the bass guitar
Hampshire Guitar Orchestra » Guitars » hago's guitars » bass guitar
An Aria AC-75B with D'Addario strings.
The cedar front and deep body give a warm sound.
The bass or B-bass guitar
hago's bass guitars take the role of the 'cellos. Don't confuse our B-basses with a pop-group's bass guitar - these are a different animal entirely!
B-bass? That's only a term to avoid confusion between the Niibori bass and the contrabass, which is sometimes just called a bass guitar when it is used in a "requinto / guitar / contra" orchestra. So, having defined the name B-bass, we can now dispense with it again! As far as hago is concerned, we just call it a bass.
About...
The bass is 700mm from nut to bridge.
It's tuned 4 notes lower than a Classical Guitar, but the neck is only about 2 frets longer, meaning that the strings are quite a bit thicker. Four of the strings are wound and two are monofilament nylon.
The bass is particularly comfortable to play, and although it only adds four notes to the bottom end of the hago sound, the instrument is warmer than a Classical Guitar and has a usefully long sustain. The sound is very much rounder than a 8-string Classical with a standard body can achieve.
Where the bass fits in the guitar family
Interested in trying a B-bass guitar? It plays from conventional notation. See our Playing
Tips
If you live in Hampshire, West Sussex or Surrey, why not come to one of our rehearsals and try one?