6. Electric Basses

Dedicated bass guitar wireless systems are rare, but they do exist - Samson produces the Airline Bass for instance.

Generally speaking though, ordinary guitar units are perfectly suitable for bass, but let’s qualify this. Most radio units for guitar have a frequency response of around 50Hz to 18kHz. For a 4-string bass this is more than adequate, but what about a 5-string instrument who’s bottom B string has a frequency of approximately 32Hz? Firstly, frequency response limits are defined by a drop in level of 3dB from flat (the ‘-3dB’ point). Given that the drop-off is smooth, it’s clear that frequencies well below 50Hz are still conveyed, albeit at diminishing levels. Also bear in mind that most bass rigs use speaker systems which do not extend to these depths anyway, and another consideration is one of human perception - how is it that a low-fi system such as the telephone is able to keep you on hold playing inane music, which definitely includes an audible bass line, even though the limited bandwidth cannot possibly reproduce the low frequencies of the instrument? The answer lies in the fact that that we hear harmonics (a unique series for each note that the bass plays) which fall well within the frequency range of the telephone. Our brain then ‘fills in the gaps’, i.e. it adds the missing ‘fundamental’. Many audio systems rely on this phenomenon to ‘psycho-acoustically’ extend the bottom end.

Your Contacts