, you can run the line level signal
into most direct boxes as well. However, if you are in a studio the engineer
may have access to line-level effects like equalization and reverb which are
better than those found in floor effects or preamps. If you can get the
engineer's attention for 15 or 20 minutes consider using the studio's
quipment instead as you can get better performance from studio equipment
in many cases. The drawback to so doing is that it takes time, plus you
have to explain to the engineer how you want the sound to be whereas your
preamp is under your own control.

Another common problem is providing a constant signal from the bass. In
particular, if you do a lot of slapping and popping, or you like to play
chords on your bass, you might have a hard time recording a clean track
without a compressor. A compressor will quiet down the louder notes you
play and boost the quiet ones to produce a constant volume in the
recording. If you don't have access to a compressor, you can try to
simulate this by adjusting the recording volume as you play the track
(or having a friend do it) You can also increase the volume of a bass
solo the same way: turn the recording volume up for the solo, then turn
it back down when the solo is over.

You might also want to use noise reduction to eliminate signal noise, either
from your bass and amplifier, or from a compressor if you use one. If your
recorder has dbx then you don't have to be so critical of the signal
level because dbx noise reduction gives you about 90db of dynamic headroom and
almost no tape hiss.

You will find that some of the notes you play on the instrument are louder than
others. This is called the "sweet spot". Most instruments have them, though
graphite necks can reduce or eliminate them. Your recorder should have
a VU needle or other indicator that will tell you how much volume is being
recorded. Adjust your level so that the VU needle does not spend too much
time in the red zone of the indicator: this is an indication that you are
playing loudly enough to damage the recorder.

19. What are some popular effects for bass and what do they do? Is there
a difference between guitar effects and bass effects? In what order
should I plug them together?

There are five main effects for bass, plus some others that aren't as
widely used. They are: compression, distortion, delay, reverb, and
chorus/flange. Most of these effects come in both analog versions and
digital versions. Analog effects act upon the incoming signal directly,
modifying it to produce the output. Digital effects convert the incoming
signal to a pattern of zeroes and ones (hence the name digital). The
resulting code is processed and the new code is converted back to a
signal. Digital effects are typically cleaner and have fewer side effects
than analog ones do. They are also considerably more flexible as patterns
of numbers are easier to manipulate than electric signals are. However,
analog effects are usually cheaper, and to exactly replicate the sound
of players from the 70's and earlier who used analog electronics, you
have to use analog effects yourself. (Digital effects weren't in common
use until the late 70's, and weren't commercially available until the
early 80's.) However, either one is fine for use with bass. They will
sound a little different, so try both kinds and choose the one you
prefer.

Effects come in two kinds, those designed to work with instrument level
signals and those designed to work with line level signals. Floor boxes
are almost always designed for instrument level, and rackmount effects
for line level. However, check and make sure you know which you have.
It is possible to damage your effects, especially floor effects, by
running the wrong level signal through them.

There isn't all that much difference between guitar effects and bass
effects and you won't damage anything by running a guitar through a
bass effect or vice versa. However, bass effects are designed to work
better on lower frequencies than guitar effects are, so you will usually
get a better sound by using an effect designed specifically for bass.

Most effects devices have several names. Where there aren't too many
the following paragraphs try to give them all, along with the reasons
for using one rather than another. However, if you are in doubt, ask
the salesman what an effect does and you should usually be able to
recognize it as one of those described below.

Compression is an effect that keeps the signal strength of your
instrument constant. It can work in one of two ways: it can reduce
loud signals, or it can amplify quiet ones. Compressors usually have
both functions; effects that only quiet loud signals are called limiters
and effects that only amplify quiet ones are called sustainers.
Compression has two purposes. First, it keeps your volume level constant.
This is used in recordings where constant volume is desirable, and it
protects amplifiers and speakers from having an excessively high signal
sent to them that could burn them out. (Most amplifiers have limiters
built in, which is why they don't get louder beyond a certain point when
you increase the volume control.) Second, they increase the sustain of
your instrument; as the string vibration begins to die down, making
the signal quieter, the compressor raises the quiet signal, making it
sound as it the string is continuing to vibrate. The drawback to compressors
is that they eliminate sharp changes in the level of your sounds. This tends
to destroy slapping, popping, and other percussive sounds, and it also
alters the individuality of your sound by changing the attack and the
muting of your fingers.
Most compressors have three knobs: one which controls how quickly the
compressor will react to changes in the incoming signal (usually
labeled attack), one controlling how much the compressor will boost
the signal (sustain or compression) and one controlling the level the
compressor will try to attain (level). Manufacturers tend to adopt their
own methods of labeling knobs on effects boxes; your mileage may vary.

Distortion causes your sound to become more "crunchy" or "grungy". What
it does is to clip the high peaks off your signal, which makes the wave
more like a square wave (which has the characteristic buzzing sound of
distortion) and emphasizes the higher frequency harmonics of the signal.
In the old days, distortion came from driving an amplifier close to its
limit, thus trimming off the high peaks naturally, and you can still obtain
distortion this way. Tube amplifiers clip more gradually and more gently
than transistor amps do: this causes the resultant distortion to sound
different. Most people prefer tube distortion to transistor distortion,
though not all do. You can drive either the pre-amp or the power-amp to its
limit with most amps: you will usually get better distortion by overloading
the power amplifier, but try it both ways and see what you get. Be careful
not to blow out your amplifier this way, however; turn it up high enough
to get distortion but no higher. If your amp has a limiter, you may
not be able to do this at all. (Players also used to get distortion
by playing with speakers which had rips in the cones. It is not recommended
that you try this.)
Distortion pedals clip your signal in a more artificial way but produce a
similar tone. They usually have three knobs, one which controls the mix
between noise and instrument signal, one which controls the tone of
the distorted signal, and one which controls the output level. (Names
of knobs varies too widely to permit suggestions.)

Delay effects take the incoming signal and send it out repeatedly,
with intervals ranging from microseconds to 30 seconds or more. They
can be used to add fullness to your sound, to produce doubled parts
without having to hit each note twice, or, with long delays, enable
you to accompany yourself by playing a 30-second part through a 30-second
delay and then playing a second part over it! Delay boxes usually have
three knobs: one controls the time between repeats (delay), one controlling
the falloff in volume between repeats (level), and one controlling the
number of repeats given (repeats).

Reverb effects are similar to delay effects, but mix in a very large number
of very quick, quiet repeats. They simulate the effect of playing in a
small room, where the sounds from the instrument reflects off the walls,
creating a large number of rapid echoes. They usually have the same
three controls as a delay box, which work about the same way in principle
but will have quite different effects on the sounds.

Chorus and flange effects both simulate the sound of having multiple
instruments playing at once. Consider two basses playing the same part.
They will not be perfectly together; they will be very slightly out of
tune and the players will hit the notes at slightly different times.
A chorus pedal simulates this effect by taking an input signal and
duplicating it, with the duplicate signal slightly delayed and slightly
out of phase with the original. In addition, the amount of delay and
phase shift varies over time. This is designed to simulate the second
player being slightly off from the first one.
The difference betwwen chorus and flange is one of degree only; chorus
pedals use small delays and phase shifts to produce a very subtle
effect. Flangers use even smaller delays but vary the length of the
delay and the phase changes to produce a more noticeable effect. If
you turn on a flanger and don't play anything, you will hear a characteristic
"whoosh" sound which is the result of certain frequencies being cancelled
in the two signals before being sent to the amplifier.
Choruses and flangers usually have three knobs; one to control the extent
of shift produced by the effect (depth), one to control the rate at which
the shift changes (speed) and one to control how much of the second signal
is mixed together with the first (level or intensity). Cheap choruses
will omit the latter knob. Some choruses will have a fourth knob which
controls the overall signal from the effect as well.

Many effects boxes, most commonly choruses and delays, contain a stero
split which allows you to send the original or "dry" signal to one
amplifier and the affected or "wet" signal to another. This is commonly
used to send the dry signal to the PA and the wet signal to the stage
amplifier, or vice-versa. Or it can be used to power two different
stage amplifiers to get a stereo sound, though this involves lugging
twice as much equipment around.

Most players use the following sequence for their effects: compression
first, then distortion, then chorus/flange, then delay, and last reverb.
However, there is nothing magical about this ordering, and you should
feel free to experiment with alternate orderings to get different sounds.

For more information on effects, consult the excellent book "Getting
Great Guitar Sounds" by Michael Ross, which discusses the acoustic
properties of electric instruments and the workings of amplifiers
as well as effects.

20. What is the difference between digital and analog electronics?

There are quite a number of differences between digital and analog
electronics, which make analog better for some applications and digital
better for others.

First, a little information on bass signals. When you pluck the string
on your bass, it vibrates back and forth. The vibration of the string
causes sounds waves to be transmitted through the air at the same pitch
as the string, and that's what your ears detect as sound. The idea of
amplication is to get an electronic representation of the string's
vibration, and then make the amp's speaker vibrate in exactly the
same pattern, thus creating the same sound as the string (only much
louder :)
The job of the pickup is to "read" the position of the string at any
moment in time, and translate that into a voltage. When the string is
not moving, the voltage is zero and there's no sound. The faster the
string is moving, the higher the voltage is, and moving in one direction
induces a positive voltage and the other direction, negative. Thus, as
the string goes back and forth and back and forth, the voltage in the pickup
goes positive and negative and positive and negative. This voltage signal
exactly replicates the movement of the string, so we now have an electronic
"picture" of the string's movement which we can send on to the amplifier
and speaker.

En route, we are going to want to process this signal. At the very
least we want to amplify it, ie, make it louder. We may also want to
apply equalization or compression, or even a delay or chorus effect.
There are two ways to do these sorts of things; analog, and digital.
Analog techniques use physical electronic effects to convert the
signal, using magentic fields, capacitors, and so forth. Digital
effects use computer circuitry to create a mathematical representation
of the signal, and then manipulate that signal mathematically. They
then convert the processed signal back to a physical representation
to send to the speaker. Converting the physical representation (ie,
the pattern of the voltages from the bass) into a mathematical
representation (a series of numbers stored in the computer circuit)
is called digitization. Our earlier pattern of voltages going positive,
negative, positive, negative gets translated into a series of numbers,
something like 1, 0.6, 0, -0.6, -1, -0.6, 1, 0.6, 0, -0.6, -1, -0.6.
Since those numbers are now stored inside the computer circuit, you
can do anything you like with them before you send them over to the
speaker to be converted back into sound.

For an amplifier, the analog method of amplification involves either
a vacuum tube or a transistor. Without going into the details of the
physics, what happens is that the amplifier runs two signals through the
vacuum tube/transistor. One is the incoming signal from the bass, and the
other one is the outgoing signal to the speaker, which is much more powerful.
The job of the tube or transistor is to exactly copy the voltage of the
bass signal onto the speaker signal, which is then sent to the speaker
where the physical signal is converted back to sound.
In a digital amplifier, the electronic signal from the bass is digitized,
but there isn't any manipulation of the digital signal. It's just sent
over to the speaker circuit and sent out there unaltered, except with
more power.

The real power of digitization is that you can do anything you want
with those numbers. Wanna send the signal out backwards? No problem,
just reverse the sequence of the numbers. Effects like delay, reverb,
chorus, and flange are very awkward to create using magnetic fields
and circuits, but very easy to produce using a computer with a memory
bank. That's why most of the uses of digital technology have been in
effects boxes or processing equipment like MIDI, rather than amplifiers
or basses. However, if you have a digital amplifier already, then it's
real easy to build in a digital EQ or reverb while you're there. You've
already digitized the signal, so you may as well play with it. There is
even one company that makes a digital pickup now; it uses a laser to
detect the position of the string and converts that directly to a
digital signal onboard the bass.

Why use digital electronics? Three main reasons. First, they're very
powerful; numbers in a computer are a lot easier to manipulate than
voltages in circuits. Second, they're much less subject to noise and
interference than analog electronics, because they're not relying on
magnetic fields and other physical effects that can be disturbed by
grounding problems, radio interference, or other Bad Things in the
area. They're also not subject to signal degradation inside the
circuit, as analog electronics are. This is the same reason that CDs
are so much better than analog cassetes. Third, they're much easier to
miniaturize than analog electronics are. Analog reverbs are huge.
Digital reverbs can be easily packed into a stomp box.

What are the drawbacks of digital electronics? They're expensive.
Essentially, any digital effect box or amplifier has a small computer
built into it to do the mathematical processing. However, as the cost
of computer technology continues to drop, so will the prices of digital
effects, pickups, and amplifiers. So there will be a lot more digital
equipment coming down the pipe in the next 5 or 10 years. Probably not
so much in pickups - it is likely that people are going to stick with
analog pickups because the way they color the sound of the bass can't
be easily digitized - but there will soon be all-digital preamps with
digital effects built in, and that sort of things. And it will all
work its way into the combo amps in time as well.


21. What do the ratings of amplifiers and speakers mean? What is a watt, or
an ohm? What factors must I consider in connecting amplifiers to speakers?

Any electronic circuit has 3 properties of importance: voltage, current,
and resistance. (Plus some more based on these three). As you may know,
electric current consists of electrons moving along the wires. Voltage
is the amount of energy carried by each electron. Current is the number
moving passed in each second. The total power of the circuit is given by:

Power = voltage * current

thus, increasing either the voltage or the current will increase the power
of your amplifier.
Resistance is the tendency of a circuit to resist the flow of electrons
(hence the name). The formula for resistance is:

Resistance = voltage/current, or,  current = voltage/resistance

Thus, for a given voltage, a circuit of high resistance gives low current,
and a circuit with low resistance gives high current.

Voltage is measured in volts: you get 110 volts out of the wall (220 if
you're in Europe). This is usually transformed by the amplifier to some
other voltage, and there's not much you can do to change it. However, you
can alter the resistance of the circuit by changing the resistance of the
speakers. Changing the resistance will change the current flow, and therefore
the power of the circuit. Resistance is measured in ohms: typical speakers
and cabinets have 16, 8, or 4 ohms resistance. The current of a circuit can
be deduced from these. Power is measured in watts: most amplifiers have
the maximum amount of power they can deliver in the name somewhere (ie a
Crate B-20 can deliver 20 watts of power). How loud you are depends on
how many watts of power your are delivering.

Substituting the second equation above into the first one yields:

Power = (voltage^2) / resistance

which gives the relationship between resistance and power delivered,
assuming the amplifier's voltage is held constant. In fact, the delivered
power of an amplifier may be less than this if the amplifier is not properly
matched to the load it is driving. Most amplifiers are designed to drive
a 4 ohm load of speakers. If you use speakers of more or less resistance
than the designed load, you will not get as much power as you would get
driving the designed load, and if you supply your amplifier with too little
resistance, you may blow it up. It is always best to supply your amp with
speakers of exactly the resistance it was designed to drive.

Say you have a 55-watt amplifier driving a 4 ohm speaker (which might
be typical). If you replaced the 4 ohm speaker with an 8 ohm speaker,
you would double the resistance of the circuit, which would halve the
current flow. Since power=voltage*current, this would cut the power
in half; thus, your 55 watt amp would only be delivering 27.5 watts.
This is not so efficient (nor so loud), which is why you would have the
4 ohm speaker in the first place... Conversely, if you put in a 2 ohm
speaker you would double the current, and double the power to 110 watts,
if the amp was designed to handle a 2 ohm load. Most amps aren't, meaning
that in practice you would probably get much less that 110 watts.

Why wouldn't you want to have as low a resistance as possible? The answer
is that this would increase the power of the circuit (by increasing the
current) and electric components can take only so much power before they
blow up. Amplifiers and speakers are both rated by the maximum amount of
power they can take without going crispy. Thus, if you have an amp which
delivers 100 watts into 4 ohms, and you attach a 2 ohm speaker to it which
is rated for 120 watts, you will now have a circuit carrying 200 watts of
power whose components can only handle 100 (amp) and 120 (speaker). Something
will fry in short order. Thus, you want to make sure the resistance of your
speaker load is high enough that your amp can take the total power of the
circuit, and each speaker can handle its share of the load.

If you have only one speaker, that speaker is carrying the entire power
of the circuit. However, if you have more than one speaker (and they are
wired in parallel, which they should be) the load is divided between them.
If both speakers have the same resistance (ie, it is equally hard to push
power through them) then each will take half the power, and the total
resistance will be half the resistance of either speaker. (If you have
N identical speakers with R ohms, the total resistance is R/N.) So,
if you have an amplifier which delivers 50 watts through 8 ohms (meaning
that it delivers 100 watts through 4 ohms, or 25 through 16 ohms) and
you hooked it up to two 8 ohm drivers, the total resistance would now
be half of 8 ohms, or 4 ohms, and the amp would put out 100 watts, with
50 going to each speaker.

If the speakers do not have the same resistance, then more of the power
will be pushed through the low-resistance speaker. The formula for the
total resistance of two speakers with resistance R1 and R2 (again, assuming
they are wired in parallel) is:

R = 1 / [ (1/R1) + (1/R2) ]

So, if you are hooking a 4 ohm speaker and an 8 ohm speaker together in
a cabinet, the total resistance will be 1 / [ 1/4 + 1/8 ] = 1 / [3/8]
= 8/3 ~= 2.67 ohms. Thus, an amp rated for 100 watts through 4 ohms would
put out 150 watts under this speaker load. The power is divided among
the speakers in proportion to the resistance: in this circuit the 4 ohm
speaker would get 100 watts and the 8 ohm speaker would get 50 watts.
If you hook together two 8 ohm speakers the resistance is 1 / (1/8+1/8)
= 4, as said above.



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