Ladies even Play guitars also! AND!!! Even some have written me concering picking a BASS for themselves or their daughters, how can you do it correctly.

   Females are EXACTLY Like us MEN, RIGHT?

WRONG!!! Even when It comes to playinging, there fore the picking of a BASS GUITAR is the same , correct? ...WRONG!... When going to pick a Bass guitars as women are more and more getting into OUR fields more and more, and it has always been a man's opportunity to play the Bass Guitars, RIGHT?...NOPE!  Because the horizontal Bass Guitar as we know it today, it is not the same "Bass" that did the job just  60 -70 years ago, as the BASS FIDDLE (Double-Bass) was used to do the BASS assignments in mostly Jazz venues, then in the 1950's as "Rock and Roll" came into being from our Black bands and they didn't just PLAY the bass fiddle they beat it into submission, and it weighed about a good 70 - 100 lbs.(m.o.l.) more depending on the size of the fiddle in the band. Therefore when the hand-held (Horizontal) Bass guitars came into vogue by "The Ventures" ("Walk, Don't Run") and those like them,  the Bass players from the black bands evolved also, but they were still very active and slapped the snot out of the insruments that they played.

 And, so now, we have Some women who, as is more than usual, start off as girls, and they begin that era or time in their lives as little and /or "petite", and far less muscular than the guys of the same age groups. So, many adjustments HAD to be made as the thinking of the people supporting the ladies that want to "slap their own bass guitars now"!

But,...their anatomy did not give in easily to the demands of the Bass Guitars, and so, they had to make some changes themselves now> So, the MFGS. had to suit the lassies and if you want to mention the boys or young men that choose the Bass over their 6-string counter parts, although you have even 12 stringed basses ( C'mon guys, there's a limit...what you want is a Bass Harp!~!~!) , with each pair of strings harmonizing  or some like to change octaves or just double the twin stringed set-up so,  it becomes a matter of taste. (Be real guys, I am designing my own ultra-bass from a "NEW"  "P" -Bass Body, and I am in the planning stages right now, but I figure to get lower resonances from a 4-stringed Bass..(.heh-heh-heh~) but, I'll go for 5-strings  [ONLY if I have to].)!

    Me, I still prefer the full, hollow-bodies, "F" holed double cut-away sunbursted colored wonder that we saw in the past, mostly....but, I digress.

    The women MUST consider their smaller frames as they are NOT going to grow into the instruments of their hearts as the boys' shoulders will get much bigger, as will the forearms, biceps and general anatomy, in this respect the boys/men will always be more able to pick the bass they like as in just how they look at the time of picking, at which time a good many would be better to pick a short Scaled ( 30"necks) with a semi-hollow Bass to the both genders, the boys and the girls, as the "standard" (not the 'true' or  'proper sized') as that implies that those who play the shorter necked bnass is somewhat  lesser a player than the "standard " 34" bass players, as in FENDER "P"(precision Bass , which was one that was developed by Leo Fender back in the 1950 era. and up!

      Me? I would never put restrictions on anybody, unless, if the female bassist was of heavier stock in the chest area, they would notice these things: Headaches as the 30 pound weight hangs over their shoulders for 3-5 hours a night, not counting practice nights (or days) goofing around with others, practicing many for hours, if you want to become more than the old styled player, who played thusly:[ "Boomp-Boomp!Boomp-Boomp!" ] for 4 hours, and that style , if you wish to call it a style, is good in just a few songs in some types of music, as for me, I played a 6-string White Gibson Les-Paul Jr. on Rhythm and I always had to be better than anyone that I saw or met, I just HAD TO BE BETTER or , in other words the "BOOMP-BOOMP! " went out the window the day I got my "Kent Bass", I started using Blues styled 'runs and riffs', so I used what I learned in the 6-stringed guitars to play the Bass and the shorter short scale helped a tiny bit when it came to playing my chords, along with runs and riffs, I would back the drummer, help keep time with the drummer, much like you see in power trios like "Jimi Hendrix Experience" and "ZZ-TOP"...I was all over the neck up the neck and down the neck, BUT, as I got older I could move on to  types like Fender or other Precision types, and why they started calling them "P" or Precision was in the simple fact that the "upright Bass Fiddle" [Slap Basses] had no frets snd so a fretless Bass had the same configurations, they are helped a little in the fact the a line is on the fretboard instead of pearl or other pretty colored position markers and some have the top markers which are on the visable top of the neck where most 99% can see them and so can change frets in a middle space much more easily than the fretless, the fretless players I'll deal with them in the future, but now, it's still the woman's turn to be discussed in Bass playing.

   So, now, you are in the music  shoppe or at a  house entertaining others as you are going to try a used one out and there is NOTHING wrong with buying a used Bass, as the strings are streched out as far as they will ever go again, so, re setting or tuning is a seldom thing, and also as I mentioned before I was instructing a girl who was at her growing stage, as I asserted, considering the weight of the bass as a whole is primary, the looks and style will be in there somewhere, but never, ever make that the first consideration in the picking of the bass for the feminine body.

    One must think of their balance of the bass with the strap lying across the shoulders, then the instrument~!~!  Is it "balancing in your two arms", is it sliding toward one side or the other? You must....STOPPITT!

   Get the balance in the mid point, and get a "guit" that "STAYS" in the pocket of space between the arms and does not keep sliding from one side to the other, remember,  the fight against MIGRAINE headaches, if you have a "heavier body", breastwise, or chestwise, then you could be miserable rather than having the fun of your life in the best times of your life.

    My students, always made me proud in that they considered the practicalities of the instrument called the BASS GUITAR for themselves. Most were semi or fully hollowed- bodied, and of lighter woods like ash, alder (or the Chinese-made Balsa~!) which I think are beautiful, such as Fender's Thinline! The best look about it is the single eyebrow "F"-type-hole  with the eyebrow on the top side.    As a "BASS-WARMING" I would always buy the "grads" a gift, I liked the Fender chromatic sparkle Blue, or Black tuner, as I found the Bass with it's lo and lower resonances, it was difficult to keep in tune as the strings stretched into the ultimate and final tune and pitch, you see as you thumb, pick, pull, stretch, bang the strings, they will need continual adjustment ..up to a point. Then!!! You are set, you are ready to really "COOK", but I don't think that this was the 'cooking'  mother talked about, but do it, then do it again! I hope that you people got a bit out of my thoughts of Bass picking, after all I have been at it for a while,... 45 years on the Bass this year.With my own self-designed AMPEG-Stack with two SVT heads, (SVT PRO 3 and  an SVT350 / 350 head) and a 10's w /horns which I was wrong and will replace them with 4 x12"  speakers, as for one thing, I start at BA1118-E" dia. speakers, and have two BA115-E ext. cabs, SVT Classics And, I'm still growing into it! After all, I just want the best bass to carry my styles, that's all!.... And, as a Bass Guitarist, I only consider what will carry the lower resonances of a purebred-Bass-Stack, and 8" or 10" drivers will not give you the resonances that you want, not in my theories as tio why I am a bassist.: A bassist is NOT going to get the lower resonances from those guitar speakers from China...they cannot withstand the lower res. with 1000 - 1500 watts.

 A bassist like I am will search for resonances like 35 Hrz, not the 35Mhrz. and 8-10" will not do it and neither will 8 of them.

 Each speaker will resonate at the area of 65Hrz + (m.o.l.) even if you have 64 x 10" cabinets.

 I am a bassist, I play the Bass Guitar, and I am going to do as I want to get my sound, after all Mr. Everette Hull and Mr. Jess Oliver who invented the Bass Amplifiers, started with 15" then 18", and went no lower than 12" and still called them a Bass Amp.

 The smaller ones with the 8"-10" speakers were "G" series, or "guitar amps." I certainly agree with the Fathers of Basses!

  My final word for ladies, fe,=males, don't, please don't make a pleasant hobby to become a miserable headache, migraine giver, and make your playing, and your choice in the "bass guitar" one that you shall regret for ever!

YES!..."YOURBASSNESS"~~~ Rich