bass guitar
5
3.1
- noun
- /beɪs ɡɪˈtɑr/
- Specialized
:
bajo eléctrico
- In my band, I play the bass guitar to provide the low-pitched foundation for our music.
- an electric bass guitar
It's not quite as long as a bass guitar, but pretty close.
- It's not quite as long as a bass guitar, but pretty close.
- Kind of sounds like a bass guitar.
- But on some of your records you would have a real, real bass guitar.
- And we had to go through all of her stuff, including my old bass guitar and, you know, my dad's banjo and, and stuff like that.
- So I like, I like that, but I just love bass guitar and drums and Pixies.
Examples
-
Austin Chapman can thank his newfound hearing to a bright orange, state-of-the-art hearing aid that gives him extremely increased fidelity (he's had hearing aids before but could only hear the low-end sounds of a bass guitar).
Blog text (25) -
And on bass guitar, we got Nick Massi.
-
When not writing, I read, watch old TV and movies, and play bass guitar.
Blog text (28) -
What I wanted was a bass guitar.
Blog text (2) -
And my ambition was to play bass guitar in a Christian metal band.
Blog text (3) -
Classes usually involve bass guitar and percussion.
Academic text (1990) -
So, that's kind of what drew me into the bass guitar.
Blog text (29) -
These youngsters today-- they don't even know what a bass guitar sounds like.
-
She learned a few power chords on a bass guitar and helped form a girl group called Handcuff.
Fiction book (1996) -
I was thinking more like graphic designer, mid-thirties, you know, with a cool Asian girlfriend, who like, dresses awesome and rocks out on the bass guitar.
How Low
1
3.6
- Specialized
5
3.1
25
2.6
12
2.7
22
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward noun-noun compound where 'bass' (low-pitched instrument/low register) modifies 'guitar', yielding a guitar that produces low pitches; the overall meaning is directly compositional from the constituents. This construction is cross-linguistically common and follows standard instrument-labeling patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
The name bass guitar comes from bass, a word for the 'low' or 'deep' sound, and guitar, because it looks like a guitar made to play those low notes. It was created to take the place of the big bass instrument in a band, so today bass guitar means 'a guitar that plays the low, rhythmic notes'.