Parts and Pieces

Parts and Pieces thumbnail

You might not realize it, but an electric bass consists of between 100 and 250 parts. Most are wires and electrical parts, screws, washers and so on. But there are some major components that you should know about.

Body
The body can be solid, hollow, or a combination in which a hollow body has a block of wood running lengthwise down its center for strength and a more robust tone than a hollowbody. A body can be made of just about anything solid (some have been made of metal), but the most common material is hard wood such as maple, alder, ash, and mahogany. If the wood is especially beautiful, the finish may be clear or lightly tinted so that the character of the wood shows through. In other cases, a solid-color paint is applied, and you don't see the wood.

In addition to having a lot to do with the sound, different body shapes will feel more comfortable (or uncomfortable) to you than others. Check this out by playing different basses sitting down and with a strap. Take your hands off and see if the bass slips, slides or moves. Some basses look great, but will drive you nuts when you have to play them for four hours a night. Keep that in mind.

Neck
The neck is usually made of one or more pieces of strong wood (such as maple). Some high-end bass necks are made from graphite composite or exotic woods. In addition, the neck can either be glued into a slot in the body, screwed onto it (often referred to as a "bolt-on neck"), or built into the body, passing through its entire length. Each approach has its pros and cons and contributes to the sound of the instrument. A bolt-on neck can sound warmer, but notes do not sustain (last) as long as a bass with a "through-body" neck. A through-body neck gives a bass an extra bright sound. A glued-in neck is somewhere in between. These are generalizations. Let your ears be the final judge.

Inside most necks is a truss rod, which is a curved piece of steel with a screw or nut at one end (at the body or at the head). Because strings are tuned up so that they are very tight, they pull on the neck, and this can cause the neck to bow a bit. Adjusting the truss rod straightens out the neck and makes playing easier.

Fingerboard
The neck often has a fingerboard, a piece of wood that is glued to its front. Fingerboards are most often ebony, rosewood, maple, or another extremely hard wood. The hard wood is necessary because strings can scratch the surface and the oils, acids, and sweat from your skin are really nasty to softer woods.

Frets
On the neck are 20 to 24 thin strips of metal that run from one side to the other. These are called frets. The number of frets determines the number of notes that can be played on each string, and therefore the total number of notes that can be played on the instrument. Is more better? Not necessarily, especially when you're a beginner. Most of a bass player's work is low notes, so the really, really high notes aren't as important, unless someday you become a heavy-duty soloist.

When you hold down the string against the fingerboard, the frets become part of the action: The higher up the neck you go (towards the body), the higher the note, and each note is determined by the nearest fret.

Head
The head, or headstock, can be part of the same piece of wood or other material carved into a neck, or it can be a separate piece glued onto the end of the neck. In either case, it is usually made of the same material as the neck. It has to be strong because it holds the tuning machines (or, simply, tuners) and has to stand up to the stress of the string tension when the strings are tuned up.

Tuners
Attached to the head are tuners (also called tuning machines or machine heads), where the other ends of the strings attach. The tuners are geared to make tuning easy and precise. To tune each string, you turn the key on the tuner where the string is attached. When you tighten the string, its pitch (the note you hear) gets higher. When you loosen the string, the pitch gets lower. You can watch the tuning post turn as you turn the key on the tuner.

Bridge and Tailpiece
On the body is a bridge and sometimes a tailpiece, where the strings are anchored. Sometimes the bridge and tailpiece are single unit, or they can be separate. In other instances, strings go through the body and anchor to the back, so there is no need for a tailpiece to hold the strings.

Pickups
There are usually one or two large bars attached to the body beneath the strings. They have magnetic coils that pick up the vibrations from the strings when you pluck them, and send the signal through a wire, called a cord, to the amplifier, where it is amplified. More expensive basses with two pickups often have a selector switch that lets you choose which pickup (or both) gets to pick up the strings' sound. Some basses have a blend control instead of a selector switch, so that you can mix the pickups in any amount you want.

Controls
Basses typically feature a volume control and a tone control so that you can adjust the loudness and take some of the brightness out of the tone. In addition, some basses have separate bass and treble controls, much like a home stereo, and this gives you more options for shaping the tone because you can add depth and adjust the brightness independently.

Output Jack
This is where you plug in the cord to connect the bass to an amp. All guitars and basses use the same 1/4" phone jack, so a guitar cord is the same as a bass cord.

Pickguard
Most basses have pickguards. In most cases, the pickguard is there to mount the pickups and controls rather than to protect the finish from pick scratches.

Strap Buttons
Important, but not to the sound, are strap buttons. These are usually attached to the end of the body and to the top "horn" of the body. The location of the strap buttons is no accident: When you attach a strap and then hang the bass from it, the instrument should balance so that the neck doesn't drop to the floor. This isn't always the case, so keep your hand on the neck... just in case. It's also a good idea to use some sort of strap locking system, too. As a strap wears out, the "buttonhole" gets sloppy and the bass could slip off when you least expect it (like in the middle of a pogo). The resulting crash could be costly.