Fender bass guitars have long influenced the sound of music. When Leo Fender introduced his Precision Bass in 1950, it marked an exciting innovation that replaced cumbersome double basses previously required to perform on stage.
Locating the ideal bass guitar to meet your musical style and budget can be daunting, but Sweetwater makes the process simpler with detailed filters designed to assist in finding one that best meets them both.
Body & Neck
Fender offers a wide selection of bass guitars that will meet all your bass playing needs, from practice sessions to live performances. Beginner bass bundles include essential accessories necessary to start playing; while more experienced players might consider our American Player or California Series basses which boast professional features for an enhanced playing experience.
A bass is typically constructed out of either wood or metal, while its neck and fingerboard typically consist of either ebony or maple wood. Furthermore, its pickups often feature either split-coil or humbucking design pickups for optimal sound production.
Single-coil pickups feature two pole pieces per string while humbucking pickups have three. Humbucking pickups produce a stronger, more focused sound suitable for rock music or genres with heavy distortion.
Another key element when purchasing a bass is its neck size and shape. U-shaped or “baseball bat necks”, as they’re more commonly known, are designed for players with larger hands; Fender offers other neck styles like C-shaped and tapered necks as well.
A nut is a small piece of material that sits between the headstock and fretboard, lifting strings away when playing notes. A fretboard is a long strip of wood with metal frets inlaid into it which indicate where fingers should go to play specific notes. Fret markers may also help indicate where fingers should go during their performances.
Output jacks on bass guitars allow you to plug the cord directly into an amplifier for power. Most bass guitars feature one or multiple output jacks; others may offer multiples. Strap buttons allow you to secure it to your body during playing; tone control and volume knobs let you customize its sound level as well.
Hardware
Fender offers an incredible range of bass guitar models to meet the needs of musicians of every level. From the powerful growl of a Precision Bass to melodic versatility of Jazz Bass models, Fender instruments have long been part of music culture’s fabric.
Finding your dream bass guitar can be both thrilling and overwhelming! To make this process simpler, we suggest checking out Fender Play – our comprehensive online learning platform offering bite-size lessons with step-by-step guided learning paths to get you playing songs and developing musical abilities quickly.
The Precision Bass was the world’s first-ever electric bass guitar and completely replaced cumbersome double basses that performers had to transport before it. With its signature sound ranging from rock’n’roll and funk to Motown and beyond, its dual single-coil pickups became key components to many genres’ sound. You can further personalize its signature sound through different hardware upgrades depending on which genres interest you most.
In the 1960s, the Jazz Bass was created to add a melodic sound to bass’s lineup. Its single-coil pickups are slightly warmer than its counterpart on the P Bass, producing full, vibrant tones suitable for Reggae to Jazz Fusion styles. Furthermore, this sleek instrument can be customized by upgrading its hardware with strings-through-body bridges for increased sustain and tuning stability, Pao Ferro fingerboards for increased brightness or strings-through-body bridges for improved tuning stability.
Add high-mass bridges with Schaller Elite fine-tuners on four-string models or Gotoh high-mass bridges on five-string models for extra tension and stability, custom designed padded pickguards with extra cushion, string trees for increased tension and stability as well as felt strap buttons and output jacks to take your bass to a whole new level of playing!
Electronics
One of the key components to a bass guitar’s sound is its pickup system. While early Precision Bass models only featured one single-coil pickup, many current models boast multiple configurations of pickups that allow players to produce different sounds – and sometimes styles altogether; for instance a slap bass might use only its neck pickup while fingerstyle basses might combine classic P-Basses with modern Jazz basses to produce new fingerstyle-based sounds and styles such as fingerstyle bassists who combines vintage P-Basses with modern Jazz bridge pickups as they create various styles from these combinations of pickups that produce unique sounds – making bass music accessible to even beginners who might otherwise not play bass guitar at all!
Fender introduced their Jazz Bass in 1960 and quickly made an impressionful mark across jazz, funk, and rock genres. With its distinctive design and twin single-coil pickups generating brighter tones than those found on its Precision counterpart and better articulate notes for better slap or fingerstyle techniques – its popularity quickly spread beyond jazz music to rock, soul and country as well.
The Jazz Bass comes in both four-string and five-string models, featuring either a maple neck with a narrower C-shape profile and 22 medium-jumbo frets, or mahogany necks featuring modern C shapes with 22 medium jumbo frets; others feature mahogany necks featuring modern C shapes with “clay”-style dot position markers on a rosewood fingerboard; Fender also manufactured several “Boner” models that featured pearloid dot position markers glued directly onto rosewood fingerboards featuring pearloid dot markers onto one-piece maple necks; these instruments were popular among bassists such as Jaco Pastorius from The Pastorius Guild and Les Claypool from Primus.
Fender’s American Standard Precision Bass models previously utilized a passive split-coil Jazz Bass neck pickup (three pole pieces toward the neck and two towards the bridge) with one volume and tone control until 2008. Since then, however, these basses can now come equipped with either an additional single passive split-coil Precision bass middle pickup or passive humbucking Jazz bridge pickup as well as an active three band EQ featuring master tone control as well as blend controls for each pickup pickup.
Squier’s version of the Jazz Bass, later known as the Precision Bass Lyte in 1984, featured an innovative pickup volume control that moved forward when needed to accommodate for its top-mounted jack socket – much like early 1960s Jazz Basses – as well as an enhanced, streamlined tuner which increased sustain and tuning stability.
Sound
Fender bass guitars are tailored specifically to specific styles. If you want to replicate the signature sound of one of your favorite artists, check out signature models like Jaco Pastorius Relic Jazz Bass or Troy Sanders Jaguar Bass; these basses feature similar playing feel and tone as their namesake artists, making it easier for newcomers to pick up and play them quickly.
The bass guitar has long been an integral component of musical genres ranging from rock to metal, jazz and even blues. Its distinct rumble and depth add a distinct and singular sound, giving your band or ensemble its signature sound. Our bass category filters can help you locate one suitable to your genre of choice.
Pickups play a vital part in creating the sound and tone of a bass guitar, so selecting one tailored to your individual needs is paramount. A single-coil pickup like that on the original Precision Bass remains popular and produces an impressive array of tones; alternatively, split coil pickups may provide you with even greater tonal variety by producing classic P bass tones to modern, punchier ones.
Notable features on bass guitars include their fretboard, which features markings to indicate where each fret is located. This makes learning scales and chords much simpler, enabling you to start playing songs immediately once your instrument arrives in your hands. In addition, maple neck models offer additional smoothness and sustain.
More advanced bassists may opt for five- and six-string basses. With extra strings to explore a wider variety of notes and increase creativity when creating music, five- and six-string basses may provide more opportunities. While fingerstyle techniques may work best for some bassists, others might prefer using picks. It is wise to have multiple types of picks available so as to experiment with fingerstyle techniques when creating music.
Additional essential bass accessories to consider include an amplifier that allows you to access all the tonal options of your instrument and develop your skills, headphones for quiet practice sessions and a strap to keep it secure during initial stages of playing.