Hey, I'm a guitar player, and I'm starting to get an interest in basses. My friend has one, and I like to fiddle around with it a lot. I'm not too incredible when it comes to playing bass, but I can make some nice bass lines.
Something I noticed, is that if I play a diad on the 4th and 3rd strings (the two fattest ones that is), it sounds a lot different than it should. Almost like as if there's more dissonance, and it's not just in a lower octave.
Could anyone explain why this is so? Or is it just an audible illusion?
Chords and double stops do tend to get muddier as you go lower. I think it's partly because the sound is a little unfamiliar, and partly because of the amp you play through.
I think it's because the frequencies get closer together.
I've got a friend who plays sax, and a couple years ago he started taking bass lessons. I remember him telling me how surprised he was that it's hard to hit wrong notes on the bass - a lot more fits in the low register than in the range of an alto sax. His speculation was that the difference between B and Bb is a lot smaller (frequency-wise) in the lower range.
He's got great ears - a working pro on sax - so I think he's on to something.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
For pitches below around 200 Hz (roughly the pitch of a guitar's G string) to sound consonant they must be at least 90 Hz apart. As you go lower the pitches move closer together, and their harmonics also move down. A bass's low E is around 41 Hz, and the G above is around 49 Hz. They're well under 90 Hz. More importantly, their harmonics also fall very close together. In fact, their first harmonics both fall within 90 Hz of the low E. So when sounded together they overlap and aren't as consonant as higher frequencies could be.
I remembered reading about the topic months ago and had to go dig up some info.
