15 points
It’s much easier than that. You don’t really need to know any of that. On a regular guitar we have shapes. You can learn one shape and move it around the neck to play in any key:
I assume it’s probably the same on bass.
I’m not saying that theory is not helpful, but you aren’t thinking about it while playing or improvising.
4 points
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As a bassist, I can at least say that was my experience. I learned pentatonic by paying attention to which notes I’d hear most often, and recognizing which pattern on the fretboard they usually showed up in when played in sequence.
That was pretty much all I needed to be able to jam semi-decently, and everything else just sort of progressed from there.