New instruments—such as the extended-range electric bass—don’t have a long tradition defining what is required of all players. It is for the artists of today, and their ways of imagining the instrument, to show us what we can expect of the bass as a stand-alone instrument. Down With Those Guitars! is my take on this cry for independence of the bass, with its rich sound and luscious palette of resonances often yielding to the temptation of behaving like a guitar. Fittingly, the piece uses music from my very recent Guitar Trio, pulling it down to the lower register, where the electric bass lives.