{"id":15540,"date":"2018-06-18T22:09:36","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T22:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roadietuner.com\/?post_type=blog&p=15540"},"modified":"2020-07-08T08:03:12","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T08:03:12","slug":"all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roadiemusic.com\/blog\/all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101\/","title":{"rendered":"All About that Bass: Bass Guitar History 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

The electric bass guitar<\/a> is a staple of modern music. Whether you\u2019re playing rock, pop, jazz, hip-hop or anything in between, it\u2019s the bass that\u2019s most likely holding down the bottom-end.<\/p>\n

Electric basses are ubiquitous, but, like their electric guitar counterparts, they\u2019re actually a fairly modern innovation.<\/p>\n

Up until the mid-1950’s, the upright, double bass was still the rhythm player\u2019s instrument of choice. It was only with the innovation of the Fender P-Bass \u2013 still the most iconic bass guitar ever made \u2013 that the electric bass really started gaining traction. But, while Leo Fender<\/a> is largely credited as the man who amplified bass, there were a couple of early pioneers that set the stage.<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019re learning all about the history of the electric bass: how it came to be, why it came to be, and the innovators responsible for its development.<\/p>\n

Replacing Double Bass<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As we\u2019ve already mentioned, the double bass was still the king of bass guitars well up until the 1950’s. So why did electric bass steal its crown? For two reasons.<\/p>\n

Firstly, electric basses were impractical. They were heavy, difficult to carry and presented serious logistical<\/a> challenges for the hapless bassist.<\/p>\n

Secondly, they were increasingly being drowned out as styles and venues of music changed. Amplification was becoming more and more common in live music performance and the traditional double bass simply couldn\u2019t be heard over its increasingly electrified counterparts.<\/p>\n

Early innovation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re up on your Gibson guitar history, you\u2019re probably familiar with the name Lloyd Loar<\/a>. One of the company\u2019s luthier legends, it was Loar who started developing an electrified version of the bass in the 1920’s. His instrument featured a semi-solid body that retained the double bass\u2019s upright design. But, Gibson didn\u2019t see the potential.<\/p>\n

The problems were twofold. Loar had used an electrostatic pick-up in the instrument, which was susceptible to popping and crackling. Secondly, the amplification of the era struggled to recreate the low-end frequencies of the double bass. Between the toppy tone and the noisy, unreliable pick-ups, Loar\u2019s design was unfortunately a non-starter. (And of course, they didn’t have Roadie Bass<\/a> back then to help with tuning…)<\/p>\n

Basses taking shape<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Gibson and Rickenbacker experimented with other electric bass designs throughout the 1930’s, but they didn\u2019t come to much. It was in the 1940s, and thanks to the work of Paul Tutmarc<\/a> Jr., that the modern bass guitar finally took shape.<\/p>\n

Tutmarc\u2019s instrument \u2013 named the Serenader \u2013 was compact, lightweight, fretted and designed to be played horizontally. Looking at it, it\u2019s basic, but discernibly a bass guitar.<\/p>\n

The Bassman rises<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tutmarc\u2019s work came on leaps and bounds from the Loar\u2019s early experiments. But, sales wise, it didn\u2019t catch on.<\/p>\n

It would be another decade before the bass guitar as we know it truly arrived, thanks to Leo Fender\u2019s P-Bass design in 1951.<\/p>\n

The P-Bass was a winner for a few reasons. Economical and ergonomic Fender design and a magnetic single coil pick up that provided good tone were certainly factors.<\/p>\n

But where Leo really succeeded was pairing the bass with an amp. The concurrent release of the Fender Bassman brought to the market an amp that could actually deliver low bass frequencies.<\/p>\n

It finally made the instrument viable to players making the switch from upright, and was the key factor in the popularization of the electric bass guitar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":15541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224],"tags":[1294,1299,1320,1335,1345],"class_list":["post-15540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting-facts-info","tag-level_beginner","tag-genre_rock","tag-content_topics","tag-topics_history","tag-instrument_bass"],"yoast_head":"\nAll About that Bass: Bass Guitar History 101 - Roadie Music Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roadiemusic.com\/blog\/all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"All About that Bass: Bass Guitar History 101\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.roadiemusic.com\/blog\/all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Roadie Music Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RoadieOfficial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-18T22:09:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-08T08:03:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.roadiemusic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/allaboutbass-e1529384545413.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"833\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"555\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@roadieofficial\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@roadieofficial\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roadiemusic.com\\\/blog\\\/all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roadiemusic.com\\\/blog\\\/all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"All About that Bass: Bass Guitar History 101\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-18T22:09:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-08T08:03:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roadiemusic.com\\\/blog\\\/all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":584,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roadiemusic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roadiemusic.com\\\/blog\\\/all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roadiemusic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/allaboutbass-e1529384545413.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Level_Beginner\",\"Genre_Rock\",\"Content_Topics\",\"Topics_History\",\"Instrument_Bass\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Curations\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roadiemusic.com\\\/blog\\\/all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roadiemusic.com\\\/blog\\\/all-about-that-bass-bass-guitar-history-101\\\/\",\"name\":\"All About that Bass: Bass Guitar History 101 - 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