History of the Bass Guitar

Have you ever wondered where the bass guitar came from? In fact, the bass guitar originated with an inventor from Seattle named Paul Tutmarc. During the 1930’s, Tutmarc created an electric bass guitar that was designed to be played horizontally. A few years later, Audiovox created a fretted bass guitar based on Tutmarc’s model; this guitar was called the Model 736 Electronic Bass Fiddle. Since this new form of guitar was played horizontally versus vertically (like previous bass–like instruments before it), it was easier to transport and easier to play (it now had frets, allowing for accurate notation), and was an all–around better bass than any of the other options of its time. Sadly, this guitar never reached the mass public because it was never reproduced until the 1950’s.

After two decades of waiting, a new bass guitar had arisen. In 1951, Leo Fender produced the first commercial bass guitar, called the Fender Precision Bass. It became the standard henceforth for all other bass guitars to come, and was copied extensively. The Precision Bass featured a curved body with smooth edges for maximum comfort and a single split–coil pickup.

A second guitar helped shape the future of the bass guitar. The Jazz Bass (also known as J–Bass), also produced by Fender, used two single–coil pickups, instead of the original single split–coil pickup in the Precision Bass (sometimes referred to as a P–Bass). One pickup was close to bridge, and the second was in the same place as the original P–Bass pickup. The J–Bass model also features volume and tone controls for each separate pickup. One feature that set the J model apart from the P model was the offset waist on the body. This meant that the curve in the top of the bass guitar’s body was closer to the neck than the curve in the bottom of the guitar. This was not meant for practicality since it did not affect the sound; instead, it simply continued to set the design of the Jazz Bass further apart from previous models.

Up until the 1960’s, all bass guitars were called “Fender basses” because Fender monopolized the market for all bass guitars. In 1969, an instructional book was produced that coined the generic name “electric bass” and allowed for competition to flourish.

Later on, Gibson followed slowly but surely developed their own version of the bass guitar, the EB-1 Bass (1953). They produced further models, straying from the original violin-like design of the EB-1. The feature that set early Gibsons apart from Fenders was the humbucking pickup mounted directly below the neck. Eventually, Gibson’s bass guitar became larger, and two humbucker pickups were utilized.

As the years crept by, many different styles came along, including headless basses, five-string basses, and digital circuit basses, which reproduce the sound of many other basses (this essentially gives you multiple guitars for the price one). However, Paul Tutmarc receives the credit, although not the namesake, for the original bass guitar.