Which feels more comfortable? You might find the bass is too large to manage. Hold an electric guitar on your lap, and then try a bass. If you are having trouble visualizing this, hop in a car and head on down to a local guitar store. They’re smaller than full-size bass guitars, but still a bit chunkier than electric guitars. There are also “short-scale” basses with a scale length of 30 inches. That doesn’t mean bass guitars have more frets, necessarily. Here is what you do need to know: Most six-string electric guitars have a scale length measuring between 24.75 inches and 25.5 inches, where most four-string electric basses have a 34-inch scale length. Put as simply as possible, the scale length is the distance from the end of the fretboard on your left (if you are a right-handed guitarist) to where the strings meet the bridge. The difference in size between guitar and bass is illustrated by a measurement called scale length. This can make it a bit daunting for new players, especially smaller people. The bass guitar is a bigger instrument, with thicker strings. In those cases, you may wish to consider some of the practical aspects of guitar and bass. What if both guitar and bass get you equally fired up? Or, what you simply want to choose the instrument that gives you the best chance at success, with the understanding that you can learn the other later on? Unfortunately, this advice still leaves some new musicians stumped. In the beginning, choose whichever instrument gets you the most excited! I think it is important for new musicians to start out on a path that inspires them, even if that path eventually leads them somewhere they never expected. Up until this point this article has dealt with inspirational issues.