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Hi, welcome to the world of Fender. My name is Ray Riando and today we'll be discussing the electric bass.
Fender really revolutionized the musical community when it came out with the Precision Bass in 1951,
and today we're going to be talking about the Precision Bass and the hardware, the amps,
and actually playing exercises, and you will even get a chance to play with the band today.
So I hope you enjoy the tape, hope you have a lot of fun, and let's get started.
I'd like to take a moment to describe the parts of the electric bass,
starting with this area here, what's referred to as the headstock,
and on the headstock we have the tuning pegs, the actual tuners,
and getting to the neck area, we have the plastic, which is the nut, this is the actual neck,
and inlaid in the neck, the metal pieces are what's referred to as the frets,
and where you'll actually play on the neck is just behind the frets, the fretted,
so like first fret you're going to be actually playing in this area.
Moving up on the neck, we have the body of the bass,
and we have the pickups of the bass, which just pick up the vibrations of the strings when you attack them,
that's what gives you your sound, we have what's called the bridge,
and we have two controls on the bass, we have a volume control and a tone control,
and I'll give you an example of the volume,
which is just like your knob on your stereo, the volume turns it up and down,
and then I'll keep it up for a second, I'll show you the tone control,
and you'll notice a subtle difference in the highs to lows,
see I got a lot lower there, and it'll go back to the high, higher end,
and you also have two pegs, which are the strap holders, which hold the strap,
which you can see that just fastens on, one is here on this part of the body,
and the other one is on the back end of the bass.
Now I'd like to take some time to describe the amp to you,
now Fender makes a wide variety of amps, different speaker configurations and different features and such,
this particular amp that I'm playing through today, I'll describe the features of this amp,
all the amps have your input jack, your quarter inch input jack,
and this amp has, you have your volume control, you have a bass control, you have a mid control,
a treble control, and a nice feature on this amp, you actually have a jack for a headphone,
so those late night practices at your apartment, you won't disturb anyone,
so you can play with your headphones, and then you have the actual on and off switch, the power switch.
I'd like to give you examples of each of the knobs, and I'd like to start with,
first of all with the EQ, I'll just leave it what's called flat, just in the middle,
and I'm going to start with the volume control, and you can hear how this works,
again, just like you're on your TV or your stereo, just turning up in volume,
so I'll start it low, and we'll just move up a little bit at a time.
Okay, so we'll start with the volume, here we go,
and back down, okay, I'm going to put that back up to the middle position,
and I'll give you an example of the bass knob, same thing,
it's going to go up in volume with the low end of the speaker of the instrument, so here we go, back down,
okay, we'll put that back to the middle, and we'll give you an example of the mids,
and this is a little bit of the bass control and the treble mixed, so here we go,
we'll put that back up to the middle, and lastly we'll do the treble,
and this is going to be your high end of the amp, here we go,
and those are your controls.
Okay, I'd like to show you some examples of how the tuning process works.
First, you need to know the names of the strings, the lowest string, the closest to you,
is the low E string, the E string.
The next string over would be the A string, the adjacent string is the D string,
and the highest string, or farthest away from you, would be the G string.
Okay, for purposes of tuning also, one thing that works really good,
you can use an open string, so going back to the E,
but sometimes just because of the low frequencies and the nature of the strings,
sometimes it's hard to register on the actual tuner.
What works really good is using a harmonic.
How you do a harmonic is, we will do a 12th fret harmonic on the E string,
and how you do that is you're just going to touch the string over the actual fret,
over the metal, the 12th fret, so where the double dots are,
and you're just going to touch it and not press down to the neck,
and then you're going to pluck with your right hand, and that would be a harmonic,
which gives you the same note but higher in pitch that really registers very well on the tuner.
Let's start with the tuning. Let's start with the low E, so I'll go ahead and hit that,
and as you can see on the tuner, it's right where we want it to be to show that it's in tune.
The green light comes on and it stays right there,
meaning it's not sharp or not flat, meaning it's in tune, so there's the E.
The nice thing about this tuner that I wanted to say too is it picks up whatever string that you're playing,
and you don't have to change it for each particular string,
so let's go ahead to the next string over, which will be the A string,
and we'll go ahead and pluck that, the harmonic,
and again the green light comes on right in the middle, showing that the A is in tune.
To the next string, which is D, again we have the green arrow, meaning in tune,
and we'll do the last string, G, and again we have the green arrow.
Let me show you an example of what it looks like if the string is out of tune a little bit,
so I'm going to go ahead and detune this, and I'm going to hit the G,
and as you can see, it's lighting up red on the left side of the arrow,
meaning the string needs to come up, so I'm going to go ahead and turn the tuning peg up in pitch
until I get the green arrow, which I got, meaning it's in tune.
And let me show you the flip side of that, I'm going to go ahead and tune it a little sharp or up,
and as you can see, it registered on the right side, meaning that you need to come down in pitch with the tuner,
so I bring it down until I get the green light, and you're in tune.
Okay, now that I'm in tune, you can tune to me, and I'll give you the pitches, starting with the low E,
the next string, the A string,
the next string, the D string,
and lastly the G string.
I'd like to talk about the right hand technique, and I will also discuss the actual notes on the neck.
Okay, starting with the right hand technique, it's very important to be comfortable,
and just kind of rest your arm across the body of the bass,
and what's real important is to have just kind of a foundation spot for your thumb,
that you always, kind of home spot that you always go to that you play,
that you'll get very comfortable with the distances of each of the strings from where your thumb is.
A very common place for this is the pickup, the actual pickup where I'm resting right now.
As far as playing the string, we'll just start with the index finger,
and what you want to do to get the tone is you just want to hit the string and play across the string,
enough to get the string to vibrate, so the pickups can pick up the vibration that gives you your sound,
and as you can see, I'm not really hitting it too hard or too soft,
you just kind of get a medium feel across the string,
and go ahead and practice that across all four strings, the A string there,
and another thing if you notice, when I play the higher strings, after I pluck the string,
the following string lower, I let my finger rest on,
and it deadens that string so there's no overtones or any unwanted sounds.
We'll go ahead and do the D string,
and the G string.
Okay, let's talk a little bit about the notes on the neck.
As far as left hand technique, as I stated earlier,
where you want to play is actually right behind the actual metal of the frets,
so for first fret where you're actually going to play is right behind the metal,
and you're just going to press down evenly to get the pitch of the string,
and another point I might add on that, the thumb plays an important role on the left hand also,
the thumb should be the only thing touching the back of the neck,
you don't want to put your wrist or anything on the back of the neck,
and what that does is that creates a thumb on the back of the neck,
it creates a nice arch in your fingers that allows you more dexterity and playability with your left hand,
so again, if you notice if I grab the neck, you kind of lose the arch that you want,
so the thumb, the only thing back there, and then you come around,
you press the string, almost like you're pressing towards your thumb with the neck in between.
Okay, let's talk about the actual notes of the neck,
starting with the low string there, we have it open, will be the E string,
and then if we go to the first fret of the E string and press that note, it's the F note,
and we're going to move up in half steps, which is just moving up one fret at a time,
if I move up second fret, that will be F sharp,
move up a fret to the third fret, that will be G,
then we have the fourth fret, G sharp,
and then we'll have the fifth fret, A,
now on the fifth fret, that fret on all strings is going to be the same pitch as the next string's higher open,
so the fifth fret on the A will be the same pitch as the next string open, which is also A,
and you can hear those two, if you're in tune, should sound the same, same pitch.
Okay, now we'll start with the second string, the A string,
we have the A, open A, first fret on the A string would be the A sharp,
the second fret on the A string will be the B,
the third fret on the A string will be your C,
the fourth fret on the A string will be the C sharp,
and the fifth fret on the A string will be the D,
and again, that D on the fifth fret will again match the next string over, open D, same pitch,
two different ways to play the same note.
Okay, let's do the D string, we have the open D,
first fret on the D string is D sharp,
second fret on the D string is E,
the third fret will be F,
the fourth fret on the D string will be F sharp,
the fifth fret on the D string will be G,
and again, the next string over from the fifth fret will be G, open, the same pitch.
Okay, lastly, the G string, we have the open G,
first fret on the G string is G sharp,
the second fret on the G is A,
the third fret will be A sharp,
the fourth fret on the G string will be B,
and the fifth fret on the G string will be C.
Okay, a couple of the notes in there that I want to discuss, all the sharp notes,
what you have is the letters used in music are just the alphabet A through G,
so you have A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and the whole process starts over in a cycle like that.
Those are called natural notes, and all that it refers to is it's a note that is not sharp or not flat,
so it's just like if you have an E, there's an E, an F, there's an F.
Okay, the other things I want to address is the sharp note that we were talking about.
The definition of a sharp is if you take a natural note and move it up one half step the very next fret,
you get that note sharp. For instance, the first fret on the E string is an F.
If we move that up a half step, we get F sharp, and that's the definition of the sharp.
So if the F, move it up a half step, that would be an F sharp.
There's also what's called a flat, which is just the very opposite, is a natural note lowered one half step.
So if we go up to G, the third fret on the E string, and we take that note down a half step in pitch,
we get a G flat, so G to G flat.
That particular note that can be both a sharp and a flat is called an enharmonic note,
and don't let it get too confusing. It's just actually the same note. An F sharp is played here because of the F sharp,
and also a G flat. It's the same note.
So let me just go through one more time, and I'll tell you both of the notes, the sharps and flats, too quickly.
So we have the open E, natural note, first fret on the E, F, natural.
Then we have the second fret, which could be an F sharp or a G flat.
Then we have a G, G sharp or a flat, and then A natural.
On the A string, we have the A natural open, first fret, A sharp or B flat, second fret, B natural.
Now when we get to B, there's not going to be a B sharp, because B and C, the two natural notes,
this is one place that it occurs where the two natural notes are next to each other.
So from the B, we go right up to C, and then on the fourth fret on the A string, we have C sharp, D flat.
The fifth fret, we have D, which is the same as the open D.
Okay, first fret on the D string is D sharp or E flat.
Second fret is E natural, and this is the only other place where the natural notes are close to each other,
half step apart, is the E to the F, so there is no E sharp.
Then the fourth fret is F sharp, G flat.
Fifth fret is G, which leads us to the last string, open G.
Then we have first fret on the G, G sharp, A flat.
Second fret is A natural.
Third fret is A sharp, B flat.
And then the fourth fret is B natural.
And then that B to C, the half step, so fifth fret is C natural.
And that's your notes on the neck.
Okay, I'd like to talk a little bit about position, hand position,
and I'd like to address what is called half position, which borrows from upright stand-up bass.
And what this entails is just the actual fingers that you use on the neck.
The position itself is simply this, playing the first fret, and we'll go with the E string, with your first finger.
And we'll go ahead and play the second fret with your second finger.
And the third fret, we're going to play with the fourth finger.
Now at first, the fourth finger is going to be a little weak.
Your fingers are probably going to be, the index finger is going to be the strongest, and they're going to get weak as they go.
But when you press for the fourth finger, you can actually use the third finger to help press down that string, which really helps a lot.
And what we're going to do is we're just going to take that and go across each of the strings, first finger, second finger, to fourth finger.
So let's start that. Let's go first finger, E string, second finger, fourth finger.
Same thing on the A string. First finger, second finger, fourth finger.
D string, second finger, fourth finger.
G string, first finger, second finger, fourth finger.
And those notes will entail what is called half position.
A really good exercise to do at this point, too, would be to simply play that and ascend it across all strings where you're going up.
And just try to play real even, evenly and cleanly.
And when you get to the G string here on the top, it's just to go ahead and descend that line, so take it back down.
And this will help in dexterity and to help build up the speed while playing.
I'd like to discuss the first position, which is simply taking the half position and moving it up a half step, so taking the same pattern.
And this entails playing the second fret with the first finger, the second finger, the third fret.
And with the fourth fret, we'll play the fourth finger.
And you use the same fingering across the neck, across each string.
Second finger, third fret. Fourth fret, fourth finger.
And so on across all strings.
And we'll go ahead and descend it like we did with the other exercise. Take it back down.
First finger, second fret. Fourth finger, fourth fret. And so on.
Across all strings.
And that's the first position.
Okay, I'd like to show you a blues pattern using half position.
Okay, the first note of the blues pattern is going to be on the E string, which is going to be the G note.
Third fret, which we're going to go ahead and play with the half position fingering, which would be the fourth finger on the G.
The next note in the pattern will be the second fret on the A string, which we'll play with our second finger.
Third note of the pattern is the open D string.
The first note of the pattern is on the D string, second finger, second fret.
And the last note of the lick is going to be the third fret with the fourth finger.
That'd be the F note.
Okay, I'm going to go ahead and play those notes slow, and I'm going to go ahead and ascend it, take it up, and descend it, take it back down.
I'm going to use the notes real slow with the fingering.
Okay, again, you just want to take it slow, play as evenly and cleanly as you can.
The speed will come later as your dexterity gets better, the strength in your hands.
I'll go ahead and play that blues lick up to speed.
Again.
Okay, the next thing I'd like to do is take that same blues lick, and we're going to play it through a blues progression.
And what we're going to do is we're going to play the lick we learned in G.
And then we're going to take that same pattern, we're going to move it over to the next string over starting on C.
So the next notes in the pattern will be the C with the fourth finger, second fret on the D with your second finger, the G open,
second fret on the G, third fret on the G. So here's the C pattern ascending and descending.
The third chord of the progression playing over the D was going to be these four notes, the open D,
then the fourth fret on the D string with your fourth finger, the second fret on the G with your first finger,
and the fourth fret with your fourth finger on the G string.
So those four notes.
Okay, next I'd like to put it all together and we'll show you the progression.
Okay, here we go, starting with the G.
We're going to play the G again.
We're going to go to the C.
Back to the G.
Now the D.
First position to the C.
Half position. Back to the G.
Now we'll play that with the band.
Next I'd like to discuss a little bit about note values.
That is actually in your booklet, the examples that I'm going to show you.
I want to talk about the timing. Time is real important with the bass for every musician,
especially the bass, locking in with the drummer, interacting with other musicians.
As far as note values, I'd like to start out with talking about 4-4,
which most of your popular music is in 4-4, meaning you're going to have four beats.
There's usually four beats per measure, so four clicks, like one, two, three, four.
Those are actually called quarter notes.
It takes four quarter notes to equal one measure, so you have four beats per measure.
You have the one, two, three, four. Those are the quarter notes.
That whole process, when you combine measures, just repeats itself.
The one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, and that's how you count quarter notes.
Let me go ahead and play quarter notes, and I'll go ahead and click with it so you can hear what they sound like.
What you want to do is just kind of match the pulse, or the beat, or the click.
Here's the quarter notes with the notes.
One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
Those would be quarter notes, so you're just matching the beat.
The next note duration that I'd like to talk about is a whole note.
Four quarter notes equals a whole note.
That, you're going to attack the first beat and let it ring for the next three beats.
It still fills up the measure, but you only attack the first note.
I'll count in four quarter notes, and then I'll actually play the whole note with the E string.
We have one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
As you can see, you just let the note ring for the duration of the measure for the whole note to equal the four quarter notes.
The next note I want to talk about is the half note, which is just half of the whole note.
That entails two quarter notes equal a half note.
You're going to play on beat one and beat three in this example, and let it ring for two and for four.
I'll count you in again with the quarter notes for four, and then I'll show the example of two measures of half notes.
One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
The last thing I want to talk about is the eighth note.
The eighth note equals, you get two beats per quarter note.
You have your quarter note pulse, the one, two, three, four, and we're going to fill that space with two notes.
Most commonly, that's counted with ands, so you're going to have one and, two and, three and, four and.
Here's an example of the eighth notes, and I'll count in for one measure.
One and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and.
It's a good idea to work on those with a click, with a drum machine, or if you don't have any of those items.
Just, again, play as evenly as you can.
The next thing I'd like to show you is an actual bass line using the eighth notes.
The notes you'll be using are the E, the B on the A string, the G on the E string, the C on the A string.
The next four bars are the E again, then the B on the A, to the G on the E string, to the F on the E string.
We're going to play all those notes with the eighth notes again.
The count's going to be one and, two and, three and, four and, for each measure and for each note.
So I'll count it in with one measure and then I'll start playing.
One and, two and, three and, four and.
To the G.
To the C.
Back to the E.
The B.
To the G.
To the F.
I'll play that same example with the band.
One and, two and, three and, four and, for each measure and for each note.
Another common technique used by bass players is using a pick to pluck the strings instead of your fingers.
And what that does is it actually gives you a different type of sound.
It gives you more of a, less of a subtle sound, more of a defined sound.
A lot of rock players use a pick to get that real defined, bite, cutting edge sound.
The way you hold a pick is just between your thumb and your index finger.
And as far as plucking the actual strings is we're just going to do all downstrokes.
So just like when we played with our fingers when we went across the string pulling up is we're just going to take the pick and let it go across the string going down.
And again with the pick you just want to work on getting a clean, even sound.
And for the example of the pick is we'll go ahead and we'll do the eighth note exercise that we just did and I'll go ahead and play that using a pick.
So I'll count in the eighth notes and then I'll play the example for you.
So we have one and two and three and four and.
To the.
Okay, next I'd like to address the subject of octaves and an octave is just simply.
Playing one note and we'll say, for instance, the G on the E string.
And that sounds the same as the open G with that string, except it's a pitch higher.
You can hear those two notes sound the same, but there's a higher pitch and a lower pitch, both the same notes G to G.
Another way that you can play that same two notes is you could actually use the G on the fifth fret instead of the open G for the higher pitched octave.
So we still have the low third fret G to the fourth finger on the fifth fret of the D string, which is also G, which is your octave.
So again, G to G, that would be an octave.
And that occurs in more places on the neck, all over the neck.
You could start with the F, we could do its octave.
And that shape you can actually memorize the actual shape of the higher octave.
So it's a whole step up from where your first finger is and you just skip one string will always give you your higher octave of whatever note it is.
So there would be the F. I'll go ahead and move that up to G again.
And there's its octave G.
Go ahead and move up to A, its octave.
We could do a couple on the A string. We could do the third fret on the A string, which is C and its octave, C on the G string.
Move up a whole step to D.
Next, I'd like to show you an actual bass line using octaves.
The notes on this bass line is going to be the fifth fret on the A string, which is D and its octave, seventh fret on the G string.
We could go down on the A string to the second fret, to its octave on the G string.
Up a half step to C, third fret, its octave, then up a half step to the fourth fret, to its octave.
So we put that together.
Move that up to speed.
And we'll go ahead and do that same pattern, but we'll start on the lower string on the E string.
So fifth fret on the E string, to its octave, to the second fret, to its octave, third fret E string, to its octave, to the fourth fret, its octave, to the fifth fret.
Up to speed.
As you can see, it's very effective for bass lines.
Next, I'd like to talk about playing with a drummer.
It's real important, the marriage between the kick drum and the bass.
A very effective bass line utilizes that marriage playing real together.
We will show you an example of how that works with two bass lines, number 12 in your book and number 13.
And I'll go ahead and play these for you without the drums, and then we'll cut to playing with the drums so you can see how it really works with the kick drum.
But the pattern is, number 12, the first pattern goes as follows.
Two, three, four.
And the next pattern uses the open E, and that pattern is as such.
Two, three, four.
Okay, now let's try those with the drummer.
Okay, I'd like to take a second and talk about the right hand again and utilize the two finger technique.
Now we discussed the first finger technique with the index finger, and what we're going to do is just go ahead and add the second finger.
And you're just going to alternate fingers, playing with the second finger the same way you did with the first, just across the string.
And I'll just show you an example.
We're going to play first finger, second finger, just back and forth, again, cleanly and evenly as you can.
A really good exercise is just to take that pattern and just move it to the next string over.
And just work on the alternating.
Go to the D string, and you can start with either finger.
The starting point doesn't matter.
The G string, maybe back down.
And you can really build that up, keeping it consistent and even.
Next is an example using the two finger technique, plucking technique, with an actual scale, the pentatonic scale.
And this is in your booklet, and the fingering for this is the seventh fret on the G string with your fourth finger,
to the first finger on the fifth fret on the same string, to the fourth finger on the D string, so the first three notes of it.
And then we're going to go back one note, back to that first finger, fifth fret, to the fourth finger, seventh fret, to the first finger, fifth fret.
So we have...
And we keep that same sequence, as you'll see in the book, across all the strings.
And then the last two.
Okay, I'll play this all together for you.
Okay, and up to speed.
I'd like to explain the shuffle feel.
The best way to get the shuffle feel is to drop the middle note from the triplet.
So if we have our triplets that we're playing...
And that's the feel of the shuffle sound.
Next I'd like to show you an example of a groove using the shuffle feel.
The notes being used would be the open E, to the G sharp, fourth fret on the E string,
to the B with your first finger, the second fret on the A string,
and the C sharp, the fourth fret using your fourth finger on the A string.
So those are the notes, and with the shuffle feel we get...
Up to speed.
Next I'll show you that same example through the E blues changes with the band.
I'd like to discuss the general maintenance and care of your bass.
One of the common questions about the bass is where to store the actual bass when you're not playing it.
And I would definitely not store the bass anywhere that you yourself wouldn't be comfortable.
Extreme heat, extreme cold can really mess with the wood.
Don't forget it is a wood instrument, so you want to keep it out of the extremities.
There's a couple things to look for too that can happen with the neck being that it is wood,
and it kind of fluctuates from time to time.
There's an actual metal bar called a truss rod that goes through the middle of the bass, through the neck,
which can be adjusted if the strings are too high off the neck, or if the neck's bowed, if it's not straight.
That's an adjustment that if you feel that your bass needs I would definitely take to a Fender specialist, dealer.
It's something I wouldn't suggest doing on your own.
The action itself that I spoke of just has to do with how high the strings sit off the neck.
And the action, if there's a problem, say for instance if the strings are too low,
the action could literally be where the strings are just lying on the neck, where you're going to get a lot of rattle,
you're not going to be able to get the tone when you actually play the bass itself, the neck.
And the other extremity of the action is if it's too high.
If you find that it's really hard to play, hard to press down on the neck when you play the instrument,
the action could be a little high.
On the bridge itself you can adjust the saddles, these are called the saddles,
and those will go up and down too to give you a little fine-tuned adjustment.
So if it needs a fine-tuned adjustment you can start with the bridge,
if it's something where you can literally, you can usually tell, you can see the neck if it's bowed one way or the other,
it's a good idea to take it in and have somebody look at it.
Another common thing is just to, it's a good idea to keep your bass clean.
You can use polish to clean the instrument, which is a good idea, wipe it down after you're playing it.
Especially the biggest thing that can happen maintenance-wise to the bass,
it's virtually if you keep it clean it's pretty maintenance-free.
The biggest thing that occurs that's real common is after a while playing with the oils in your fingers,
it's just the strings start to lose their brightness of their sound and they go what's commonly called as going dead.
They just kind of lose the good tone qualities.
But strings themselves can last a long time if you really keep them clean.
It's real important to, before you play, make sure your hands are clean, don't eat a big pizza and start playing.
You want to definitely keep your hands clean.
And after you play, a really good idea to get in habit starting early of just wiping down,
you know, just take the cloth and just wipe down the strings.
Just kind of get the oil or any buildup that's on the strings and they will last, should last for a really long time.
So that will really help with that.
The other thing, when they do go dead or you feel that you want to change the strings,
I'll give an example of that and we'll go ahead and we'll change the high G string here.
And to take a string off, you're simply just going to go down to the tuning peg
and you're going to detune it like you did when you were tuning, going low.
And I go ahead and just, we'll turn that down, start pulling this off.
And it might be on there a couple of rounds.
So another thing that people do too is you can literally just cut the string in half to take it off,
which when you unwind this a couple turns, it's really easy to pop the rest of the string off on that half.
And on this half, it's easier to pull.
You've got obviously less of the string to pull through the bridge piece to take the actual string off.
I would recommend keeping the string intact.
And I usually just hang on to the last set of strings that I had on the instrument and keep them in my case
just in case if you do break a string or something happens where you need to replace a string,
you have your last set on hand.
So after we take it off the post, we'll go ahead and string it through the bridge.
And I kind of just hold it up because you don't want to scratch the actual body.
It's a good idea to hold it away from the instrument.
Let's pull this through.
So we're going to replace the G string.
A little bit about strings.
You see I'm using the Fender strings here.
Gauge is something, another option that you have as a bass player.
And what I recommend in the beginning is what's called, if you go to ask for a set of strings,
is just to kind of get what's called like standard gauge,
which gives you it's a string that's not too thick and not too light.
And after you play for a while and you get a feel for the instrument and the strings,
you might want to move to a heavier gauge string,
which gives you what it implies, a much heavier, thicker string that can give you a darker sound.
Or a lot of people might prefer that they play with a light touch or whatnot to have like a lighter string.
But I would definitely start with just the standard gauge and kind of get a feel for what you like as a player.
Go ahead and pull the G string.
They come wrapped, so you'll unravel it.
And the ball end is the end that's going to go through, hang on to the bridge.
So we'll take the other end.
There's an actual hole in the bridge, and you just stick it through the hole here.
And again, we'll just pull it up to keep it away from the body.
Go ahead and pull this through all the way.
And the actual string in the saddle that I referred to earlier, there's an indentation where the string is going to rest.
So when we start tightening up, we want to make sure that the string is resting on that.
Let me take this end.
Now, another thing that's real common as far as stringing the instrument is cutting excess length off the string.
Now, at the beginning, this can be kind of scary because you don't want to cut too much extra length off.
But a good rule of thumb is to actually take the string and just pull it, taunt.
From the post is to visualize three more post lengths of the string.
And that's usually where I cut it.
And that'll give you a good couple, two, three, four windings instead of like a lot of windings, which people prefer.
It helps keeping the string in tune to have fewer windings.
But you definitely want at least like two windings.
If you're unsure, go ahead.
It'd be good to have the string too long and too short.
You don't want to take the chance. So that will get better as you change strings.
I'm going to go ahead and cut just a little bit off the end here.
Now we're going to take the actual end, and there's a hole right in the center of the post that I'm going to stick the string in.
And then right where the indentation is, I'm going to bend it across and make an L with the string.
And I'll pull that back out.
And usually what I do is I just exaggerate that L and just make sure it's straight there.
So that'll hold it in place a little better.
Stick that back down.
And then you can, I usually make the first winding without the tuning peg.
Just put it around the post.
And what we're going to do that's real important is we're going to start from the top of the post.
And when I wind, I want the strings to go in layer going down.
A good way to remember that is you want the string, when it comes off the nut, to actually pull down.
And the way that it's going to do that is if the wind starts at the top and leads its way to the bottom.
OK, so I'm going to go ahead and start tightening this.
And with my right hand, you can see I'm just kind of guiding it on the post itself,
making sure that it just goes in layers there right underneath the previous winding.
Now you'll notice too another thing I'll point out is on the D and G strings, on the higher string,
there's another little post that helps guide, again, off the nut.
We want the strings going down to hold them onto the neck really good.
And you make sure that that's going to pull under the post.
So now that we have the string on the base itself, we can go and tune it to pitch.
And again, I'm plugged into the chromatic tuner.
So I'm going to go ahead and hit the 12th fret harmonic.
And we'll see where we're at.
OK, the actual note reading is F, so we know we need to come up and get it to start reading the G for the G string.
And now we're on G, and it's to the left, so we need to bring it up to match the green.
And there we go.
We've got the green light, so we're in tune.
Another thing that you can do is when you first put a string on there,
it's kind of good for them to get used to being on there and stretch a little bit.
So you can kind of take the string itself, and not hard, but just gently kind of pull up
and let it kind of work in to being on the base, kind of stretch a little bit.
And you can do that a couple times in tune.
And as you can see, since I stretched it, it went flat again.
But if you do that a couple times, that'll guarantee that you're in tune.
OK, there you go.
You're now in tune.
OK, we just changed one of the strings.
And something I'd like to address is when changing all the strings,
it's very important to just do them one at a time,
not to take all the strings off at one time, just to take one off, one on.
And the reason for that is we want to maintain the tension that's on the neck
throughout the process of changing the strings.
By taking them all off, you can change the tension, and we don't want to do that.
We want to keep it the same.
So that's a tip that you want to do all the time when you're changing strings.
This concludes the lesson.
This tape detailed the beginning of bass,
giving you some examples to work on to get you started,
to get you familiar with the instrument itself.
I would strongly recommend, for further study,
there's a lot of great books on the market out there available, videos.
Interacting with other people is real important.
It's important to have fun with your playing, you know,
get together and jam with other people in your neighborhood,
bands, guitars, different things like that.
I would also recommend getting with a teacher in your area
and keep continuing with the lessons, which is real important.
And again, I can't stress, you know, have fun with the instrument.
And I had fun today, and I hope you had fun too, and we'll see you next time.
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