How to care for an electrical bass?

Rods: how long and how soon they last

The new ropes sound bright with an attack and long notes. With the use, sweat and fat of the fingers are put between the clumps and the sound goes out little by little.

• They sound opaque and the notes turn off quickly.
• Fines to air, but high-end scattering sounds bad.
• They look dark, rusty or with moist under them.
• They feel rough as they slide their fingers.

To last longer, wash your hands before you touch and put a dry cloth through each string at the end, above and under. The old steamed trick returns some light for a short while but can rutilate them inside. And by buying them, check the scale of your low (long, medium or short) and explain them in the guide to choose your first electrical low)..

Switch the strings without mistakes

1. If you're starting, change them one by one: the mast keeps the tension and don't lose reference to how each string was going. If you remove them all to clear the diapason, put them back on the same day.
2. Pass the new string onto the bridge and get it to its nugget without twisting.
3. Stretch it to the next stick and fold it at a right angle at that point: so there are two or three turns at the axis, and that's ideal.
4. It cuts a little after the dubbing, never without dubbing before: if you cut straight, the jammer can get out of the core and the string remains untiring.
5. Put the end into the axis hole and roll down so that every turn remains under the previous one.
6. Filling, gently stretching each string along the mast and re-tuning several times. low tuning) It helps you check each.

The color thread of the end of the string should not be put onto the cebula. If it passes, these strings are of a longer scale than that of your low. And if you change to a different calibre, the tension changes and the mast will likely require an adjustment.

The soul: what good and how to avoid damage

The soul (truss rod) is a metal stick inside the mast that counteracts the tension of the strings. It serves to control the curvature of the mast, and does not to get up or down the strings: that's what's been done in the seelets of the bridge.

How to check the curvature

1. Fold up the bass as usual.
2. Put a seedling at the first frast of the most serious string, or ask someone to put pressure on it, and press the same string where the mast binds to the body.
3. Look at the space between the string and the scattering midway, between the seventh and the ninth frast. It's got to be small, about the thickness of an introduction card.
4. If the string touches the scattering in the middle, the mast is far straight or backward and if the space is big, it has too much curvature.

If you decide to put it back up

• Use the exact key to your low: one that doesn't suit well sweep the nut.
• Turn at most a quarter back, and put up and let the mast stand a few hours before measuring again.
• Looking at his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face and his face.
• If the nut doesn't turn with a moderate force, stop. Building a broken soul can break it, and that's about the most expensive repairs.

If you have never been, ask your teacher or a luthier to show you the first time. In Bogotá, the passage from dry to rainy season, or a hot ride, usually requires a small adjustment and we explain this in [how to save instruments according to climate in Colombia].](/blog/como-guardar-instrumentos-humedad-y-clima-en-colombia).

Electronics, drums and cables

A low passive does not use a battery. An active has a preamplifier that works with a 9-volt battery, and in most models the input connector turns as a switch: as long as the cable's connected, the battery goes through. When it's run out, the low sounds weak, distorted or with cuts. It's always shutting down the cable at its end and with a spare battery in the box.

• If a volume or tone control scrape while spinning, turn from end to end several times: sometimes it's just powder.
• If you continue to rip, the arrangement is an electronic contact cleaner or change the potentiometer. Never use multipurpose lubricants.
• If the input connector's loose, press his nut and hold his back inside so that his wires don't turn and if you don't feel sure, his luthier will.
• A buzzing that goes away when you play the strings is usually normal at low of simple tablets. If it's strong or intermittent, first try with another cable.

Wrap up the wires into broad circles, without wrapping them up his elbow and get them out of the connector, and not from the cable.

Cleanup of body and diapason

• Bright finish: A dry microfiber cloth after touching and, from time to time, an instrument cleaner in a low quantity.
• matt or satin finish: only dry cloth. If you polish it, there are different glow.
• A dark wood plate with no varnish (palisander, ebony or the like): clear with a barely moist strap and, a few times a year, apply a very thin layer of diapason conditioning and remove an excess.
• Barnized maple diapham (clear and bright): dry or slightly moist cloth and does not require oil.
• Never use steel wool near the tablets: metal particles stick to magnets.

Avoid Silicone, alcohol and cleaner furniture cleaners: alcohol damages some finishes and Silicone leaves a cape that complicates any future repair. Many of these care share with guitar and we extend it to how to cleanse and care for an electrical guitar.

The amplifier also looks after

1. Connect the cable to the low and amplifier with the amplifier off or with the volume at zero.
2. Turn up and up and up and up.
3. At the end, put the volume down to zero, turn off and only then turn off.

• Do not put them up to the maximum to sound louder. If the speaker sounds shy or as if vibrate loose at serious notes, low serious or volume at once.
• It lays space behind the amplifier so that it vents and doesn't put drinks on them.
• Connect it to a voltage regulator or protector, especially if there are light drops in your area.
• Don't move it on.

To practice in an apartment, use hearing aids at moderate volume: your ear is also part of the equipment.

When to go to the luthier and mistakes that come out expensive

A calibration (soul, string height, octavation and tablet height) once or twice a year keeps the low comfortable. Take them earlier if the ropes have been broken into several areas, if the end of the scattering stands out at the edge of the mast (sign of dryness), if the soul doesn't turn or if there's electrical noise that doesn't leave.

• Fold your soul or turn it more than a quarter back at once.
• To cut a string without bending it first.
• To leave the cable connected to an activated low.
• To lay down the bass against the wall or amplifier: it scattering, falling from its head and the clawer is the area that most fades.
• To leave him in the trunk of his car or by a window with sun.

At [low-power classes]](/clases/bajo-electrico)Your teacher can check with you the instrument's timings, something that's worth gold in the first few months.

Frequently asked questions