Connect the electric guitar to computer or personal laptop speakers by using a female-1/4-jack-to-female-mini-jack cable extension. Plug both the guitar cable and the speaker cable into the extension, and the connection is made. Because computer speakers recognize anything that produces audio, the bass is audible through the speakers.
Connect the guitar to a set of standalone surround sound speakers to play the bass much louder than computer speakers. Standalone speakers work in the same way that amplifiers do; they have much higher output volumes than computer speakers and require only the correct cable connection to play through it. Invest in a female-1/4-jack-to-male-mini-jack cable extension, and directly plug the bass into the speakers. Turn the speakers on and play the bass. The sound and tone quite accurately resemble an amp.
Alter and fine tune the sound of the bass by experimenting with the speaker system's EQ settings and by turning the volume and bass dials up on the speakers. Fine tune the sound further by turning the dials on the body of the guitar. For example, increase the deepness of the bass sound by raising the lower frequency EQ levels and by turning down the tone dial on the guitar.
Purchase an audio interface to directly connect the bass through the computer system. Insert the jack cable into the interface's jack port, and configure the settings on the audio software. Interfaces commonly are used for recording, but they also can be used to play through the computer soundcard. Plug a speaker system into the audio output port of the computer and start playing.