Fender's Precision Bass freed bands from the upright
The electric bass guitar—usually four strings tuned E–A–D–G an octave below a guitar's lowest strings—was built mid-century to replace the bulky double bass onstage. Lighter, fretted, and amplifyable, it became rock, jazz, and pop's low-end backbone after Leo Fender's Precision Bass entered production in October 1951.
Paul Tutmarc of Seattle marketed the Audiovox Model 736 Bass Fiddle in 1935: a solid-body fretted four-string with 30½-inch scale and one pickup—about a hundred made—plus a Model 236 amp. Mass production waited for Fender and George Fullerton. The 1951 Precision Bass began as a slab-bodied, Telecaster-like single-coil instrument; by 1957 it gained Strat-like contours and a split-coil pickup. Frets promised the "precision" intonation upright players struggled for, and electromagnetic pickups solved the double bass's acoustic compromises without a cello-sized body.
Monk Montgomery toured with Lionel Hampton's band on Fender bass in 1953 and may have been first to record it (Art Farmer Septet, 2 July 1953). Bill Black and James Jamerson switched around 1957; guitarists such as Joe Osborn and Paul McCartney crossed over. Gibson answered with the violin-shaped EB-1 (1953), EB-2 (1958), and SG-like EB-0 (1959); Höfner's 500/1 "Beatle bass" debuted at Frankfurt in 1956; Rickenbacker's neck-through 4000 arrived in 1957. Fender's Jazz Bass (1960) added dual single-coils and an offset waist; the Ampeg AUB-1 (1966) was the first commercial fretless.
Scale lengths run short (≤30") to long (35"), with 34" standard. Boutique Alembic work from 1972 brought onboard preamps; Music Man's 1974 StingRay popularized active electronics. Five-string low-B basses spread in the mid-1970s; Anthony Jackson's 1975 Carl Thompson six-string added high C as well.
From Tutmarc's catalog curiosity to every backline, the quietest guitar family member still needs a speaker to be heard—and then anchors everything else.
Source: Bass guitar
