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Friday Work Whistle: Is Your Bass A Girl?

A bass guitar is a very physical instrument comprised of wood, steel and most of the time plastic (for switchgear, knobs and scratch plate among other things). On its own, the bass does absolutely nothing for you, and you do have to make it do what you want. Said another way, nothing about a bass guitar is “automatic”. Sure, you can add/remove/modify things to the instrument to assist you with playing better, but ultimately, you’re the one who has to take the thing and make it actually do something.

When you take a bass and make sounds with it, you are physically interacting with the instrument by way of nothing but hands to wood and steel; that’s organic; it’s a part of you at that point; that’s what makes it “alive”.

True, the bass isn’t a living thing, but then again bass players treat them as such as evidenced by the fact so many of you give your bass a name as if it were a person.

It is human nature to assign a name or gender to a thing we have affection for. That’s why the planet we’re on is sometimes called “Mother Earth”, and why all ships in the US Navy are referred to with the female gender of “she” or “her” and not “it”. Many car collectors also refer to their prized autos as she/her as well for the same reason.

(Side note: We also use female gender to represent good fortune, as in “lady luck.”)

To refer to a bass as a girl is somewhat inaccurate; the more proper way for those who assign a name to their bass is that she’s a lady, as in, “If you treat her like a lady, she’ll treat you right.”

Does your bass have a name?

(Image Credit: Ralph Burch)

12 thoughts on “Friday Work Whistle: Is Your Bass A Girl?”

  1. I have several basses but my first major purchase in ’68 was a Grestch big body bass, still have “Greta”, love tweek’n her knobs and twisting her ears while stroke’n her neck,and holding that big lower bout next to mine,I could fondle those twin cutaways for hours, but alas she doesn’t get played lately being that her binding all gave way,she been stripped waiting for restoration. I play with other “gals” now,I don’t know their names but maybe I’ll ask them now that this has been awaken.

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  2. My Yukon Gold Metallic has a name, but it most certainly ain’t a “Lady”. His name is “Jeff” after Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam. Just like JA, my JB is just that cool.

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  3. One of my basses I gave the mame: Barnabas, which when translated meand: “Son of Comfort”.and I find much comfort when he and I create a nice pocket or groove.

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  4. My basses are named: Angela, Abraxxa, Alice, Marilyn, Jayne, Elsa, Pam, Ivy, Natalie, Nicole, and Grace. My guitars: Triela, Henrietta, Cloe, Simone, Enrica, Dakota, Selene, Sookie, Rachel, Evilyn, Bettie, Kitty, Minnie, Myra, Hayley and Chimaera. I had a Morticia, but gave her to a friend.

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  5. I was inspired to play by Paul Gardiner’s basslines on the Telekon album and bought a Squier P-bass. I named it “Scarlett” after his pseudonym from the early Tubeway Army.

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  6. my basses aren’t ladys, they are my dudes, and their names are Burger (red sterling) Lee (olympic white modern player Fender jazz bass) and Cocobongo (black hollowbody fretless)

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