Bass Guitar History

As far as guitars go, the bass guitar is one of the newest on the scene. It has not even been in existence for a century. Don’t let the name “bass guitar” fool you however. The bass guitar did not actually come from the guitar.

While electric guitars were developed from acoustic guitars, bass guitars were created from the double bass instrument. They were originally known as, and in many cases still are called, electrical bass instruments or the electric bass.

The original bass instruments are the massive classical instruments that have been around for several hundred years. I'm sure you've seen the kind. They are played with the instrument resting on the ground and the musician using a bow across the strings.

The bass guitar as we know it today of course is held with a strap on a musician’s body shoulder and is played using one’s fingers. The bass guitar today is typically played with either plucking or slapping movements of the fingers as opposed to the back and forth of the bow on its original bass and the strumming with a pick of an electrical guitar.

The bass guitar is usually tuned to sound the same as an original big bass with the added benefit of being able to be amplified. In the early part of the 20th century, as music was getting louder, the bass was being drowned out and could not be heard. That is one of the main reasons the search for an electrical bass began.

The Creation of the Bass Guitar

Leo Fender was a visionary and is one of the single most influential people in modern music history. Many may think he had a hand in the creation of the bass guitar. As many great things that he is, the inventor of the bass guitar he is not.

It was Paul Tutmarc in 1935 that developed the first incarnation of the electric bass. It was to be held like a guitar and could be plugged into an amplification device.

However, his instrument never really caught on. It was in 1951 that the bass began earning the spotlight in modern music. Now enter Leo Fender. He created his Fender Precision Bass, which was mass produced and skyrocketed in popularity. Gibson followed and the bass guitar became an important component of jazz groups and nearly all musical styles and bands.

Just as with the electric guitar, Leo Fender capitalized on previous inventions. He tweaked them to his own creative specifications and mass produced them to extreme success. While he should be remembered for his contribution to the bass guitar, let’s not forget the original inventor, Paul Tutmarc.