Free Sample Shootout #7: Best Free Guitar And Bass Guitar Samples

After more than a year of silence, here’s another Free Sample Shootout article on BPB! This time I’ve tried to include all notable guitar and bass guitar sample libraries available for free download and use. Enjoy!

Part 1 – Free Guitar Samples

Free acoustic and electric guitar samples. Available in a variety of sample formats, but most of the listed packs also include individual WAV samples.

• FS Acoustic Guitars by Flame Studios – Various freebie acoustic and electic guitar sample libraries available in SoundFont and GigaStudio formats. One of my favorite guitar collections. The samples are also mirrored here.
• Thrash DI FREE by SampleOddity – A neat collection of distorted guitar samples, including power chords and single notes. The samples were recorded directly, so you can apply your favorite own amp and/or cab sim. Available as WAV and for NI Kontakt.
• LP SG Custom by Kriminal – Very good collection of Les Paul SG Custom samples recorded and edited by KVR Forum member Kriminal. The pack features open strings for every notes, some FX sounds, and comes with SFZ mappings.
• Reactor Strat by Real Feel – A collection of 176 free Squier Stratocaster samples in WAV format. Also includes an “infinite sustain” version of the sounds.
• Multisampled Electric Guitar by noisecrux – Contains 23 clean notes sampled from the Peavey Predator electric guitar. It comes with two velocity layers and mappings for SFZ, Shortcircuit (my favorite freeware sampler) and Beatmaker2 (an iOS app).
• Acoustic/Classic/Humbucker Guitar FREE by Pettinhouse – Three different freebie guitar libraries for Kontakt, based on commercial guitar libraries by Pettinhouse.
• Guitars by Giga Samples – Various free guitar sample libraries in GigaStudio format. You’ll find nylon string guitars, electric guitars, 12 string guitars, etc. Nice collection!
• Concert Guitar Natural by Markus Fiedler – Classical guitar samples with four velocity layers and SFZ mappings.
• Power Guitars FREE by Wavesfactory – Free power guitar sample library for Kontakt, based on a set of sounds taken from the full Power Guitars sample library by Wavesfactory. The freebie pack features distorted electric guitar power chords in muted and sustained versions.
• Rock Pack #1 by Mihai Sorohoran – Neat little sample collection featuring acoustic guitar strums and electric guitar power chords in 24-bit WAV format. Mappings are available for MultiSampla (native MU.LAB sampler).
• TheoK Yamaha Pacifica by Theodor Krueger – Distorted Yamaha Pacifica guitar samples for Kontakt, featuring mutes, open notes, vibrato, slides, hammer on, pull off, etc.
• Behringer2010 by M Janet Shmanet – A free SoundFont featuring the sounds of a cheap Behringer electric guitar.
• Free Gibson Les Paul Power Chords by Reusenoise – Power chords recorded from a 1996 Gibson LP  Studio with a Seymor Duncan bridge pickup, available as 24-bit WAV with SFZ mappings.
• KMG7 by Studio Major7th – A collection of free metal guitar backing tracks. Contains powerchords, 5ths, 4ths and guitar solos.
• Junk Guitar by Junk Spider – Not a fancy name, but still a quite useful collection of metal guitar samples for Kontakt.

Part 2 – Free Bass Guitar Samples

Free acoustic and electric bass guitar samples, again available as WAV files and formated for various software samplers.

• DirectBass 2.0 FREE by Pettinhouse – A nice set of DI bass guitar samples for Kontakt.
• FREE CoreBass Cherry Slides by Orange Tree Samples – 45 bass guitar slides for Kontakt, based on the CoreBass Cherry bass guitar library.
• Free Multisampled Bass by Turtle Sounds – Two sets of Ibanez bass guitar samples, fingered and picked, each with four velocity layers.
• Rickenbacker 4001 by Project16 – A brilliant set of Rickenbacker 4001 bass guitar samples with lots of different articulations. Comes with SFZ and Kontakt patches. Installation can be a bit tricky, but make sure to follow the instructions and there shouldn’t be any issues.
• An0va Bass Guitar by An0va – A nice compact set of electric bass guitar samples, featuring one sample for each playing style.
• TCC Passion Bass by The Control Centre – A set of free Vigier Passion bass guitar samples for Ableton Live (16-bit WAV files included).
• Free Yamaha RBX 170 by Reusenoise – Dry recordings of the Yamaha RBX 170 bass guitar. Available in 24-bit WAV format with SFZ mappings.
• FS Bass Guitars by Flame Studios – One acoustic and two electric bass guitar libraries in Soundfont and GigaStudio formats. The samples are mirrored here.
• Precision Bass by Markus Fiedler – Fender Precision bass guitar samples with SFZ mappings and eight velocity layers.
• J-2 Expansion Packs by SCARBEE – Two bass guitar sample sets in GigaStudio format.
• XmasBass by Gregjazz – A neat free bass guitar library available in WAV format and for Kontakt, released on Christmas 2007 by KVR Audio member Gregjazz. One of my favorite freebie bass packs.

Bonus – Free Guitar And Bass Guitar VSTi Plugins

Until I make a separate BPB Freeware Studio entry, here’s a list of the best freeware VSTi plugins featuring guitar and/or bass guitar sounds.

• Independence Free by Yellow Tools – Independence Free comes with a useful set of nylon guitar and electric bass samples.
• Kontakt Player by Native Instruments – The Factory Selection for Kontakt Player features a nice set of electric and upright bass samples.
• LP SG Custom by chokehold – A VSTi plugin version of the guitar sample library which is included in the list above. The samples were provided by Kriminal and chokehold has turned them into a neat little virtual instrument for Windows.
• Proteus VX by E-MU Systems – This free plugin features all sorts of guitar and bass sounds. It acts a bit quirky on some machines, but it’s certainly worth checking out.
• SampleTank Free by IK Multimedia – The free version of SampleTank includes 500MB of free samples including some pretty good guitar and bass sounds.
• Spicy Guitar by Keolab – Once a commercial plugin, Spicy guitar is a very nice sounding acoustic guitar simulation plugin. Available both for Windows and Mac!
• Suburban Guitarist Beta by Gregjazz – A rather nice sounding freeware guitar VSTi.
• VB-1 by Steinberg – A simple plugin dedicated to bass guitar sounds, recently re-released as freeware.

And that’s all for this edition of Free Sample Shootout. I’m a bit out of ideas for this section, so if you’d like me to do another shootout for a specific type of samples, please leave a note in the comments section below.

Also, please support BPB by spreading the word about this or some other articles you liked on your favorite forums and social networks. Thanks for reading and have fun making music with these samples!

Finally, many thanks to BPB reader Greg for suggesting Markus Fiedler’s free samples!