In 2010 we celebrate the 75th birthday of the electric bass guitar. Born in obscurity in 1935, it would eventually lead to a vintage bass guitar known as the P-bass that would one day revolutionize the music industry.
The first electric bass guitar was invented in 1935 by Paul Tutmarc who called his instrument an "electronic bass fiddle." This instrument was fretted with four strings, had a solid body and was designed to be played horizontally. Unfortunately for Mr. Tutmarc his bass fiddle never did catch on, just wasn't any rock-n-roll in those days.
In the late 1940s, however, it began to catch on with some jazz and blues players in the south. It was a lot easier to tune and transport than the large upright bass, which it would later replace in many music genres. It was also louder so that bassists could keep up, volume wise, with their six-string electric guitar playing buddies.
Vintage Bass Guitar Heaven - The Early Years
The modern era of the electric bass started in 1951 when Leo Fender came out with his now legendary "Precision Bass" commonly known as P-bass. Basically it was modeled after his own 6-string "Telecaster" electric guitar. This vintage bass guitar became so popular that it wasn't long before musicians all over the country were abandoning their clunky old upright bass for the new lighter P-bass.
Naturally, when someone invents something that becomes popular others try to imitate it. Gibson tried to counter Fender's success when they introduced their violin-shaped EB-1 model. Although it never achieved the success of the Fender P-bass it did lead to more successful Gibson EB models and has become a collector's item because of its historical importance.
Some of the other collectible vintage bass guitars that came out of the 1950s were the Hofner 500/1 which would later become known as the "Beatles Bass" as this was the model Paul McCartney used in his early Beatle days. Then there was the Danelectro UB2 which was the very first 6 string low-octave bass. Rickenbacker came out with the 4000 in the late 1950s which was the first electric bass with through-neck construction.
The 1960s started with Fender producing their "Jazz Bass" or J-bass which was modeled after its Jazzmaster guitar. Gibson offered up its EB-3 in 1961 and followed that up in 1963 with a true vintage Gibson guitar, the "Thunderbird IV," which was a bass rendition of their popular "Firebird" electric guitar.
In the 1970s advancements in on-board electronics came into being along with different body styles. Alembic was the forerunner in designing active electronics and, as a consulting firm, installed them in guitars used by Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Jack Casady (Jefferson Airplane), to name a few. Eventually Alembic decided to produce its own electric bass and introduced the 72-01 in 1972. Music Man came onto the scene in the early 70s and introduced the "StingRay" bass in 1976. This became the first bass guitar, containing advanced active electronics, which was ever mass produced.
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