Electric Bass Guitar

The bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; pronounced /'be?s/, as in "base") is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb (either by plucking, slapping, popping, tapping, or thumping), or by using a plectrum. The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and scale length, with four, sometimes five, or six strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, which correspond to pitches one octave lower than those of the four lower strings of a guitar (E, A, D, and G). The bass guitar is a transposing instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds (as is the double bass) in order to avoid the excessive use of ledger lines. Like the electric guitar, the electric bass guitar is plugged into an amplifier and speaker for live performances (Jisi, 12-27). Since the 1950s, the electric bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While the types of basslines performed by the bass guitarist vary widely from one style of music to another, the bass guitarist fulfills a similar role in most types of music: anchoring the harmonic framework and laying down the beat. The bass guitar is used in many styles of music including rock, metal, pop, ska, punk rock, country, blues, and jazz. It is used as a soloing instrument in jazz, fusion, Latin, funk, and in some rock and heavy metal styles (Jisi, 12-27).

In the 1930s, musician and inventor Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, Washington, developed the first electric string bass in its modern form, a fretted instrument designed to be held and played horizontally. The 1935 sales catalog for Tutmarc's company, Audiovox, featured his "Electric Bass Fiddle," a four-stringed, solid-bodied, fretted electric bass instrument with a 30½-inch scale length. The change to a "guitar" form made the instrument easier to hold and transport, and the addition of frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily (electric bass, 101-2).

This horizontally held Model 736 electric bass fiddle was the final design from an earlier model electric bass fiddle more traditionally viol-shaped. This intermediate step from a traditional upright bass to modern form electric bass is described in an interview with Paul Tutmarc himself. The February 17, 1935, issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper broke the story of the beginnings of Tutmarc's quest to create a new instrument with an article headlined, "Pity Him No More - New Type Bull Fiddle Devised." and includes "Paul Tutmarc, Seattle music teacher and KOMO radio artist, has invented an electric bull-fiddle (electric bass, 101-2). One you can carry under your arm. And it doesn't even need a bow, either. You pluck a string - and out of the electric amplifier comes a rich, deep tone, sustained as if five or six bass violinists were bowing five or six bass-violins with masterly ...