The bass or B-bass guitar
hago's bass guitars take the role of the 'cellos in our orchestra. And 'cello just about sums it up - the bottom note on our basses is one semitone below the bottom note on the 'cello.
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.
Soundclips
- Here's one of our bass guitars, showing how a Tornavoz improves the sound (four bars without and 4 with a Tornavoz)
- And here's the bass duetting with an alto in The Beatles' Here There and Everywhere
Where the bass fits in the guitar family | How big is a bass guitar?
Interested in trying a B-bass guitar? It plays from conventional notation. See our Playing Tips