68hz what's the lowest note that can be heard on bass guitar

Well, that response of 68 Hz on the low end is based on some arbitrary rolloff like -3dB, so that doesn't mean it won't put out a 42 Hz signal, just that it will be at a much lower volume. But a bass guitar note is not a flutelike sine wave, but a complex tone composed of many harmonics. Drop out the fundamental and your ear will still "hear" the fundamental frequency based on the series of harmonics derived from it. That's why we hear bass from little radios with tiny speakers that can't possibly put out the low fundamental frequencies of a guitar, let alone a bass. Our brains do the work.

Interesting, and quite mind-blowing. I never thougth about that. Tiny speakers generally can't put out the root but can put out an octave (or octaves) higher so we can "hear" the note.

Our brains do the work.

Glad to know mine's still doing something. :) I've been supecting it of slacking off lately. It certainly didn't do much of a job of understanding your intriguing explanation. :( ( Memo to self: read up some more audio information.)

The only small snippet I can add is that when I went for a bass lesson yesterday the teacher had a 5 string bass and the 5th string was actually even lower than the E rather than higher. It was a lower B string.

I'd read somewhere that some 6 string basses often kept the '5 steps' tuning thing going and had a C and an F after the G string, so I hadn't thought about them going the other way, but according to this site, some go down to F#, two strings below the low E. Get thumping away on that and you could sure rattle the kitchen crockery. :wink:

Bass guitar tunings

Anyway, the teacher's 5 string was definitely a bit more of a challenge to the amp than my conventional bass.

Cheers,

Chris

I've been after a 5-string bass for a while - haven't found one yet that's had me reaching for my wallet. I play a lot of songs in A (or thereabouts) so a 5-string bass sounds good to me - I like the idea of being able to play D root notes on the bottom string.

I think most bass players - especially those with guitar experience - tend to use mainly the bottom two strings when starting out, after all that's where you know those root notes from guitar!

In my concert-going experience - 99.99% of which has been to see loud rock bands - I'd say you don't quite HEAR the bass as much as FEEL it!

And this is just curiosity as well - aren't there monitors especially for bass?

:D :D :D

Vic

I've been after a 5-string bass for a while - haven't found one yet that's had me reaching for my wallet. I play a lot of songs in A (or thereabouts) so a 5-string bass sounds good to me - I like the idea of being able to play D root notes on the bottom string.

I think most bass players - especially those with guitar experience - tend to use mainly the bottom two strings when starting out, after all that's where you know those root notes from guitar!

In my concert-going experience - 99.99% of which has been to see loud rock bands - I'd say you don't quite HEAR the bass as much as FEEL it!

And this is just curiosity as well - aren't there monitors especially for bass?

:D :D :D

Vic
I'd have to agree with that, I think our hearing tends to get worse as we age and while we may not be able to hear the really low frequencies we can certainly feel them.

The low B on a 5er goes down to ~30hz ... if your amp can't reproduce it, then you can't feel it let alone hear it.

But you can always add a good 18" sub.

Corbind; usually you don't put a lot of the bass guitar into the monitor mix because the bass frequencies are more or less omnidirectional - you can hear them just about anywhere on stage. Drummers sometimes like to have a bass cab near them so they can zone out on what the bassist is doing, but floor monitors or stage monitors are usually for vocals and maybe the main rhythm instrument.

Maybe it won't be a problem or at least anything to concern yourself about.

Unless of course your bassist is playing through a POD or other modeler and those two new cabs are going to be part of his rig.

I agree with DemoEtc, monitors are primarily important to hear vocals. If you can't hear yourself you will sing off-key. All instruments are usually quite easy (to say the least) to hear on stage. It's the vocals that can't be heard.

One problem with bass is that the sound waves are much longer (I believe). Oftentimes a bass player standing near their amp thinks they cannot be heard because they are not hearing much bass. It can be quite different out in the crowd, oftentimes a bass player will bury the rest of the band. This is a very common occurance. I have read that you really don't hear the bass until you are at least 30 feet away from the amp. So the bass player cranks up loud and all the audience can hear is the bass.

We were fortunte our bass player didn't drown us out at the gig yesterday. All of us ran through the PA and monitors.

Had another gig Saturday and I thought the bass player could have been louder through the PA. Apparently it was plenty loud for him standing in front of his stack.