An example of a fretless bass's fingerboard.

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Bass

The electric bass guitar (or "electric bass"; pronounced /ˈbeɪs/, as in "base") is a bass stringed instrument played with the fingers (either by plucking, slapping, popping, or tapping) or using a pick. more...

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The bass is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and scale length, and usually four strings tuned one octave lower in pitch than the four lower strings of a guitar.

Since the 1950s, the electric bass has replaced the double bass in popular music. The bass provides the low-pitched bassline(s) and bass runs in many different styles of music ranging from rock and metal to blues and jazz. The electric bass is also used as a soloing instrument in jazz, fusion, Latin, funk, and rock styles.

History

1930s:

In the 1930s, inventor Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, Washington, developed a guitar-style electric bass instrument that was fretted and designed to be held and played horizontally. The 1935 sales catalogue for Tutmarc's company, Audiovox, also featured a solid body six-string electric guitar, one of the earliest fretted, solid body electric basses that was designed to be played horizontally . The change to a "guitar" form made the instrument easier to hold and transport, and the addition of guitar-style frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily and made the new electric bass easier to learn. However, Tutmarc's inventions never caught the public imagination, and little further development of the instrument took place until the 1950s.

1950s-1960s:

In the 1950s, Leo Fender developed the first mass-produced electric bass. His Fender Precision Bass, introduced in 1951, became a widely copied industry standard. The Precision Bass (or "P-bass") evolved from a simple, uncontoured 'slab' body design similar to that of a Telecaster with a single piece, a contoured body design with beveled edges for comfort and a single four-pole "split coil pickup."

First introduced in 1960, The Jazz Bass was known as the Deluxe Bass and was meant to accompany the Jazzmaster guitar. The Jazz Bass (often referred to as a "J-bass") featured two single-coil pickups, one close to the bridge and one in the Precision bass' position. The earliest production basses had a 'stacked' volume and tone control for each pickup. This was soon changed to the familiar configuration of a volume control for each pickup, and a single, passive tone control. The Jazz Bass' neck was narrower at the nut than the Precision bass (1 1/2" vs 1 3/4").

Another visual difference that set the Jazz Bass apart from the Precision is its "offset-waist" body. 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. Fender also began production of the Mustang Bass; a 30" scale length instrument used by bassists such as Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads ("P" and "J" basses have a scale length of 34").