The process of buying your first guitar may be tedious especially when you are not used to it. It requires decisive decisions before you make your purchase. In order to make your decision, you have to first understand what you want and visit forums collecting necessary information that will aid you in obtaining the right bass guitar for you. In this article, I will provide you with detailed tips on how to buy the right bass guitar.
If you are an amateur and you don’t know this, you may think that all guitars have same kind of neck. On your first attempt, you will encounter bewildering variety of necks offered by different guitar maker. In this, you can decide to narrow down into three major factors; neck joint, type of woods used and the profile of the neck. Commonly used neck woods include; Mahogany, Rosewood, Maple, Basswood and Pau ferro. The neck joint should be considered because this is the point which withstands pressure and stress that is generated when installing and tensioning of guitar strings. Neck joint also determines the tone of the finished instrument. Therefore, you should go for carefully designed and constructed neck joints. Examples of guitar neck joints are: Bolt-on Neck, attached to the slap body with four wood screws. Set Neck, the neck is glued to the mounting point. And the third kind of neck joint is the Neck through Body, limited in use to solid-body guitars.
Neck profile is also very important. It determines how your hand and fingers fit the neck and the way they are moving from fret to fret. Fret influences the tone and play ability of the guitar. Examples of neck profiles that are available are. C shape where the neck profile is oval, U the neck profile is almost rectangular in shape, and it is most common many Fenders and is suitable for players with long fingers. The other neck profile is the V neck; this provides a comfortable groove down the middle.
The popular bass guitar are available in three broad categories in terms of body style: hollow-body style, solid-body style and the semi-solid body style. Solid-body style bass guitars are suitable for loud amplification and lots of effects. Hollow body style guitars are also known as jazz guitars and are used in providing acoustic sound. One of the problems associated with this kind of guitars is that they are susceptible to feedback at high level of amplification. The third and the last one, semi-hollow body style bass guitars are mostly employed in acoustic sound of the guitar with high level of amplification is required. Knowing the purpose and the kind of sound that you require will guide you determine the kind of body style that is suitable for you.