Acoustic bass guitar

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The acoustic bass guitar is a lute instrument of the guitar family and is tuned like an electric bass or double bass .

Five-string acoustic bass, manufacturer Ovation . Phosphor bronze strings, tuning, H-, E-, ADG. A piezoelectric pickup is built into the bridge, invisible from the outside. In the body there is a battery-operated preamplifier with tone control and tuner
Six-string fretted Stoll acoustic bass in action

In colloquial language, the acoustic bass guitar is often referred to only as an "acoustic bass". The construction of the acoustic bass is mostly similar to a western guitar , but has a slightly larger body. It has to be distinguished from the bass guitar , which is built on the one hand with two necks and on the other hand as a bass instrument of the classical concert guitar .

Since the 1950s, the electric bass has established itself as a more handy alternative to the double bass. It has the disadvantage that it can only be played electrically amplified due to the lack of a resonance body . An alternative was the acoustic bass, which has this resonance body and can therefore be played without amplification. It looks like an acoustic guitar. It is mainly available in a four-string version, sometimes also as a five- or six-string. Like an electric or double bass, the instrument is tuned in fourths throughout . As a four -string in , E-, ADG - as a five-string mostly with a low ,, H-string, rarely with a high C-string.

Since most acoustic basses differ little in their body volume from a normal guitar, they are often equipped with a pickup to ensure the necessary assertiveness. For reasons of sound, piezoelectric pickups are used almost exclusively .

The Stoll acoustic bass is an exception, although its body shape is based on the shape of the guitar, but its dimensions are much larger than other acoustic basses. The increased body volume enables a powerful sound even without amplification , although the Stoll acoustic bass is usually equipped with a McLoud pickup.

In the 1970s, the Ernie Ball Incorporation Company in the USA built the so-called Earthwood Acoustic Bass, which, due to its size, is also a fully-fledged acoustic instrument. However, production was stopped in the early 1980s. The best known user of the Earthwood acoustic bass is Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes .

The transitions to similar types of instruments are fluid. On the one hand there are “semi-acoustic” instruments with tiny resonance bodies that are acoustically suitable at most for practicing (for example the Höfner - “ Beatles Bass”, made popular by Paul McCartney ). These are usually equipped with conventional steel or nickel strings and electromagnetic pickups. On the other hand, there are also instruments that are in the direction of the electric double bass or double bass in terms of size and sometimes also in their structure (spikes, tailpiece, F-holes) (for example the Takamine B10 model ).

In Germany, Alexander Holz , who can be seen in the picture with the Stoll bass, and Ralf Gauck , who often performs solo , stood out on the acoustic bass .

literature

  • Teja Gerken: acoustic guitars. Everything about construction and history, GC Carstensen Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-910098-24-4 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Acoustic Bass Guitar  - Collection of images, videos and audio files