The bass guitar, electric bass, or simply bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family.

It
is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic
guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the
mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music.
The four-string bass is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches
one octave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar (E, A, D, and G). It is played
primarily with the fingers or thumb, or by striking with a pick. The electric bass guitar
has pickups and must be connected to an amplifier and speaker.

Contents

 1Terminology
 2History
o 2.11930s
o 2.21950s
o 2.31960s
o 2.41970s
o 2.51980s–present
 3Fretless basses
 4Strings and tuning
 5Pickups and amplification
o 5.1Magnetic pickups
o 5.2Non-magnetic pickups
o 5.3Amplification and effects
 6See also
 7References
o 7.1Sources
 8External links

Terminology[edit]
According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, an "Electric bass guitar [is] a Guitar,
usually with four heavy strings tuned E1'–A1'–D2–G2."[1] It also defines bass as "Bass (iv). A contraction
of Double bass or Electric bass guitar." According to some authors the proper term is "electric bass".
[2][3]
 Common names for the instrument are "bass guitar", "electric bass guitar", and "electric bass"[citation
needed]
 and some authors claim that they are historically accurate.[4] As the electric alternative to a
double bass (which is not a guitar), many manufacturers such as Fender list the instrument in the
electric bass category rather than guitar.
The bass guitar is a transposing instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it
sounds, to reduce the need for ledger lines in music written for the instrument, and simplify reading.
[citation needed]

History[edit]
1930s[edit]
Paul Tutmarc, inventor of the modern bass guitar, outside his music store in Seattle, Washington

In the 1930s, musician and inventor Paul Tutmarc of Seattle, Washington, developed the first electric
bass guitar in its modern form, a fretted instrument designed to be played horizontally. The 1935
sales catalog for Tutmarc's company Audiovox featured his "Model 736 Bass Fiddle", a solid-bodied
electric bass guitar with four strings, a 30 1⁄2-inch (775-millimetre) scale length, and a single pickup.
[5]
 Around 100 were made during this period.[6] Audiovox also sold their “Model 236” bass amplifier.[7]

1950s[edit]
An early Fender Precision Bass

In the 1950s, Leo Fender and George Fullerton developed the first mass-produced electric bass

guitar.[8] The Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company began producing the Precision
Bass, or P-Bass, in October 1951. The design featured a simple uncontoured "slab" body design
and a single coil pickup similar to that of a Telecaster. By 1957 the Precision more closely
resembled the Fender Stratocaster with the body edges beveled for comfort, and the pickup was
changed to a split coil design.[9]
Design patent issued to Leo Fender for the second-generation Precision Bass.

The Fender Bass was a revolutionary instrument for gigging musicians. In comparison with the large,
heavy upright bass, which had been the main bass instrument in popular music from the early 20th
century to the 1940s, the bass guitar could be easily transported to shows. When amplified, the bass
guitar was also less prone than acoustic basses to unwanted audio feedback.[10] The addition
of frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily than on fretless acoustic or electric upright
basses, and allowed guitarists to more easily transition to the instrument.[11]
In 1953, Monk Montgomery became the first bassist to tour with the Fender bass, in Lionel
Hampton's postwar big band.[12] Montgomery was also possibly the first to record with the electric
bass, on July 2, 1953, with the Art Farmer Septet.[13] Roy Johnson (with Lionel Hampton), and Shifty
Henry (with Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five), were other early Fender bass pioneers.[8] Bill
Black, who played with Elvis Presley, switched from upright bass to the Fender Precision Bass
around 1957.[14] The bass guitar was intended to appeal to guitarists as well as upright bass players,
and many early pioneers of the instrument, such as Carol Kaye, Joe Osborn, and Paul
McCartney were originally guitarists.[10]
Also in 1953, Gibson released the first short-scale violin-shaped electric bass, with an extendable
end pin so a bassist could play it upright or horizontally. Gibson renamed the bass the EB-1 in 1958.
[citation needed]
 In 1958, Gibson released the maple arched-top EB-2 described in the Gibson catalog as a
"hollow-body electric bass that features a Bass/Baritone pushbutton for two different tonal
characteristics".[citation needed] In 1959, these were followed by the more conventional-looking EB-0 Bass.
[citation needed]
 The EB-0 was very similar to a Gibson SG in appearance (although the earliest examples
have a slab-sided body shape closer to that of the double-cutaway Les Paul Special). Whereas
Fender basses had pickups mounted in positions in between the base of the neck and the top of the
bridge, many of Gibson's early basses featured one humbucking pickup mounted directly against the
neck pocket.[citation needed] The Fender and Gibson versions used bolt-on and glued-on necks.
Several other companies also began manufacturing bass guitars during the 1950s. 1956 saw the
appearance at the German trade fair "Musikmesse Frankfurt" of the distinctive Höfner 500/1 violin-
shaped bass, made using violin construction techniques by Walter Höfner, a second-generation
violin luthier.[citation needed] The design became known as the "Beatle bass" for its use
by Beatles bassist Paul McCartney. In 1957, Rickenbacker introduced the model 4000, the first bass
to feature a neck-through-body design in which the neck is part of the body wood.[citation needed] Kay
Musical Instrument Company began production of the K-162 in 1952, Danelectro released the
Longhorn in 1956, and Burns London/Supersound in 1958.[14]

1960s[edit]
Gibson EB-3

With the explosion in popularity of rock music in the 1960s, many more manufacturers began making
electric basses, including Yamaha, Teisco and Guyatone. Introduced in 1960, the Fender Jazz Bass,
initially known as the "Deluxe Bass", was intended to accompany the Jazzmaster guitar.[citation needed] The
"J-bass" featured two single-coil pickups, one close to the bridge and one in the Precision bass's
split coil pickup position. The earliest production Jazz basses had a pair of concentric (or "stacked")
knobs to control volume and tone for each pickup; this was soon changed to the present
configuration of a volume control for each pickup, and a single passive tone control.
The Jazz Bass's neck was narrower at the nut than the Precision bass — 1 1⁄2 inches (38 mm)
versus 1 3⁄4 inches (44 mm) — allowing for easier access to the lower strings and an overall spacing
and feel closer to that of an electric guitar, allowing trained guitarists to transition to the bass guitar
more easily.[citation needed] Another visual difference that set the Jazz Bass apart from the Precision is its
"offset-waist" body.[further explanation needed]
Pickup shapes on electric basses are often referred to as "P" or "J" pickups in reference to the visual
and electrical differences between the Precision Bass and Jazz Bass pickups.[citation needed] In the 1950s
and 1960s, all bass guitars were often called the "Fender bass", due to Fender's early dominance in
the market.
Providing a more "Gibson-scale" instrument, rather than the 34 inches (864 mm) Jazz and Precision,
Fender produced the Mustang Bass, a 30-inch (762 mm) scale-length instrument.[citation
needed]
 The Fender VI, a 6 string bass, was tuned one octave lower than standard guitar tuning. It was
released in 1961, and was briefly favored by Jack Bruce of Cream.[citation needed]
Gibson introduced its short-scale 30 1⁄2-inch (775 mm) EB-3 in 1961, also used by Bruce.[15] The EB-3
had a "mini-humbucker" at the bridge position. Gibson basses tended to be smaller, sleeker
instruments with a shorter scale length than the Precision; Gibson did not produce a 34-inch
(864 mm)-scale bass until 1963 with the release of the Thunderbird, which was also the first Gibson
bass to use two humbucking pickups in a more traditional position, about halfway between the neck
and bridge.[citation needed]

1970s[edit]

Rickenbacker 4001 bass

In 1971, Alembic established what became known as "boutique" or "high-end" electric bass guitars.

[citation needed]
 These expensive, custom-tailored instruments, as used by Phil Lesh, Jack Casady,
and Stanley Clarke, featured unique designs, premium hand-finished wood bodies, and innovative
construction techniques such as multi-laminate neck-through-body construction and graphite necks.
Alembic also pioneered the use of onboard electronics for pre-amplification and equalization.[citation
needed]
 Active electronics increase the output of the instrument, and allow more options for controlling
tonal flexibility, giving the player the ability to amplify as well as to attenuate certain frequency
ranges while improving the overall frequency response (including more low-register and high-register
sounds). 1973 saw the UK company Wal begin production of a their own range of active basses.[citation
needed]
 In 1974 Music Man Instruments, founded by Tom Walker, Forrest White and Leo Fender,
introduced the StingRay, the first widely produced bass with active (powered) electronics built into
the instrument.[citation needed] Basses with active electronics can include a preamplifier and knobs for
boosting and cutting the low and high frequencies.
In the mid-1970s, Alembic and other high-end manufacturers, such as Tobias, began offering five-
string basses, with a very low "B" string.[citation needed] In 1975, bassist Anthony Jackson commissioned
luthier Carl Thompson to build a six-string bass tuned (low to high) B0, E1, A1, D2, G2, C3, adding a
low B string and a high C string.[16] These five- and six-string "extended-range basses" would become
popular with session bassists, reducing the need for re-tuning to alternate detuned configurations
like "drop D", and also allowing the bassist to play more notes from the same fretting position with
fewer shifts up and down the fingerboard, a crucial benefit for a session
player sightreading basslines at a recording session.[citation needed]