Bass By Numbers

Oy the string fetish of bassists, now up to 24 strings! Then there's the one or two-string bass, which I love because it's the polar opposite. Obviously, you already have a 2-string bass on the 4-string simply by using two adjacent strings at a time. It's a good strategy to get you thinking in more narrow ranges and in double stops, and off the root, which may be exactly what the music needs.

Tuned in fifths the 2-string would be good for melodies and intervals of fifths and sixths. It is obviously not as versatile as a 4-string, but even then it is one too many. Tuned in unisons you could get a nice chorusing effect on a 2-string. The bass balalaika has only three strings and works beautifully for the music.

The 0-string bass is also possible, i.e. a key or pad used to play a bass sound that works fine for the song.

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