4 String Bass Guitars Electric

Four-String Bass Guitar Buying Guide

Body Style: Most electric bass guitars are solid-body guitars. Some guitar makers also sell semi-hollow body and hollow body bass guitars that have a rounder, acoustic-like sound.

Pickups: Bass guitars have passive or active pickups. Passive pickups give the instrument a full, warm tone. Because you don’t have as much control over the guitar’s tone, its low-fi sound is punchy and fat. Active pickups make a bass sound more percussive, clear and bright. The battery-powered pre-amps that are built into the guitars give them a higher output. However, it is important to keep in mind that pickup sounds are subjective, as everyone hears differently.

Electric bass guitars also have humbucker, single-coil or split-coil pickups. Single-coil pickups give basses a clear, bright tone, but can seem noisy. While humbucker pickups have a fatter sound and cancel the noise that single-coil pickups produce, they may sound muddy at higher volumes. A split-coil pickup gives you the quietness of a humbucker and the bright tone of a single-coil pickup.

Neck Type: A bolt-on neck style on a bass is a common design in which the body and neck are made from separate pieces of wood. The biggest advantages of this style are enhanced sustain, good string vibration transfer and the ability to replace the neck as needed.

When a bass guitar has a neck-through-body design, the neck spans the length of the instrument. A neck-through-body design tends to give a bass guitar more direct energy transfer and greater sustain.  

Other components—such as the wood type and fingerboard—affect how a four-string bass sounds and feels. If you need help choosing a bass guitar, LAWK STAR is more than happy to assist. Tell us about the sound you seek and we’ll pair you with the perfect bass.