PrintableCharts
KINDS OF BASS

1 / 2 · mockup · mid-century

KINDS OF BASS

eight instruments at one scale · what each is about and how it sounds

Built as a memo rather than a table: the thing worth hanging it up for reads across the room, with the full reference in smaller type below it.

Three sizes in one archive — from a sheet on the fridge to a poster on the wall.

Free

Payment and email are handled by Paddle. The download link arrives by email — no account, no password.

Formats
A4 · A3 · A2
What you get
Print-ready PDFs, one per size, with every letterform converted to outlines — nothing to install, nothing to shift.
Subject
music · beginners · comparison · music room

All eight are drawn at one scale from the sounding length of the string, nut to saddle. The bodies are generic: proportions typical of the family rather than measurements of any one model. Tension is relative to the 34-inch long scale.

WHY A SHORT BASS IS ALWAYS SOFTER

At the same pitch, string tension rises with the square of the scale length. Thirty inches against thirty-four gives 78 % of the tension, that is 22 % less.

A short scale is therefore not merely more comfortable: the springiness of the string has changed, not only the distance between frets. Hence the softer attack and the shorter sustain.

And it is why a low B on a five-string is rescued by a longer scale rather than a fatter string: thirty-five inches add 6 % to the tension.

On the sheet

  • All eight are drawn at one scale from the sounding length of the string, nut to saddle. The bodies are generic: proportions typical of the family rather than measurements of any one model. Tension is relative to the 34-inch long scale.
  • Colour carries meaning, but meaning never rests on colour alone — the sheet reads in black and white.
  • Nothing about how it was made: the sheet carries only what the reader needs.

Printing

  • Three sizes in the archive: A4 — 210×297 mm, A3 — 297×420 mm, A2 — 420×594 mm.
  • All text is converted to outlines. No fonts to install, and nothing shifts on another machine.
  • White background and sparing fills — it prints on a home printer without draining the cartridge.
  • Margins of at least 10 mm: a home printer cannot print to the edge.
  • No stroke thinner than 0.3 mm, so nothing disappears in print.

Why the numbers can be trusted. Every countable number here is computed from data rather than typed in, and the sheet must pass 9 independent checks before it is allowed to build — how many items there are, the order they come in, and the claim in the highlighted box itself. If one fails, there is no file.

More like this

AUDIO CARRIERS

AUDIO CARRIERS

seven carriers over a century at one scale, and what each one brought first

$1.50
BARRE CHORDS

BARRE CHORDS

two shapes, twelve chords each

$1.50
BIT DEPTH

BIT DEPTH

how many steps the level is cut into, what a bit adds, and why floating point is not the next row

$2.50
CIRCLE OF FIFTHS

CIRCLE OF FIFTHS

12 keys · key signatures · relative minors

$2.50