The bass guitar changed the way modern music is played forever. Without it, genres of music wouldn’t be as vibrant or diverse as they are today.
In the 1920’s and earlier, musicians used a double bass to play bass parts in their music. But these instruments were massive, difficult to carry around and hard to amplify.
The first electric bass
The bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass) is a plucked string instrument that is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. Basses are typically tuned to a low-B or C (C sharp or C below middle C), with four to six strings or courses. The instrument is played with a plectrum (pick) or the thumb, and can be played in different styles – from slapping the strings to fingerstyle playing. Bassists have long played an important role in popular music, from the tasteful bass lines of Paul McCartney and Jack Bruce to the psychedelic innovations of Jaco Pastorius. In more recent times, bass players have also started to play with other techniques, such as popping the strings by quickly pulling and releasing them with the index and middle fingers, and strumming the strings in a rasgueado style derived from flamenco guitar performance.
In the early days of the bass guitar, bands relied on a double bassist. These massive instruments were a pain to transport and had to be placed on the floor, but they also produced a tone that was too loud for some genres of music. In the 1950s, Leo Fender created the first modern bass guitar, the Precision Bass, which was much more portable and could be played in any position. The Precision Bass was a huge hit, and had a significant impact on both music and American culture.
The next innovation in the world of bass guitars came in 1960 when Fender released the Jazz Bass, which offered new sounds through its two single-coil pickups and thinner neck than the Precision Bass. This model has been an ever-present feature in many styles of music, from funk to hard rock and doom metal.
Today, there are a wide variety of basses available on the market, from inexpensive beginner models to high-end custom instruments for professional musicians. Regardless of the type of bass you choose, if you want to play this essential instrument, you should look for a local bass tutor on Superprof, and take a few tutorials to learn how to properly use the bass guitar.
The first bass guitar
Despite being one of the least-known instruments, the bass guitar is vital to any modern song. It is the backbone of a band’s rhythm section, helping to keep a beat while establishing a musical framework that other instruments can play off of. In some styles of music, the bassist can even play lead lines. Whether it’s walking bass lines derived from jazz, countermelodies that imitate the snare and bass drum parts of a drum set (Jamerson), doubling a guitar or saxophone part an octave lower (Clarke), or percussive bass runs that provide coloristic and rhythmic effects, the bass is an integral part of most genres of music.
Prior to the creation of the bass guitar, musicians relied on a string instrument that closely resembles today’s double bass to play the bass parts of their songs. However, this was a very bulky and difficult to transport instrument. As a result, musicians sought out a more portable and louder bass instrument that could replace this.
In the 1930’s, Paul Tutmarc developed a bass guitar that was similar to the shape and look of the modern bass guitar. While this instrument was not that popular, it helped pave the way for further innovations in bass guitars.
In 1951, Leo Fender launched the first modern bass guitar, which was named the Precision Bass. This instrument featured metal frets that made it easier for bassists to play precise notes. It was also equipped with a pickup that converted vibrations in the strings into an electrical signal. This helped create a deeper sound for the bass and was a hit with bassists like Jet Harris, James Jamerson, and Rocco Prestia.
A few years later, Fender introduced the Jazz Bass. While it was not as popular as the Precision Bass, this bass had a thinner neck that was easier to play and offered more sounds with its two pickups—one closer to the bridge for better middles and a pickup by the neck for a fuller tone. The Jazz Bass is still a favorite of many bassists today.
The Precision Bass
Bass guitars are plucked string instruments tuned to a low pitch. They can have from four to six strings and are usually longer than electric guitars. They are mainly used in rock and jazz music but have become commonplace in all genres since the mid-1950s when Leo Fender released his first bass guitar, the Precision Bass, which was an immediate success. Until then, most bands relied on the upright bass which was heavy and difficult to transport.
Upright bass players initially viewed the new instrument with contempt, much like guitarists looked down upon the solid body Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars when they were first introduced. However, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and jump jazz musician Shifty Henry were early converts. By the time Elvis Presley’s bass player Bill Black started using a Precision Bass while filming Jailhouse Rock, the wheels were well and truly in motion.
The Precision Bass was designed in 1951 by Leo Fender and it was the first successful bass guitar to be mass-produced. It was based on the six-string Telecaster model and shared several design features including a square, bolt-on neck. The earliest models also had metal frets that made it easier for musicians to play precise notes.
By the 1960s, a number of other bass manufacturers entered the market with their own versions of the electric bass guitar. Examples include the Vega Electric Bass Viol from the 1930s, Regal’s Electrified Double Bass from 1936 and Rickenbacker’s 4001 bass which was introduced at the 1956 Musikmesse Frankfurt trade fair.
The bass guitar is played in a similar way to an electric guitar, and its sound is akin to that of the drums in a rock and roll band. Many bassists use a variety of playing techniques to create unique sounds and musical styles, such as slapping the strings with the thumb (Clarke, Wooten); popping the strings by rapidly pulling and releasing them with the index and middle fingers; and strumming in a rasgueado style derived from flamenco guitar performance. While some bassists are more apt to play melodies, others prefer to use complex scale patterns to create deep, rich and powerful bass sounds.
The Jazz Bass
While the Telecaster and Stratocaster get most of the glory when it comes to Leo Fender’s solid-body guitar creations, he did the same for the bass in 1950. The Precision Bass, or P-Bass, is widely regarded as the first mass-produced electric bass guitar. Designed to replace the upright bass, it incorporated new techniques like slap bass to give the instrument a more pronounced sound. This helped to cut through the noise of other instruments and early sound recordings.
The bass also had a larger fretboard to allow for more notes to be played. This allowed for a variety of playing styles that could be used to create different sounds. For example, players could play walking bass lines that mimicked the bass drum and snare parts of a drum set; countermelodies or imitations of bass guitar or saxophone lines (Jamerson, Ndegeocello); lead bass lines that at once solo and lay down a groove (Clarke); and many others.
As the electric bass gained popularity in jazz music, it also started to be utilized by bands in a range of genres including rock and R&B. It also paved the way for new music genres, such as funk and disco, which relied on the bass to provide a foundation for the rest of the band.
By the ’60s, roundwound strings became popular among bass players as they were brighter than flatwounds and were more responsive to changes in pitch. This is what gave Jaco Pastorius his famous “Jaco Sound.” Pastorius was able to transfer many of the bass-playing techniques that he learned on an upright from the 1920s and 1930s to the fretless Jazz Bass.
In 1961, Fender released the Jazz Bass to appeal to a wider range of musicians than the Precision Bass had. While the Jazz Bass retained the same body design as the Precision, it included two narrower single-coil pickups to offer a wider palette of tones. The neck was also made slightly narrower to make it more comfortable for guitarists switching over to bass. These changes revolutionized the basses’ sound and helped to propel it into the spotlight in a number of musical genres.
At the turn of the 1930s, big band music and jazz were dominating the airwaves. Their boisterous sounds overwhelmed acoustic upright basses. Plus, their bulk was a challenge to transport.
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Several companies developed electrified bass instruments, including the Vega Electric Double Bass, the Rickenbacker Electro Bass Viol and the Regal Electrified Double Bass. But it was Leo Fender who revolutionized the bass guitar by pairing one with an amp.
The Early Years
Bass guitars have a fascinating history, blooming at a crossroads of early electrical innovation and centuries of low-end acoustic evolution. They’re the unsung heroes of many a band’s sound, and one of the most important instruments in modern music.
While bass instruments like double basses and guitarrons have existed for hundreds of years, the first electric bass guitars begin to appear in the 1920s. Jazz musicians seek a smaller version of the unwieldy stand-up bass they use, while vaudeville players look for a way to play their high-powered melodies with more volume than acoustic instruments could provide.
Paul Tutmarc’s 1931 Bass VI was the first solid-body electric bass, and it took a bold step toward the bass we know today. The Bass VI was tuned an octave lower than a standard guitar and used a neck that ran the length of the body, much like a bass drum. Gibson produced a similar instrument in the late 1930s, but it didn’t find much success.
The year 1951 saw Leo Fender introduce his Precision Bass, a revolutionary instrument that changed the face of modern music. By using a ‘fretted’ fingerboard and an electric pickup to convert vibrations in the strings into electricity, the Precision Bass made it easier to play bass notes with accurate pitch and offered more tonal variation than previous instruments. It quickly became a favorite with bassists like Jet Harris (The Shadows), James Jamerson (Motown) and Rocco Prestia.
In the 1960s, funk musicians such as James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone revolutionized music by making the bass the center of their grooves. The bass’s increased prominence paved the way for genres such as funk, soul, disco and even today’s hip-hop.
In the 1970s, manufacturers started offering six-string basses to meet the needs of rock and funk bassists. The Alembic Bass would become a standard in professional bass, offering premium materials and custom-built models for discerning music professionals. Later, companies such as Fender and Hagstrom developed their own mass-produced six-string bass guitars. During this era, fretless basses also began to emerge as well, with virtuoso players such as Victor Wooten playing the revolutionary Supersound H8 bass.
The P-Bass
Bass guitars are used in nearly every genre of music today. However, that wasn’t always the case. The earliest bass guitars were large, heavy, unwieldy and fretless. Before the 1950s, bassists usually played upright double basses, which were hard to carry around and difficult to play precisely. They also couldn’t compete with the volume of an amplified electric guitar. Inventors looked to create an instrument that was lighter, easier to carry and more easily amplified.
Several inventors worked on bass guitars in the 1930s, but none of them came close to meeting musicians’ needs. Tutmarc’s invention was a small six-string bass with a single pickup that could be played acoustically or through an amplifier. It wasn’t until the 1950s that inventors finally started to make instruments that were more suitable for modern music.
In 1951, Leo Fender introduced the Precision Bass – which many consider to be the first modern bass guitar. The Precision Bass was more compact and portable than the double basses that preceded it, and had a neck with frets, which enabled bassists to play accurately on the notes of the scale. The Precision Bass quickly became popular and spawned a new generation of bass players.
The Fender Precision Bass remains a popular choice for bassists today. Its thick body and chunky neck are trademark features of the model, and even the newer versions of this classic design still retain its chunky, vintage look. Bassists who have chosen to use the P Bass include Motown legend James Jamerson (who uses a ‘62 P-Bass, which he nicknames “the funk machine”), bassist for The Rolling Stones Nick Mason, Donald “Duck” Dunn and Carol Kaye, and rockers Pino Palladino and Steve Harris.
In the 1960s, a number of different manufacturers began to make five-string basses, adding a low B string to the standard E A D G tuning. While early efforts at extending the bass range with more strings weren’t very successful, by the mid-seventies high-end luthiers like Carl Thompson, Overwater and Alembic were making multi-string basses that had a distinct sound. The Yamaha BB5000, for example, was the first commercially available production bass with a low B string.
The Jazz Bass
While many aspiring musicians choose to learn the guitar, piano, or violin, very few will try out a bass. It is a unique instrument that has been around for centuries and has played a major role in the development of modern music. Whether it is used as the foundation for a song or as an accent to a solo, a bass player can take songs to the next level. But where did this distinctive and often overlooked instrument come from, and how did it become a part of so many genres of music?
In 1935, American Paul Tutmarc created the first bass-like electric guitar. The model was built with a thin neck, frets, and an electromagnetic pickup that converted the vibrations of the strings into an electronic signal that could be amplified and heard. Tutmarc’s invention was not a commercial success, and manufacturers like Gibson and Rickenbacker continued to work on their own versions of the bass guitar.
By the 1950s, Leo Fender was able to develop the first full-scale electric bass guitar with frets. The Precision Bass made it possible for bassists to read musical notation and became a favorite of artists like Jet Harris (The Shadows), James Jamerson (Motown), and Rocco Prestia. In 1960, Fender released the Jazz Bass with two single-coil pickups. This new bass had a narrower neck and offered more bass and middle tones than the Precision Bass. The Jazz Bass became popular with jazz bassists and helped lay the groundwork for what would later be known as rock ’n’ roll.
In 1961, Rickenbacker released the 4001 bass, which became famous when it was the instrument of choice for Paul McCartney of The Beatles. This marked a pivotal point for the bass guitar, and it quickly grew in popularity across multiple genres of music. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, bass guitar designs continued to evolve, and the instrument was embraced by emerging music trends as well as long-standing ones. Eventually, bass guitars were being used to elevate the sounds of everything from funk to disco.
The Modern Bass
Bass guitars have been around for a while now, but they really took off in the 1960’s and beyond. This is when many musical genres exploded into a dizzying number of subgenres and the bass was there to meet them all, bringing its own distinctive tones and playing styles. From jazz to rock and roll, the bass has become an integral part of modern music.
Before the electric bass, there were upright or double basses thumping away in the background. While they were important for a lot of music, they did not have the same percussive tone that a bass guitar can offer. That is why the electric bass has taken over.
The first of these basses was invented by Paul Tutmarc in the 1930’s. He created a version of the double bass that was played horizontally and looked more like a bass guitar. It wasn’t the most successful of instruments, but it opened the door for others to develop their own versions of the bass.
In 1951, Leo Fender released his Precision Bass in the United States. This instrument was a significant improvement over the double bass because it used metal frets. This made it much easier for musicians to play precise notes on the neck. It also had a bridge pickup with more magnet strength than the standard bass guitar neck pickup. This gave the bass a more solid sound than the single pickup bass guitars that were popular at the time.
Another major development came from Danelectro in 1956 when they introduced their UB-2 bass guitar. This was the first four stringed electric bass guitar that was not based on a longer scale Precision bass guitar. It was also the first bass guitar that had a pickup at the bridge, similar to the guitar’s neck pickup. This gave the bass a very distinct and desirable tone that is still prevalent today in some styles of music.
In 1961, Rickenbacker brought out their 4001 model, which became famous as the bass of choice for Paul McCartney of The Beatles. Fender also continued to improve upon the bass guitar, eventually releasing their Bass VI model in 1963. This bass had a 34″ scale and was tuned an octave lower than a standard guitar, giving it a unique and signature sound.