The History Of The Modern Bass Guitar

Ask most people who created the modern electric bass guitar and they will tell you it was Leo Fender. However, there were at least five other prototypes resembling the now well-known design of the modern bass, each created well before Fender introduced the world to the Precision bass in 1951.

The modern bass is a direct descendant of the double bass, which dates back to the 17th century. However, it was not until the early twentieth century that the design of the bass was changed to be more practical.

In the 1920’s, Lloyd Loar, working for Gibson, designed the first ‘electric double bass’. The bass used an electro-static pickup, but amplification of bass frequencies was as yet undeveloped, so there was no practical way of hearing the instrument. In the early 1930’s, Paul Tutmarc became the first known individual to refine the double bass to a more practical size. The first prototype was about the size of a cello, and featured a rudimentary pickup, but this was found to be too heavy, and the design was refined to be more like a guitar. This new bass was 42 inches long, solid body, made of black walnut and piano strings and, like the previous, featuring a pickup.

In the mid ’30s, several established musical instrument firms – Lyon & Healy, Gibson and Rickenbacker to name a few – began marketing experimental electric basses that were, like Tutmarc’s prototype bass, much less bulky than a standard double bass. However, these were all still tall, unfretted, upright instruments held in the standard vertical position.

Around 1940, Paul Tutmarc Jr began manufacturing guitars and basses, including the Serenader bass. This was distributed by L.D. Heater Music Co., in Portland, Oregon, and was the first time a large distributor handled the electric bass. The genius was that this new instrument was a bass Guitar – a compact, fretted instrument that could be held and played horizontally. The main features of the design were:

The pickup - designed because the double bass was often drowned out by the brass sections of jazz bands.

The size - the double bass player had to travel alone because of the instrument’s size, and often got lost on road trips to shows, due to being separated from the rest of the band. The new compact design meant that the bass player could travel with the rest of the group.

There was very little progression until Leo Fender famously created the Precision bass in 1951. This was named the Precision bass as the frets on the instrument allowed the notes to be played with precision. This was, to many people, the first real electric bass, as it was the most mass-produced and recognisable bass guitar at that time, and still is. Its design is the most copied in bass guitar history. In 1957, the pickup was changed to be a split pickup, and the pickguard and headstock were redesigned.

In 1960, Fender designed and created the Jazz bass, with two separate pickups rather than a split pickup like that of the Precision. The popularity of the Fender basses meant that later followed bass guitars from Gibson, Rickenbacker, and Hofner. This led to a surge of popularity in the modern bass guitar, and led to it being known as it is today - an important part of rock, blues, jazz, funk, reggae and countless other genres of popular music.

In 1959 Danelectro created the first 6 string bass, tunes E A D G B E, and Gibson and Fender used this idea to make the Gibson EB-6 in 1960, and the Fender VI in 1962. Fender created the first 5 string in 1964, with the Fender V.

In 1965 came the first fretless Bass Aubi from Ampeg and in 1968, there appeared an 8 string bass from Hagstroem. The first fretless 6 string, (later owned by Les Claypool) was built by Carl Thompson in 1978. Because of playing styles like Slap and Pop, the variable number of strings and the different combinations of woods, necks, etc. pickups had to become much more varied. EMG pickups became widely used on bass guitars.

Bass guitar was popularised early on by players like John Entwistle and James Jamerson in the 60’s, Jaco Pastorious and Stanley Clarke in the 70’s, and Marcus Miller and Cliff Burton in the 80’s. The late 80’s saw a decline in the popularity of the bass, as the fashion was for electronic synthesised dance music. However, the bass had now diversified further away from the double bass guitar.

Nowadays, bass has further increased in popularity due to bassists like Les Claypool (Primus) and Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), who have shown the importance of bass in modern music. Unfortunately, the double bass declined in popularity, as it is unable to compete with the compact size and versatility of the electric bass guitar. Now, when somebody talks about a bass, the mind instantly jumps to an image of an electric bass guitar, rather than it’s predecessor, the acoustic upright.

POSTED: 08/03/2004 - 09:16 am

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Comments

[Mack56]

very good.

[horazonblade]

A well written article, you had your information and mentioned some great names, 5 star man \,,/

[Shortys99887]

very good article

[undead_bunny]

Good jerb Bass_Maiden! Knew you could do it!

[masterbasser89]

intersting read

[binoroc]

yes!! finally a bass article! i love you!

[FenderStrat1337]

great article dude

[battleofla]

Very good!

5 stars

[psychodelia]

i actually learned a lot from this. good article.

[Veno]

great stuff. nice work bass_maiden. 5 stars

[Shoestick]

awesome

[tomdelongestrat]

sweet, informative but still interesting!

[zsmith]

for a guitar nerd like me, it was great...i loved it.

[AuthenticBass]

great article
gained some knowledge about the bass

[Metalology]

I dont play bass but reading this was great! Awesome work!

[silentxwords]

awesome article. good job

[TomD03]

Great stuff, accurate information

Said it once, i'll say it again: BASS KICKS ASS!!!

[BASS-PUNK-2010]

finally a gr8 article worth reading

[Damicksta2k]

Brillaint!! Finally, an informative article that we can learn stuff from, rather than stuff we already know being repeated!! This is a brilliant example of an article, hope more of this stuff comes our way!

My vote thing is kinda screwed so in case it doesn't register ---> ***** (5 stars!)

[mikeclark88]

makes me proud to be a bassist, great more sould be written like that

[Diceman42]

Let's hope it is your article and not a C&P, cuz its very well written (no worries I'm not acusing). It'd be cool if you mentioned something about the (horizontal) acoustic bass-guitar, but aside from that,well done, and a good idea for an article too.

[chinko]

FINALLY A BASS POST!

bass_maiden, thank you. an interesting read to say the least. i learnt something new on here for once

[chinko]

oh BTW do any bassists here play above the 12th fret on the E string? because this is the only place i dont go on the fretboard

[Danny7]

I am educated.

[SuicideToast]

wouhou! bass ! yeah! ownage!

[BassyGuitarist]

I liked this alot. I actually learned about basses, and yes, I do

[Fleasciante]

Flea is the best Bassist to ever Live .. The guy is freakin amazing .. ROCK ON

[buckethead101]

Who invented 5 string bass tunes B E A D G?

[dionysus85]

nice article man
5 stars
good info and very interesting

[_TheBassist01_]

yeah what everyone else said. gave it a 5

[The Jin]

very nice article. nice and fact-filled

[MrCl34n]

this article is ok...3 stars

[Psykotik]

Very good article!
And what a sad ending!

[GreenDayChris]

great article, cant remember the last bass article i read before this one! GO BASS!

[anarchopunk]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bass_player15]

well this is really well written. good job. but im a little pissed cuz ive been writing this article for almost 2 weeks now. and now i cant submit it. lol. good work man

[bass_maiden]

Nope it's not a copy-paste job... I did have a list of about 8 sources on it when I submitted it but I think they were taken off... and sorry mr bass_player15! send it me I'll read it anyway!

[twotonerudie]

good work. better than the "history of guitar" article by far.

[SRVNumberOne]

Danyel Morgan (bassist for Robert Randolph and the Family Band) is crazy on their album, unclassified, buy it!!
good article

[giveitaname87]

Les Claypool rocks my socks.

[buckethead101]

Who invented 5 string bass tunes B E A D G?

hey people im asking this simple question..... go to hell chinko

[washbrnxb105]

I go above the 12th fret on the e string and on the b string (I play funk and jazz and it gives it a really cool mellow tone)

[bass_maiden]

Buckethead101 I had a search for the answer to your question.. and couldn't find it anywhere. Sorry

[bassketcase]

cool

[*Arch Dandy*]

Great Article 5 *****
Though I Don't Play It Bass Is Kool

btw I Play Rythym Guitar

[chinko]

thanks washbrnxb105 i was thinkin that sometimes the necks are cut off from the 25th fret and stuff on the higher strings, and i was thinking why. i dont ever go above fret 13 on the E string. not my kind of sound.

and buckethead i was kidding! guitar is good. im not sure bout the tuning either, maybe it was accidental :S

[shredbeyndshred]

good

[mh182]

i play bass, nice article, 5 stars

[kissmybass]

good article,i learned alot

[AcDcizzle]

wOOt!! I love bass, i can play it but my role in the band is Lead Guitar (but i have to write the bass lines)

[AcDcizzle]

anyway superb article!

[chinko]

AcDcizzle, why do u play lead if u love bass!!??!! thats weird. mind you i do play guitar solo's on my bass

[Bassinfool123]

yup, yup good show my lad two thumbs up!!

[orcutt989]

THIS IS AN ARTICLE, NOT, "THIS IS HOW YOU WRITE TABS". This is why we are able to write articles. Thank you whoever wrote this, you are a saint.

[KevinKung]

Ah, finally a great bass article. Learned a lot. I play bass...Fender Jazz Standard. 5 stars!

[punkrockdude2]

damn good article we bass players dont get to much respect these days

[punkrockdude2]

i play a washburn im workin for a new amp and a soon a fender p bass

[Cookie_master]

cool article man... Burton rocks

spam deleted.

[darkstar9814]

im proud to own a p-bass, and a j

[misfitsrocker14]

i didnt think it was possible, but this was actually a USEFUL ARTICLE!!!!!

[scumfuc_69]

^yeah, but something IS wrong.
The bass was around before then, in acoustic version.

[m_unit_soldier]

finally an article written in english...by someone who speaks english. this is one of the few articles that isn't written by a 8 year old. i'll have to take your word on the facts tho. still five stars.

[Metalology]

geddy lee is cool

[Strat_Monkey]

You've taken the exact words from a book about guitar's that my brother-in-law has... But only in one paragraph, so what the Hell. The rest of the article is excellent.

[bigrd15132]

5 stars.

[letsgomurphys06]

you talk like noone uses the upright anymore. Most notably the bassist from the punk band Tiger Army plays an upright bass, and there are many more.

Upright is so much harder to play than normal bass, unless you are accelled in slap bass tactics.

That was a really awesome artice though, 5 stars.

[bass_maiden]

You've taken the exact words from a book about guitar's that my brother-in-law has... But only in one paragraph, so what the Hell. The rest of the article is excellent.

I did make a list of resources I used, but I might have missed it off the copy/paste I did out of Word when I submitted it. I'll post the sources in here if you like:
http://www.weedhopper.org/Bass_Guitar_History.asp
http://archive.bassplayer.com/z2000/0001/cent1.shtml
http://www.vintageguitar.com/brands/details.asp?ID=46
http://www.b0b.com/infoedu/tutmarc1.html
http://www.clevinger.com/Evolution.htm
http://www.vintageguitar.com/brands/details.asp?ID=110
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_guitar
http://www.surfingpharaoh.com/music_ed/usabass/index.html
http://www.long-mcquade.com/index.asp?section=5&level2=5&level3=9&id=41

Hopefully
that should work And I apologise if I used the EXACT same words, I tried to change any sources I used so it wasn't an exact copy, sorry.

[Dexter Smith]

Steve Harris rulez!...he's the best bassist all round the world

[Scourge441]

It's about time we got an article like this. Nice work. 5 stars.

[Blaque_Spectre]

This is a great article for people that want to learn more about bass guitars and it's history, Great Job!!

[NilsNiiils]

Yay! Bass article! And Steve Harris is the best bassist ever!

[BlesstheMartyr]

oh hell yea this will totally help with my speech *bleh* THNX \,,/

[goldenslumbers]

Very good but i dont think you said anything about Walter Hofner inventing the first semi acoustic electric bass or did i just miss it?