Thebass guitar,electric bass guitar (/beɪs/) is the lowest-pitched member of theguitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to anelectric but with a longerneck andscale length. The electric bass guitar most commonly has four strings, though five- and six-stringed models are also built. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has replaced thedouble bass inpopular music due to its lighter weight, smaller size, most models' inclusion offrets for easierintonation, and electromagnetic pickups for amplification.

Bass guitar

Fender Jazz Bass
String instrument
Other names	Electric bass guitar, bass
Classification	String instrument
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	321.322 (Compositechordophone)
Inventor(s)	Paul Tutmarc
Developed	1930s
Playing range
Range of a standard tuned 4-string bass guitar (brackets: 5-string)
Related instruments
Electric guitar Double bass Acoustic bass guitar Ukulele bass Fretless bass Electric upright bass

The bass guitar is usually tuned the same as the double bass, corresponding to pitches oneoctave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar (typicallyE,A,D, andG). It is played with the fingers and thumb or with apick.

Because the electric bass guitar is acoustically a quiet instrument, it requiresexternal amplification, generally viaelectromagnetic orpiezo-electric pickups. It can also be used withdirect input boxes, audio interfaces, mixing consoles, computers, or bass-effects processors which offer headphone jacks.

TheNew Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians refers to this instrument as an "Electric bass guitar, usually with four heavy strings tuned E₁'–A₁'–D₂–G₂."^[1] It also definesbass as "Bass (iv). A contraction of Double bass or Electric bass guitar."Mottola's Cyclopedic Dictionary of Lutherie Terms begins its definition of the instrument as "A bass guitar that produces sound primarily with the aid of electronic devices."^[2] According to some authors the proper term is "electric bass".^[3][4] Common names for the instrument are "bass guitar", "electric bass guitar","electric bass", and simply "bass".^{[5][page needed]} and some authors claim that they are historically accurate.^[6] A bass guitar whose neck lacksfrets is termed afretless bass.

The scale of a bass is defined as the length of thevibrating strings between the nut and the bridge saddles. On a modern 4-string bass guitar, 30" (76 cm) or less is considered short scale, 32" (81 cm) medium scale, 34" (86 cm) standard scale and 35" (89 cm) long scale.^[7]

Bass pickups are attached to the body of the guitar and located beneath the strings. They are responsible for converting the vibrations of the strings into analogous electrical voltage sent as input to aninstrument amplifier.^[8]

Bass guitar strings are composed of a core and winding. The core is a wire which runs through the center of the string and is made of steel, nickel, or analloy.^[9] The winding is a smaller gauge wire wrapped around the core. Bass guitar strings vary by the material and cross-sectional shape of the winding.

Common string variants include roundwound, flatwound, halfwound (groundwound), coated, tapewound and taperwound strings. Roundwound and flatwound strings feature windings with circular and rounded-square cross-sections, respectively, with half-round strings being a hybrid between the two. Coated strings have their surface coated with a synthetic layer while tapewound strings feature a metal core with a plastic winding.^[10][11][12] Taperwound strings have a tapered end where the exposed core sits on the bridge saddle without windings.^[13] The choice of winding has considerable impact on the sound of the instrument, with certain winding styles often being preferred for certain musical genres.^[14]

In the 1930s, musician and inventorPaul Tutmarc ofSeattle, Washington, developed the first electric bass guitar in its modern form, afretted instrument designed to be played horizontally. The 1935 sales catalog for Tutmarc's company Audiovox featured the "Model 736 Bass Fiddle", a solid body electric bass guitar with four strings, a30+1⁄2-inch (775-millimetre) scale length, and a singlepickup.^[15] Around 100 were made during this period.^[16]Audiovox also sold their "Model 236" bass amplifier.^[17]

In the 1950s,Leo Fender andGeorge Fullerton developed the first mass-produced electric bass guitar.^[18] TheFender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company began producing thePrecision Bass, or P-Bass, in October 1951. The design featured a simple uncontoured "slab" body design (with no edge contours) and asingle coil pickup, both features similar to aTelecaster. By 1957, the Precision Bass began to resemble theFender Stratocaster with the body edges beveled for comfort and the pickup changed to a separate halvessplit coil design.^[19]

The Fender Bass was a revolutionary instrument for working musicians. In comparison to theupright bass, the bass guitar could be easily transported. When amplified, the bass guitar was also much less prone than acoustic basses toaudio feedback.^[20] The addition offrets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily than onupright basses, and allowed guitarists to more easily play the instrument.^[21]

In 1953,Monk Montgomery became the first bassist to tour with the Fender bass, inLionel Hampton's postwarbig band.^[22][23] Montgomery was also possibly the first to record with the electric bass, on July 2, 1953, withthe Art Farmer Septet.^[24] Roy Johnson (with Lionel Hampton), andShifty Henry (withLouis Jordan and HisTympany Five), were other early Fender bass pioneers.^[18]Bill Black, who played withElvis Presley andJames Jamerson switched from upright bass to the Fender Precision Bass around 1957.^[25] The bass guitar was intended to appeal to guitarists as well as upright bass players, and many early pioneers of the instrument, such asJoe Osborn, andPaul McCartney were originally guitarists.^[20]

Also in 1953,Gibson released the first short-scaleviolin-shaped electric bass, the EB-1, with an extendable end pin so a bassist could play it upright or horizontally. In 1958, Gibson released the maple arched-topEB-2 described in the Gibson catalog as a "hollow-body electric bass that features a Bass/Baritone pushbutton for two different tonal characteristics". In 1959, these were followed by the more conventional-lookingEB-0 Bass. The EB-0 was very similar to aGibson SG in appearance (although the earliest examples have a slab-sided body shape closer to that of the double-cutawayLes Paul Special). The Fender and Gibson versions usedbolt-on andset necks.

Several other companies also began manufacturing bass guitars during the 1950s.Kay Musical Instrument Company began production of the K162 in 1952. Also in 1956, at the German trade fair "Musikmesse Frankfurt", the distinctiveHöfner 500/1 viola-shaped bass first appeared, constructed using violin techniques by WalterHöfner, a second-generation violin luthier.^[26] Due to its use byPaul McCartney, it became known as the "Beatle bass".^[27] In 1957,Rickenbacker introduced the model 4000, the first bass to feature aneck-through-body design in which the neck is part of the body wood.^[28] TheBurns London Supersound was introduced in 1958.^[25]

With the explosion in popularity ofrock music in the 1960s, many more manufacturers began making electric basses, includingYamaha,Teisco andGuyatone. Introduced in 1960, theFender Jazz Bass, initially known as the "Deluxe Bass", used a body design known as an offset waist which was first seen on theJazzmaster guitar in an effort to improve comfort while playing seated.^[29] The Jazz bass, or J-Bass, features two single-coil pickups.

Providing a more "Gibson-scale" instrument, rather than the 34-inch (864 mm) Jazz and Precision, Fender produced theMustang Bass, a 30-inch (762 mm) scale-length instrument.^[30] TheFender VI, a 6-string bass, was tuned one octave lower than standard guitar tuning. It was released in 1961, and was briefly favored byJack Bruce ofCream.^[31]

Gibson introduced its short-scale 30.5-inch (775 mm)EB-3 in 1961, also used by Bruce.^[32] The EB-3 had a "mini-humbucker" at the bridge position. Gibson basses tended to be instruments with a shorter 30.5"scale length than the Precision. Gibson did not produce a 34-inch (864 mm)-scale bass until 1963 with the release of theThunderbird.^[33]

The first commercial fretless bass guitar was the Ampeg AUB-1, introduced in 1966.^[34] In the late 1960s, eight-string basses, with four octave pairedcourses (similar to a 12 string guitar), were introduced, such as theHagström H8.^[35]

In 1972,Alembic established what became known as "boutique" or "high-end" electric bass guitars.^[36] These expensive, custom-tailored instruments, as used byPhil Lesh,Jack Casady, andStanley Clarke, featured unique designs, premium hand-finished wood bodies, and innovative construction techniques such as multi-laminateneck-through-body construction andgraphite necks. Alembic also pioneered the use of onboard electronics for pre-amplification and equalization.^[37][38]

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). 1976 saw the UK companyWal begin production of their own range of active basses.^[39] In 1974Music Man Instruments, founded by Tom Walker,Forrest White andLeo Fender, introduced theStingRay, the first widely produced bass with active (powered) electronics built into the instrument.^[40] Basses with active electronics can include apreamplifier andknobs for boosting and cutting the low and high frequencies.

In the mid-1970s, five-string basses, with a very low "B" string, were introduced. In 1975, bassistAnthony Jackson commissioned luthierCarl 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.^[41]

• Acoustic bass guitar
• Fretless bass
• Bass guitar tuning
• Bass instrument amplification
• Extended-range bass
• Bass effects
• Pickups
• List of bass guitar manufacturers
• List of bass guitarists

• Bacon, Tony (2010).60 Years of Fender: Six Decades of the Greatest Electric Guitars.Backbeat Books.ISBN 978-0879309664.
• Bacon, Tony; Moorhouse, Barry (2016).The Bass Book: A Complete Illustrated History of Bass Guitars.Backbeat Books.ISBN 978-1-4950-0150-5.
• Black, J. W. (2001).The Fender Bass: An Illustrated History.Hal Leonard.ISBN 0-634-02640-2.
• Boyer, Paul (2013).The Rickenbacker Electric Bass: 50 Years As Rock's Bottom.Hal Leonard.ISBN 978-1-4768-8680-0.
• Evans, Tom; Evans, Mary Ann (1977).Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock.Facts On File.ISBN 0-87196-636-0.
• George, Nelson (1998).Hip Hop America.Viking Press.ISBN 978-0-670-87153-7.
• Roberts, Jim (2001).How The Fender Bass Changed the World. San Francisco, California:Backbeat Books.ISBN 0-87930-630-0.
• Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (2001).The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Second ed.). London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Slog, John J.; Coryat, Karl (1999).The Bass Player Book: Equipment, Technique, Styles and Artists.Backbeat Books.ISBN 0-87930-573-8.
• Trynka, Paul (1996).Rock Hardware.Hal Leonard.ISBN 0-87930-428-6.
• Wheeler, Tom (1978).The Guitar Book: A Handbook for Electric and Acoustic Guitarists.Harper & Row.ISBN 0-06-014579-X.