Break Away II

The celebrated Fender brand brought the public the initial mass-produced bass guitar in the 50′s. Not long after its release, the Fender Bass Guitar found a place with some of the most popular musicians of the day like William ‘Monk’ Montgomery, Lionel Hampton and Roy Johnson, who had unique musical visions and skilled players in their bands, taking the Fender electric bass and making it a respectable, important instrument in the musical landscape. Gibson, soon after the Fender Precision Bass was offered, constructed a bass that looked unique, more like a violin, than Fender’s. With the unveiling of these two electric bass guitars, the music business was permanently changed; electricity was now ingrained into the world of music.

Fender bass guitars have changed very little since their inception, despite a few small changes over the years. There is a significant demand for genuine vintage Fender basses from the fifties, sixties, and even seventies, because Fender began to create basses that highly deviated from the original models and they were met with extreme dissatisfaction from many bass players.

There are myriad designs for bass guitars currently, not to mention the number of materials it can be made from, and additional factors. It is really all a matter of what suits you best. You’ll more often find wood bass guitar bodies, however you can get graphite and even ebony and other exotic materials to have for your guitar. The sound of each different type of guitar varies, and as such you should sample each one in order to determine your preference. An additional, a lot of professionals select whether or not the neck should have frets. This gives a unique effect on the guitar’s sound, as a bass sans frets will have the strings vibrate on the wooden neck itself.

The distinctive bass sound has become an crucial component of the tonal landscape of popular music, so no matter what kind of bass you get, you’ll have part of music history.

Regardless of the age of a piece of music, there has always been a musical line composed for a bass part. No matter what the instrument is, a bass line is usually always represented in some form or another, from the lower instruments of an orchestra, to the bass notes played by a solo acoustic guitarist, the bass line serves as the foundation and root for the music. Without a bass line to provide a point of reference for the chords and harmony, much of the music we listen to would sound incomplete. As music styles evolved into modern jazz, blues, rock and roll and r&b, there was a need for a new type of bass instrument to provide the necessary strong bass line support. This is when the bass guitar came into play.

Technically, the electric bass guitar was invented in the 1930′s although it never enjoyed a mass popularity at that time. It’s predecessor has existed for many prior years in the form of the double bass or acoustic bass.  With it’s range of tone, techniques and amplification the bass guitar offered a bass sound that was different from any other that had been heard before from more traditional bass instruments. Instead of playing it vertically and either plucking the strings or pulling a bow across the strings, the bass guitar is played just like a regular guitar and is held horizontally. With the exception of a longer neck and having 4 strings instead of 6, the electric bass guitar looks very much like the electric guitar as they both have a solid body that is often shaped the same. Also while similar to an acoustic guitar in playing position, the Fender bass guitar differs in it’s sound production. The bass guitar has pickups underneath it’s strings, the pickups send the sound to the amplifier which the bass is connected to and we hear the notes via the amp’s speakers. With four strings tuned in 4ths just like the four lowest strings of a regular guitar except tuned an octave lower, the bass guitar is similar to the guitar and guitarist sometimes play bass and vice versa. While guitars are primarily strummed and picked, the bass can be played with a variety of techniques as well including, fingering, picking, slapping,thumb play, muting thumping and more. The Fender bass guitar is definitely a rhythm section instrument. When playing and interacting with a good drummer, a good bassist can help shape the feel and pocket of the music in a way that non rhythm section instruments cannot. The electric bass is a special instrument and much more than a 4 string guitar.