Bass guitar
A stringed instrument, usually electric, that produces low-register notes and commonly anchors a song’s bass line and rhythm.
Electric bass guitar: A bass guitar whose strings vibrate across magnetic pickups to produce an electrical signal. The solid-body electric model is the instrument’s most common form.
Bass line: A sequence of low-pitched notes that supports harmony and rhythm in music. The bass guitar is commonly used to perform this musical part.
Paul Tutmarc: An American musician and instrument maker who developed an early electric bass guitar in the 1930s. His Audiovox 736 bass was an early fretted, amplified design.
Walking bass: A jazz bass line that moves steadily through chord tones and connecting notes, often one note per beat. Bass guitar can carry this line in jazz ensembles, especially in amplified settings.
Bass strings: Thick, low-pitched strings designed for bass instruments, commonly made with metal windings around a core. Their length, gauge, and winding determine much of the bass guitar’s feel and tone.
Pitch (music): The perceived highness or lowness of a musical sound, corresponding closely to its frequency. Low pitch is the defining register of the instrument’s usual role.
Audiovox 736 Bass Fiddle: A fretted electric bass introduced by Paul Tutmarc in the 1930s and produced in small numbers. It anticipated the later commercial electric bass guitar.
Funk: A popular music style built around strong grooves, syncopated rhythms, and repeated bass patterns. Prominent, rhythmically intricate bass lines are central to many funk recordings.
Magnetic pickup: A transducer that converts the vibration of ferromagnetic strings into an electrical signal. It turns string motion into the signal amplified by most electric bass guitars.
String instrument: A musical instrument that produces sound through vibrating strings. Bass guitar belongs to this broad family of instruments.