+ Am I too young/old to learn the bass guitar?

No, you can never be too old to start something new. Learning a new instrument is a very rewarding experience. Toby's Music Lessons teaches students from the ages of six upwards, the bass guitar is a big instrument so may suit adults better but short-scale basses are available. One point is playing the bass guitar does require finger dexterity so if you suffer from arthritis in the hands, see if you can play a guitar first before committing to see if it hurts.

+ How long will it take me to learn the bass guitar?

The wonderful thing about learning music is that there is always something new to learn. The best musicians in the world will say that they are still learning every day. Go at your own pace, learn the music you like and appreciate other people’s perspectives. Music is not a competition – it’s an art. It’s an old saying but when it comes to music, the more you know, the more you realise you don’t know. A great book that illustrates this point is ‘Zen Guitar’ by Philip Toshio Sudo.

+ Is bass guitar harder to learn than acoustic/classical/electric guitar?

Even though they look similar, the bass is played differently to the guitar. The bass is a bit like musical drums - rhythm is the most important thing, but you also need to have all of the scale and harmony knowledge that guitarists have in order to create melodic bass lines. The bass is a bigger instrument than the guitar too so it takes more time to be able to feel in control of it. On the other hand, it's easier for a beginner to pick up the bass and be able to play something than it is for them to pick up the guitar and play something.

+ What’s the difference between a ‘maple’ fingerboard and a ‘rosewood’ fingerboard?

Basses generally come with maple (blonde in colour) or rosewood (dark brown in colour) fingerboards, maple and rosewood have different tones. Maple is bright and punchy and rosewood sounds soft and warm. It all depends on what sort of sound you’re after. An important note is that rosewood fingerboards are un-lacquered so will occasionally need a clean with lemon oil to condition the wood and stop it from drying-out and cracking so lemon oil is occsionally used. Maple necks do not need lemon oil.

+ What are the different bass guitar pickups?

The three main types of pickups are:

'p' pickup 'j' pickup 'mm' pickup A p-pickup refers to a Fender Precision bass pickup. This is two single-coil pickups that sit next to each other close to the neck of the bass. The p-pickup gives a full, warm sound favoured by bass players like Sting, James Jamerson and Pino Palladino. The p-pickup does not work too well for slap bass or a fretless bass because it does not have much treble Flatwound strings work very well with p-pickups.

A j-pickup refers to a Fender Jazz bass pickup. This is a single-coil pickup, and they put one at the neck-end and one at the bridge-end of the body. Because the bass has two individually controlled pickups, a wide variety of tones is available and it works for most styles of music. This pickup setup is favoured by many bass players such as Flea, Jaco Pastorius, and Adam Clayton (U2).

A p/j pickup combination has a p-pickup in the neck position and a j-pickup in the bridge position. This means you can get the warm full tones of the p-pickup, and the high-end bite from the j-pickup. This is becoming more and more popular with bass players because of the versatility of tones. A popular bass player who uses a p/j pickup combination is Victor Wooten.

A mm-pickup refers to MusicMan basses which typically have a big 'humbucker' pickup located in the bridge position. A humbucker is essentially two j-pickups cased together with opposite magnetic polarity. This means that any hum coming from one pickup will be cancelled out by the other one (hence "bucking the hum"). These pickups are usually louder than j-pickups and have no signal hum. The sound is described as being very 'fat', but the tone has more high-end than a p-pickup. This bass is favoured among rock bass players because the sound cuts through a band well. Flea used a MusicMan bass, as well as the early Pino Palladino fretless work he did with Gary Numann.

+ What is the difference between active and passive basses?

Active pickups use a battery to boost them. Active pickups are louder than passive pickups and have a fuller tone. The problem is that the active electronics will not work if the battery is dead (most basses will have an active/passive switch though). It is usually easy to see if a bass is active or passive because active basses will have battery compartments on the back of the bass.

+ What is the ‘action’ of a bass guitar?

The action of a bass refers to how high the strings are from the fretboard. Ideally, you want quite a low action because the higher the strings are, the harder the bass will be to play.

+ What is a ‘truss rod’?

A truss rod is a metal rod that runs down the inside of the neck and helps to keep it straight. If you notice a bow in your neck between the 8th and 12th fret, an adjustment of the truss rod will help to straighten it up and make it easier to play. Be careful when adjusting truss rods though because a ¼ turn the wrong way could snap the neck. If in doubt, take it to a professional in a guitar shop.

+ What is a ‘tone control’?

Tone controls will change your sound from ‘muddy’ to ‘tinny’. They work by filtering out the high-frequencies of the sound. If the control is on 10, there will be no filter, if it is on 0, most of the high frequencies will be filtered out, it’s like turning down the treble setting on your tv or stereo.

+ Should I play the bass with a pick or my fingers?

Ideally, you want to be able to do both because they offer different sounds. Other ways of playing the bass are slap bass and palm muting.

+ What’s the best way to clean my bass guitar?

Lemon oil and microfiber cloths. Lemon oil. This will clean off any dust and finger gunk but is gentle enough not to damage the paint, lacquer, or hardware. There is a good guitar cleaning kit in the Recommended Equipment section.

+ Are my fingers supposed to hurt?

They will with the bass. The strings on a bass are very thick and and you will get blisters at first. Your fingers will toughen up though. If they hurt when you play, just have a little break, wash your hands, make a cup of tea and give your fingers some time to recover. If you get a blister do not pop it; the skin underneath the blister is still growing and it will be very painful if you try to play on this fresh skin. The blister bubble will go down in one day and your fingers will be tougher afterwards. If you really struggle with blisters, consider stringing up your bass with flatwound strings, they are much smoother to touch than roundwounds and will not rub on your fingers as much.

+ Will loud music damage my hearing?

Yes. Prolonged loud noises will damage your hearing. Always use earplugs when playing live with drummers. Hearing is the key sense for playing and reacting to music. Take care of your ears and use plugs!