A floor mounted electric bass played solely by striking its strings with a player''s shoe and thereby depressing its strings against its frets. The base is a stringed instrument with a neck having two transversely oriented fretted surfaces. One string, or one string unit comprising multiple strings tuned as a unit for playing in unison, is secured above each of the fretted surfaces and when not depressed is contacted by a vibration inhibiting pad. A magnetic pickup converts the string vibration to electrical signals when a string is depressed against a fret.