The Origin of The Electric Bass Guitar

May 13, 2010 - PRLog -- The shape of bass is almost similar to the electric guitar invention by Adolph Rickenbacker.  Although Rickenbacker invented the electric rhythm and lead guitar while Paul Tutmarc of Seattle, Washington was the inventor of bass guitar in 1930.

Xaviera Arata Editor of the  Learn To Play The Guitar  website -- http://www.LearnToPlayTheGuitar.tv -- pointed out;

“…Instruments handmade by highly skilled luthiers are becoming increasingly available. Bass bodies are typically made of wood although other materials such as graphite have also been used…” Added Xaviera Arata

While a wide variety of woods are suitable for use in the body, neck, and fretboard of the bass guitar, the most common type of wood used for the body is alder, for the neck is maple, and for the fretboard is rosewood. Other commonly used woods include mahogany, maple, ash, and poplar for bodies, mahogany for necks, and maple and ebony for fretboards.  

Tutmarc's company Audiovox, in 1935, featured an electronic bass fiddle. It has four-stringed body that is fretted with a 30 inch length. Its new form made it possible for people to hold it and transport it easily. The frets in the guitar also allows bassists to be more in tune and more able to learn. Tutmarc's inventions were never really picked up by the public and further development was done in 1950s before the new shape took better form. Leo Finder then developed the first mass-produced electric bass guitar in the country.

His Fender Precision Bass was then sold in the market in 1951. It became an industry standard that everybody copied. The Precision Bass was taken from an uncontoured "slab" body design that is similar to the Telecaster with a single coil pickup, to a contoured body design with beveled edges for comfort and a single four-pole "single coil pickup." This "split pickup", introduced in 1957, appears to have been two mandolin pickups.  

The pole pieces of the coils were reversed with respect to each other. The same goes with the leads which were reversed with respect to each other, the two coils, wired in series, produced a humbucking effect.  Monk Montgomery was the first bass player to tour with the Fender bass guitar, with Lionel Hampton's postwar big band Roy Johnson, who replaced Montgomery in Hampton's band, and Shifty Henry with Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five other early Fender Bass pioneers. Bill Black, who played with Elvis Presley, used the Fender Precision Bass around 1957.  

“…From Tutmarc's invention guided the new generation of bass guitar designers to modernize the instrument…” Added Xaviera Arata

Further information, resources and reviews of the best learn to play the guitar guides you can get online by visiting: http://www.LearnToPlayTheGuitar.tv