Double bass and bass guitar differ in some key areas:
-When doing two-finger pizzicato on double bass, the index finger is used to reach the higher pitched strings whereas with bass guitar it's the opposite. The method of plucking is different as well. You use more of your finger to pluck a double bass string but use the fingertips for the bass guitar.
-Slapping is an entirely different animal. On double bass, you "grab" the string with the meaty part of your fingertips and pull it back then let it clack against the fingerboard and then immediately follow that by slapping your plucking hand over the string so that it thumps against the fingerboard. The clack and thump are paired. You can also thump the fingerboard twice in a row in a clack-thump-thump pattern to get that nice double-slap sound. With bass guitar, you thump the two top strings with the edge of your thumb and pluck the other two with your first and/or second fingers. I frequently thump the strings without plucking. I like the percussive sound of the thumped bass but the pluck is too funky or discoey so I usually do away with it. I often pluck with the third finger while using a pick gripped between the first and second. I invented that one--I think. Other bassists tell me they never saw that one before.
-Just as you can't use a pick on the double bass, you can't bow a bass guitar. Once you learn double bass, that's a skill you should NEVER give up.
-You can actually play a 6-string bass like a guitar. My old instructor actually plays bossa nova on his and it sounds beautiful. I've never even seen a 6-string double bass. I've seen 5-stringers. There are also neck extensions on certain double basses which you'll never see on bass guitars although some of them have hip-xtenders which kind of serves the same purpose.
-The fingering is the same except when you play the fingerboard above the body. On a double bass, you have to resort to thumb positions to get way up there. But you finger a bass guitar like any guitar.
Those are some of the differences. Reading the music is the same, though. So you can play a classical bass piece on a bass guitar and you can play a rock song on double bass since the music will look pretty much the same.
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