The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: Chris P. on November 19, 2021, 04:17:53 AM
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I'm thinking about an item for my magazine about the 25? 30? most infuential basses. I ask you, cos I don't want to spoil it to Dutch readers in Dutch forums.
I made a random list and maybe you can help me. Which bass should be out and which in? The order is completely random. I don't think the Chapman Stick should be in it, but maybe the first 'lawsuit' Japanese basses? If zo, which one? The graphite Status Buzzard? The Fender Stu Hamm, being the first signature bass, apart from the Les Paul Signature? The Dano Longhorn?
The descriptions are very short for now, I know.
Thanks in advance!!!
1 Fender P
Logical
2 Fender J
Logical + funk + slap
3 Fender Mustang
First Fender short scale, last design by Leo for Fender, Fender competes Gibson.
4 Fender V
Something else and people do string their normal 5 like this
5 Fender VI
Beatles, Cream, hip again, played by guitarists, special sound
6 Gibson EB2/Rivoli
The British Invasion sound
7 Gibson EB0/3
Radar Love, Cream, Gibson's first succesfull bass, and almost a reason we all could have been playing 30"
8 Gibson Thunderbird
Neck-through, designed by a car designer, father of all metal basses
9 Gibson Les Paul Signature. Along with the other LP basses, low impedance and back as the succesful Epiphone JCS.
10 Burns Bison
The British studio bass, low impedance, special electronics.
11 Shergold Marathon 6
Peter Hook with his own style and sound
12 Jaydee
Mark King, a bit of a European Alembic
13 Ampeg see through
Well known bass without a wooden body
14 Alembic .....
First boutique bass
15 Rickenbacker 4001/4003
Neck through, many famous players
16 Kramer
Aluminium neck (aluminum for Americans)
17 Steinberger
Headless, bodyless
18 Aristides 050
Bass made of a special ceramic, which sounds like wood
19 Music Man StingRay
First active bass produces in series
20 Höfner 500/1
Macca
21 Danelectro VI
Long before the Fender VI.
22 Warwick Thumb
Start of the Warwick sound and a nineties icon
23 Ibanez Musician Bass
First affordable boutique bass?
24 Carl Thompson
First six string for Anthony Jackson
25 Paul Tutmarc
First real bass guitar
26 An acoustic bass guitar
27 Dingwall
Fanned frets
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I’d add Jimmy Johnson’s first Alembic five string with a low B . That started that .
Maybe a mid 60’s Matsumoku copy of a Fender , Ric , or Gibson . Perhaps with a Greco or Ibanez badge .
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Without looking at your list first, here's mine.
Fender P (original)
Fender P (split pickup)
Fender J
Ric 4000 series
Gibson EB-0/EB-3
Gibson EB-2
Hofner Beatle bass
Gibson Thunderbird
Alembic Series I/II
Alembic 5er (Morrow's idea, and I agree)
MM StingRay
Ibanez Musician
Spector NS
Steinberger
Modulus Quantum
I'm a little on the fence about the Spector, but I feel like they bridged the gap between "boutique" and "rock and roll" basses.
The Ibanez showed that the Japanese could 1) Do their own thing, and 2) compete with the boutique builders at an affordable price.
Now to look at Chris' list...
AND, most of mine are on there! Good call on Carl Thompson, Paul Tutmarc, and Dingwall. Bass VI was a maybe for me.
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I’d add Jimmy Johnson’s first Alembic five string with a low B . That started that .
That Alembic was the first BEADG bass.
But I think the real revolution started with a Yamaha in the early eighties. And not much later MusicMan followed.
That's when the whole bass world suddenly wanted to play a low B.
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Thanks guys! Basvarken already e-mailed me back with some good stuff. But the first fiver, the Spector NS, Modulus... All great additions!
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There were a number of Italian instruments in the 60’s that seemed to have a big influence on the early Japanese instruments before the copies became so popular . There were a lot of switches on them . Space age things . Goya and Eko were the big names but there were a bunch of others .
And then the Japanese focus shifted to designs inspired by the major American builders .
But because the early Japanese imports were cheap they were everywhere . The cheaper American instruments could not compete and Airline , Danelectro , Harmony and the rest disappeared .
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Influential, well...
Audiovox 736 - now that we know Leo knew about Tutmarc's bass years before designing his own bass
Fender P MkI, obviously
Fender Bass V - first multi-string bass
Gibson EB1 - first viol shaped bass, influenced Walter Hofner
Rickenbacker 4000 - first nech-thru bass and the first with elongated top horn
Steinberger L Series - first headless/bodyless/composite bass
Alembic - for popularizing active electronics
Ampeg AUB-1 scroll bass - first fretless bass guitar
Ampeg baby bass - first popular EUB
Dano Longhorn - first 2-octave neck
Earthwood - one of the first acoustic basses, and the best sounding
Bootsy's original star bass - for making a point
Anthony Jackson's Carl Thompson Contrabass - first BEADGC bass
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Thanks, great additions!
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I did some thinking and took all your choices - and my own - in consideration again. I'm not ready yet, but my list is now as follows. The 25 can be in the mag and the runners up on our website.
1 Fender P
2 Fender J
3 Fender V
4 Gibson EB2/Rivoli
5 Gibson EB0/3
6 Gibson Thunderbird
7 Alembic series I / II
8 Rickenbacker 4001/4003
9 Steinberger L
10 Alembic 5er with props for Yamaha and MM
11 Music Man StingRay
12 Höfner 500/1
13 Danelectro VI
14 Warwick Thumb
15 Ibanez Musician Bass
16 Carl Thompson for Anthony Jackson
17 Paul Tutmarc / Audiovox 736
18 Dingwall fanned fret
19 Earthwood acoustic bass
20 Framus Triumph / Ampeg baby bass
21 Hagstrom 8 or Hamer 12
22 Dano Longhorn
23 Ampeg AUB-1 scroll bass - first fretless bass guitar
24 Lawsuit copies Japan
25 Ibanez showed that the Japanese could 1) Do their own thing, and 2) compete with the boutique builders at an affordable price.
Runners up:
1 Gibson Les Paul Signature.
2 Burns Bison
3 Shergold Marathon 6
4 Aristides 050
5 Gibson EB1
6 Fender VI
7 Bootsy's original star bass - for making a point
8 Modulus Quantum
9 I'm a little on the fence about the Spector (NS), but I feel like they bridged the gap between "boutique" and "rock and roll" basses.
10 Kramer
11 Fender Mustang
12 Jaydee Mark King
13 Ampeg see through
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(all in random order)
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Ibanez never actually made any basses , that was contracted out to various factories .
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That's a bold statement...
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I would think Spector, Tobias, Ken Smith and Fodera should be included. Sadowsky probably deserves some recognition for taking the Fender platform to a boutique level. No Ripper or Grabber love?
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This is an interesting list of Japanese manufacturers and the various badges instruments were sold under . And Ibanez just appears as a badge , not a factory .
https://spinditty.com/instruments-gear/Japanese-Manufacturers-of-Made-In-Japan-Badged-Guitars-from-1950-to-1980
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Well, in that case you could also say that Epiphone never made bass guitars. Not even in the USA. :mrgreen:
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Yup . Epiphone never made electric basses until they were bought by Gibson . The Rivoli was made in the Gibson Kalamazoo plant . Alongside the EB2 . I have a Cromwell lap steel , another badge used by Gibson .
Epiphone did make uprights before Gibson bought them .
The Japanese factories are really confusing though . Ibanez might have been using several factories at the same time , and each factory might have been selling the same instrument under various badges . That would be like Gibson contracting Danelectro or Kay to make a cheaper Epiphone .
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The Epiphone and Ibanez situations aren't equivalent. The Epiphone company was and is completely owned by Gibson, and the original Epi basses were made in a Gibson-owned factory. Ibanez has always been a brand name owned by Hoshino, and always contracted out.
Still, Ibanez is every bit a real brand with its own designs.
Chris is talking about influential basses, not who manufactured what.
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The Epiphone and Ibanez situations aren't equivalent. The Epiphone company was and is completely owned by Gibson, and the original Epi basses were made in a Gibson-owned factory. Ibanez has always been a brand name owned by Hoshino, and always contracted out.
Still, Ibanez is every bit a real brand with its own designs.
Chris is talking about influential basses, not who manufactured what.
That fits what I have heard, Dave. Wasn't Matsumoku the Gibson-owned factory? I understand that factory made Epis along with Univox, Lyle and some other brands, and I believe that Gibson staff trained the Matsu workers to build the guitars, but I didn't know that Matsu was Gibson-owned.
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What I meant was that in the sixties Epiphone basses were built in the Kalamazoo factory. So according to Morrow's opinion Epiphone did not make bass guitars.
I don't think this discussion is relevant to the topic that Chris started. He is asking which bass guitars have been the most influential. Not which factory has built whatever brand.
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It's "Ampeg Dan Armstrong". Jeez. I thought I was among the elite here...
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What I meant was that in the sixties Epiphone basses were built in the Kalamazoo factory. So according to Morrow's opinion Epiphone did not make bass guitars.
I don't think this discussion is relevant to the topic that Chris started. He is asking which bass guitars have been the most influential. Not which factory has built whatever brand.
Yup! Getting off course here Commanders.
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What about the Vox Wyman?
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What about the Vox Wyman?
Are you sure it was a very influential design?
I'd also look for the origins of the boutique amoeba/organic shapes. Ritter maybe?
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Are you sure it was a very influential design?
No, that's why I put the question mark there. ;D
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I think it was the first, or one of the first, oddly shaped basses. Maybe it deserves a mention for that.
Other than the cool shape it was a poorly made and awful sounding Italian bass.
https://youtu.be/eKa9VUlpWNY
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My first bass was a Vox Spyder IV. Tone like hitting a wet cardboard box. The finish was way too thick. But it wasn't poorly made.
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The phantoms were well made and came with a free baseball bat.
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I really don't understand the Mustang on that list. Not that popular at all - then or now (more now, but still - it's what people get when they want a P but fear the long scale). Likewise both the V and VI? I'd say loose the V - esoteric.
Shergold Marathon 6 - really? Y'all know I'm a JD/NO fan but 1 star player does not an influential bass make.
I love LoZ Gibsons, but again, not that influential. Nobody else even picked up on the pickup design.
Aristides - ok do you want influential or interesting, because sure it's nerdworthy but I dunno about influential.
If you're including a Dano, better be a longhorn (sure they had the first VI, but the only person that influenced was maybe Leo Fender).
And I hope your list wasn't in any sort of order.
You may also want to consider the EB1, sure it didn't pan out but it was the 2nd to market, first with a set neck, shape begat the Hofner, and the sidewinder pickup design carried through to not just subsequent Gibson bass models, but influenced their guitar pickups too. Also unique (first anyway - someone else did this later but forget who) with the vertical playing a la double bass with the telescopic leg. Also set the standard for short scale length.
Wal might make the list - very popular for a time.... but then you might have to include the Gibson EB4 because they totally copped the pickup design, though it was more successful when Wal did it.
In addition to Alembic being the first boutique bass, it also popularised active electronics and dummy coils.
Oh - BC Rich (Mockingbird or whatever) - enter the pointy era and picked up where Alembic left off with active electronics.
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I really don't understand the Mustang on that list. Not that popular at all - then or now (more now, but still - it's what people get when they want a P but fear the long scale). Likewise both the V and VI? I'd say loose the V - esoteric.
Shergold Marathon 6 - really? Y'all know I'm a JD/NO fan but 1 star player does not an influential bass make.
I love LoZ Gibsons, but again, not that influential. Nobody else even picked up on the pickup design.
Aristides - ok do you want influential or interesting, because sure it's nerdworthy but I dunno about influential.
If you're including a Dano, better be a longhorn (sure they had the first VI, but the only person that influenced was maybe Leo Fender).
And I hope your list wasn't in any sort of order.
You may also want to consider the EB1, sure it didn't pan out but it was the 2nd to market, first with a set neck, shape begat the Hofner, and the sidewinder pickup design carried through to not just subsequent Gibson bass models, but influenced their guitar pickups too. Also unique (first anyway - someone else did this later but forget who) with the vertical playing a la double bass with the telescopic leg. Also set the standard for short scale length.
Wal might make the list - very popular for a time.... but then you might have to include the Gibson EB4 because they totally copped the pickup design, though it was more successful when Wal did it.
In addition to Alembic being the first boutique bass, it also popularised active electronics and dummy coils.
Oh - BC Rich (Mockingbird or whatever) - enter the pointy era and picked up where Alembic left off with active electronics.
+1
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Thanks! But too late! :rolleyes:
I'm here to ask your advice. My list was a first thought and I was curious. If you scroll through the subject, you see a SECOND list and the LO-Z Gibsons, the Mustang, The Aristides are off the list and some new ones are added. But still thanks! It confirms some other opinions.
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You may also want to consider the EB1, (...) Also unique (first anyway - someone else did this later but forget who) with the vertical playing a la double bass with the telescopic leg.
Gretsch
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Gretsch
This thought occurred to e as well. The Country Gentleman was kind of an icon for those full-sized hollow basses.
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And Peter Tork certainly was an icon.
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I meant to answer this - "Also unique (someone else did this later but forget who) with the vertical playing a la double bass with the telescopic leg".
In my opinion Gretsch were not very influential basses. Maybe the round padding on the back has influenced Vox? I don't know, not a brilliant feature anyway. The Space Control bridge was a clever and useful design, I'll give them that.
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Again thank you all! I added and deleted a lot cos of you guys and the article is getting shape.
Of course no list will be perfect. I just hope to make an interesting list for the readers of my mag. I meet quite some people who have never heard of the Fender V and to be honest I didn't really know about the first modern 5-string, 6-string and fretless. I did know the first fretless Fender was ironically a P and I added that with the part of the Ampeg being the first fretless. I just want to teach the readers some interesting facts.
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Good on you Chris.
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I stumbled onto this old thread and was curious, did the article ever get published?
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Yes it did. In Dutch Language. I can look it up and make a quick English translation?
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I would read it…
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This is translated by software. I gave it a quick ran through, but it can have some mistakes. A pickup in Dutch is an element. Strange but through. The software didn't translate element to pickup, I did, but it can have some more mistakes.
Special
Text: Chris Dekker
The 25 most influential basses
We often talk about influential bassists in De Bassist. But what are the basses that have changed the instrument landscape? And why? We dived into the history of music and the bass and listed the most influential instruments for you.
If one bass can be called influential, it is the Fender Precision Bass. That fact is almost well known. If you walk into a music store, almost all basses still have the features of this first mass-produced bass guitar. The bass world owes Fender a lot. But what was the first fretless bass? The first five-string? The first with active electronics? And what was the first boutique bass? Some choices are factual, others based on opinion or feeling. Completely disagree? Email us! Oh yes: the order, especially after the top 10, is somewhat arbitrary.
1 Fender Precision Bass
The Bass
Over seventy years ago, Leo Fender came out with the Precision Bass and the music world changed. It may not have been the first bass, but it was the first mass-produced one. It was viewed skeptically at first, then Fender Bass became a generic name for the electric bass, like jeep for all-terrain vehicle, and anno 2022 we can't imagine the bass guitar ever not being there.
The P appeared in 1951 and in 1954 the body was somewhat rounded. We now often call these types Tele Bass (see the Sire test in the previous edition of The Bassist) because of their similarities to the Telecaster guitar. In 1957 the model with the two pickups parts appeared and it has been in production almost unchanged for 65 years now. Meanwhile, 90% of the basses have the Fender-determined scale of 34 inches, four tuners in a row, a bolt-on maple neck, a maple or rosewood fingerboard and we also see the split P on many brands.
Early basses had flatwound strings and damping under the chrome cap, for a short, dry double bass sound. Soon players removed that damping and in the 1970s Rotosound came out with the first roundwound strings. Partly because of Fender's construction, this also created a completely new and aggressive bass sound that was no longer under but in the mix. Suddenly the bass was audible and that again gave room for melodic players to step forward. With the Jazz, the P is the most copied bass ever.
2 Fender Jazz Bass
The virtuoso bass
In 1960, Fender came out with the Deluxe Model of the Precision. The official name became Jazz Bass, after the Jazzmaster guitar, which in turn was a deluxe brother of the Telecaster and Stratocaster. In terms of construction, the J did not differ greatly from the P. In the beginning, Precisions usually had alder bodies and a maple fingerboard, while the Jazz often had a maple body with a rosewood fingerboard. Over the years, the two adopted much of each other in terms of woods.
The J is distinguished by a narrower neck, an offset body (the line of the middle of the body is perpendicular to the neck and the whole thing appears to be tilted forward a bit) and, of course, it has two single-coil pickups. Partly because of the bridge pickup, the J later became known as a slap bass and it can sound even nippier than the P. Of course, the J is the example for many boutique builders, such as Sadowsky, Stenback, Lull and many, many others, but precisely also for entry-level Squier, Harley Benton, Fazley and more. In the 1970s, many bassists mounted a J pickup on their P and the so-called P/J configuration can be seen in every music store with many brands.
3 Audiovox 736
The very first bass
Would the Precision Bass have been conceived without the Audiovox 736? We will never know, but what is certain is that Leo Fender knew of the existence of this bass. Designed by Paul Tutmarc, the 736 had frets and a solid body and was intended to be played horizontally. The Audiovox Model 736 Bass Fiddle came on the market in 1936, 15 years before the Fender P, but did not become a success. It was, however, the first electric bass guitar.
4 Music Man StingRay
The first active bass in series production
It may surprise you, but Vox, Burns and Höfner were already working with active circuits in their basses and guitars in the 1960s. And then you had the Gibson EB-0F with built-in fuzz. Alembic - more on that later - provided a new wave of builders of active basses, but the first mass-produced active bass was the Music Man StingRay in 1976.
After the sale to CBS, Leo Fender remained a consultant and builder with his brand for a time. His last creation was the Fender Mustang Bass. Look at the bridge of the Mustang and the StingRay and you can see family traits. Music Man had its own amp factory and the brand hired Leo (and people like George Fullerton, with whom Fender would later found G&L) to build basses and guitars with his own company CLF Research, which were sold under the Music Man name.
The bass became an instant success, including in the 1970s/80s disco and slap world. This new sound gave the likes of Louis Johnson, Queens John Deacon, Cliff Williams of AC/DC, Tony Levin, Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tim Commerford of Rage Against The Machine, Vulfpecks Joe Dart and Gail Ann Dorsey, among others. And then we have Pino Palladino, who gave the fretless bass a new sound with his StingRay.
Since the first Music Man, active basses have been commonplace and the MM pickup is supplied by all pickup makers and we see them at Sandberg, Warwick and many other brands.
5 Ibanez ‘Lawsuit’-models
A revolution in bass world
We could write a few pages full about just these basses, and perhaps we will do so some day. Harry Rosenbloom was an Ibanez distributor in America in the 1960s and 1970s. First alone, then with Ibanez as a partner, and later parent company Hoshino took over distribution entirely. In the late 1960s, under the leadership of Harry and his Japanese colleagues, Ibanez came out with a line of copies of American models.
While the quality at Fender and Gibson declined - due to new owners and more mass production - the Japanese copies looked great and some were very good, too. Not only Fenders were copied, but also Rickenbackers and obscure Gibson models, such as the low-impedance Les Paul basses, but often with a bolt-on instead of a glued-on or through-neck.
Certainly the Fender models were often of better quality than the originals, and the Japanese became major competitors to the American brands. In Europe they supplanted budget brands like Egmond and Framus, which could not build as cheaply as the Japanese. Brands kept coming, such as Tokai and Fernandes (which looks a bit like Fender) but also Takamine, whose logo was a copy of Martin.
In 1978 Gibson patented the shape of their headstock and they asked Ibanez to stop making this shape. Whether there really was a lawsuit is debatable, but since then we speak of pre-lawsuit or simply lawsuit guitars. Ibanez adapted the headstock and was working on its own models anyway.
The instrument world had changed forever. American brands themselves chose to collaborate with Asian parties, which is why we now have affordable premium brands like Squier and Epiphone. You have the line of Japanese Fenders and 99% of Gretsch production comes from Asia. And it all started with some Japanese copies of Ibanez.
6 Alembic series I/II
The first boutique bass
We can attribute the first true boutique bass to Alembic. Alembic began in the 1960s as Owsley Stanley's little workshop in the practice room of the Grateful Dead, near San Francisco. The idea was to help the band with equipment to record live shows, but soon they were repairing and modifying PA systems, basses and guitars.
By 1970, electronics expert Ron Wickersham, instrument builder Rick Turner and sound engineer Bob Matthews were at the helm, and soon Phil Lesh and Jack Casady's Guild Starfire basses were completely rebuilt with active electronics and proprietary pickups. In 1972, the brand built an entirely new bass for Casady, full of active electronics and filters, and the first boutique bass was a reality. Later, greats such as Stanley Clarke and John Entwistle of The Who followed.
7 Ibanez Musician Bass
The first affordable boutique bass
Can you have a mass-produced, affordable boutique bass? Yes and no. Nowadays we call it boutique bass (or amp or guitar), but once we used the term noble bass. There is no set definition, but usually it refers to a hand-built bass with beautiful and different woods, special electronics and luxury inlays. So when we think of this term, we think more of brands like Alembic and Fodera, rather than the relatively "simple" hand-built basses from, say, Sadowsky. Ibanez still supplies very many affordable instruments with beautiful woods - walnut, purpleheart - and pickups from Nordstrand and EMG, but it all started in 1979 with the Musician series with a through neck, one or two pickups and 3-band electronics; there was even an eight-string version. The neck itself was five-piece maple and walnut, while the body was mahogany and ash. Later models received Ibanez's Tri-Sound switch for parallel, series and single-coil options for the pickups. Despite being relatively inexpensive basses, they were embraced by Sting, Adam Clayton of U2, Entwistle of The Who, Fleetwood Mac's John McVie, Victor Bailey and Mike Porcaro of Toto.
8 Alembic five string
The first bass with five strings
In 1976 Alembic built a five-string bass for Jimmy Johnson and this is the first modern five-string with a low B. The model had no specific name, but since 1977 the fifth string was on the brand's option list. Brands like Yamaha and Music Man get an honorable mention, as they provided the five-string basses in the 1980s. The era when the bass guitar had to compete with the low notes from the hugely popular synthesizers, and for a while we thought the four-string might disappear altogether.
9 Fender V
The very first five string – but different
Another five-string? Yep. In 1965, Fender introduced the V: a Roman five. This was the first multi-string and the bass differs from the later five-string models, which are still popular today. The V stands out for its relatively long body and short neck, with only 15 frets. However, the scale - say, the effective string length - was exactly the same as the P and J: 34 inches. What was striking, however, was that there was no low B but a high C string. The idea of this bass was that you could play more from one left hand position instead of sliding across the neck. With one more string and several fewer frets, the highest note is the same as that of a four-string P or J. Only about two hundred were built until 1971, and the only two players of note are John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and our Remus Aussen.
10 Ampeg AUB-1
The first fretless bass
There are several philosophies behind the Precision Bass. The instrument is a lot more compact than a double bass, so easier to carry around. It is easily amplified, so audible. It has a shorter scale, so easier to play. Last but not least, the frets allow you to play very precisely, and that quality even gave the bass its name. Still, it's not surprising that fretless basses came soon, because double bass players were used to a certain sound and playing style. In the beginning, basses were made fretless by players. Think of Bill Wyman who can be heard on many Stones songs with his converted Dallas Tuxedo and who was thus one of the first players of a fretless bass guitar. Jaco Pastorius removed the frets from his bass in the early 1970s, but it was Ampeg that came out with the first fretless bass in mass production: the AUB-1, which hit the market in 1966. And the first Fender was ... a Precision! A contradiction, then. How creative Fender could have been with names. Rick Danko (The Band) was one of the famous players of a fretless Ampeg.
11 Rickenbacker 4000-serie
The first neck through
The Rickenbacker 4001 and 4003 are influential for more reasons. Although the 4000 sometimes had a glued neck, this was the first bass with a neck-through. Neck through in English. There is a piece of wood that runs from bridge to headstock and the body parts are glued to this neck on two sides. Later we saw this in the Gibson Thunderbird and nowadays Ibanez and Warwick, for example, use the principle a lot. The latter brand sometimes lets the neck run under a separate top, after which one speaks of a 'hidden neck through'.
The 4000 series was introduced in 1957, so about the same time as the P as we know it today. One of the reasons the Rickenbacker is on our list is the list of users, who brought the typical bright Rick sound to the masses, such as Geddy Lee of Rush, Chris Squier of Yes, Roger Glover of Deep Purple Mike Rutherford of Genesis and Bruce Foxton of The Jam. Just to name a few.
Then there is the "other" Rickenbacker sound. Just listen to Paul McCartney's enormously thick bass sound on the outstanding live album Wings Over America. Of course, The Beatles were responsible for a huge sales boost of Rickenbacker guitars and basses. And then we have names like
Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), John Entwistle (The Who), Pete Quaife (The Kinks) and Motörhead's Lemmy, who made the bass sound more like a fat guitar.
12 Gibson Thunderbird
The first long Gibson
The Thunderbird is a notable and influential bass in more areas. Fender was the clear market leader in the bass field in the 1950s and 1960s, while Gibson could keep up well in the guitar field with the LP, SG and ES-335, among others. Yet the Gibsons seemed a bit old-fashioned/traditional compared to the Fenders with special colors and futuristic shapes, which is why Gibson came up with the trio Flying V, Explorer and Moderne as early as 1958. Only the first two were built, but the world was not ready for such extreme shapes.
In 1963, Gibson tried again with the Firebird guitar and Thunderbird bass, which did resemble a very rounded Explorer. Of particular note was the continuous neck, and the design came from retired car designer Raymond H. Dietrich. After the shortscale EB-0, EB-2 and EB-3, the T-bird was the first longscale Gibson bass. The bass always remained fairly popular with a group of enthusiasts, and metal bassists like Nikki Sixx embraced the particular model.
There have always been tangents between the automotive industry and the guitar world. Think of the Fender and Gibson Custom Colors, which came directly from the automotive world, and the competition stripes on various basses, such as the Mustang. Later, Music Man would partner with the American BMW design center to design the Bongo Bass.
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And part II, cos it was too long.
13 Gibson EB-2/Rivoli
Rule Britannia
In the 1960s, right after the rise of The Beatles, the British Invasion began. So called because every venue in the U.S. - and really everywhere else in the world - wanted to book a British band. At that time, for various reasons, you didn't see many Fender basses in England, but you did see many (semi-)hollowbasses from, for example, Höfner and Framus, as well as solidbodies from these brands and from the Dutch Egmond. Many British bassists then switched to the American brands and suddenly you saw very many Epiphone Rivoli's and Gibson EB-2's in the UK. And that's basically the same bass. Epiphone was more popular than Gibson, which is why in the guitar world the Epiphone Casino (Beatles and Stones) is much more popular than the equal ES-330.
Partly because of all the iconic British bands and their good music, there are still many fans of (semi-)hollow basses and today you can still buy plenty of them from the likes of Gretsch, Epiphone, Hagstrom, Warwick, Höfner, Guild and Ibanez.
14 Gibson EB-0/EB-3
Gibson’s succes story
The SG Bass, which wasn't called an SG Bass until Gibson adopted the name a few years back for a new series. Yes, there were longscale versions, even one with built-in fuzz, and a six-string version, but we're talking about the EB-0 with neck pickup and the EB-3 with neck and bridge pickup. For a while in the 1970s, it seemed like the shortscale was taking over the bass landscape. Something that is happening now in modest form as well. Besides Bill Wyman on a shortscale Mustang, we saw many influential bassists on an EB-3: Jack Bruce of Cream, Andy Fraser of Free, our Rinus Gerritsen who recorded Radar Love with it, Trevor Bolder and even the aforementioned Wyman. Not many basses breathe seventies rock like the EB-3, it was Gibson's first really successful bass and for a while it seemed that the bass would become the bass of the seventies, until the balance shifted back to Jazz in funk and disco.
15 Steinberger L
If the eighties were a bass
In recent years, we suddenly see new Steinbergers, as well as headless basses from the likes of Ibanez and Strandberg. Ned Steinberger began building basses in New York in '79 and he soon experimented with materials such as carbon fiber. In addition to using modern materials, the L Series stood out for its headstock-almost bodyless design. An "oar" according to critics. It began as a bass and later came out guitar versions. In the 1980s, the instruments were embraced by the jazz scene, the prog scene and by modern hip pop bands. Watch Live Aid in 1985 and for a moment you really think the Steinberger is the future!
Steinberger (now from Gibson) still builds the headless and bodyless models, Ned Steinberger, as NS Design, still makes very special electric double basses (also with bass guitar cues), cellos and (alto) violins, and the headless bass is back a bit. And an extra point for Ned: he also designed the Spector NS, which is still being built and from which Warwick derived the Streamer. And ironic: he designed a tuner for on the headstock of your bass!
16 Höfner 500/1
Paul McCartney – who else?
The Höfner violin bass was probably inspired by the Gibson EB-1: a bass with a solid violin-like body and endpin to play upright. However, Höfner used a hollow body and only some Dutch indorockers bought such a weird little bass. Until Paul McCartney bought one. The specific sound when you play with a pick - a tap with a low boom - has come back into fashion in recent years, and partly because of Asian models, violin basses can be seen on many stages and in studios. And you don't have to play in a Beatles cover band with a violin bass (or a Höfner Club). Think of John Stirratt of Wilco, Zach Dawes of Last Shadow Puppets, Dale Davis of Amy Winehouse, Adam Prendergast of Harry Styles, Nicolas Godin of Air, Johanna Söderberg of First Aid Kit, Paul Weller (who started at The Jam on a violin bass and now records with a Club) and Paz Lenchantin. Just to name a few.
17 Danelectro VI
The first compact six string
In 1956, Danelectro came out with the first six-string bass. Unlike a normal guitar, this shortscale was tuned from E to e. The model never really became popular, although it found a place in Nashville and Los Angeles. At the time, it was not abnormal to double a double bass with one or more basses, as with a Dano six-string: the tic-tac bass method (see also #25). Fender came out with the similar VI in 1961, and Gibson had the EB-6, which came in the body shapes of the EB-3 and EB-2. Pointed or semi-hollow, in other words. This type of six-string, not unlike the huge basses tuned from B to C, has a bevy of fans and have become more popular again in recent years for nice, dark twangy lines. Think Lana Del Ray and movie soundtracks. Fender continues to supply the VI, even as an affordable Squier: another reason why more people have started trying this bass. Would the Get Back documentary make the Bass VI even more popular?
18 Warwick Thumb
The sound of the nineties
Hans-Peter Wilfer, son of Framus founder Fred Wilfer started the bass brand Warwick in the early 1980s. The name was chosen because it sounded powerful. One of the first in-house models resembled a wooden version of the Steinberger L. More models followed, with the Corvette and the Streamer being the best known. The latter was first built under license from Spector and later Warwick changed the design slightly, making it its own model. This story is somewhat separate, but I'm sure we'll come back to that later.
Another famous bass, partly due to Jack Bruce, is the Thumb Bass. This one had a "hidden neck through," a continuous neck running under the bodytop. Wilfer experimented with unusual woods. Sometimes on purpose and sometimes by accident. He used hard woods like wenge, bubinga and afzelia because a bright sound was in in the 1980s (think carbon fiber necks), but sometimes also because he could get a lot cheap. The Thumb became famous in part because of Bruce's fretless version.
Many slappers chose Warwick and the brand was seen - especially in the US - as the Mercedes-Benz among basses. In many musical movements in the 1990s, a Warwick was almost mandatory. Warwick not only brought new woods to the bass world, but also many other innovations, such as hidden fret ends and rechargeable active electronics. The brand is also very concerned with environmentally friendly production, far ahead of the competition.
19 Carl Thompson Contrabass
The first modern sixstring
Jazz guitarist Carl Thompson began building instruments in 1974 after first working for a while as a repairman in a music store. He soon became known for his quality instruments, which included full-length necks and basses with 36- and 38-inch scale. At the same time, he built two special instruments: the piccolo bass for Stanley Clarke - Carl would later build more basses for Clarke - and the Contrabass for Anthony Jackson. This bass was the first modern six-string with BEADGC tuning. Soon such brands as Spector, Ken Smith, Alembic and Fodera followed, and today almost every manufacturer has a six-string in its model range. Carl went on and built guitars for Lou Reed and Hank Williams III and, of course, several notable basses for Les Claypool of Primus.
20 Dingwall
The torchbearer of fanned frets
Also, fanned frets are almost as old as the history of stringed instruments. The idea is that each string has its own scale to compensate for the difference in pressure exerted by the fret finger. Namely, the thicker the string, the harder you have to press, which gives a slight increase in tone. And the fan shape is quite ergonomic too. Novax Guitars is the first modern builder, but Dingwall today is synonymous with the multiscale bass. Sheldon Dingwall and his team build them in Canada - with production also in Asia. Lee Sklar and Rob van der Loo of Epica are two very well-known users, and we are seeing more and more multiscale basses entering the market. It will remain a niche product, but by now brands like Ibanez, Cort, Warwick, Spector, Marleaux, LeFay and even Thomann-owned Harley Benton have multiscale basses.
21 Earthwood
The first acoustic bass
Earthwood is a brand of Ernie Ball. The string magnate has owned Music Man since 1984, but before that he worked with George Fullerton. A name we encounter more often, as he was Leo Fender's right-hand man at Fender, Music Man and later even co-founder of G&L: George & Leo.
Ernie and George worked together on the massive Earthwood acoustic bass guitar and it is considered the first modern instrument of its kind, even if it is a bit larger than we are currently used to. The bass was produced between '72 and '74 and very occasionally you could see John Entwistle on one. A "premature birth," Ernie Ball called the bass.
Here, too, we have some honorable mentions. The American company Kay had a design for an acoustic bass back in the 1950s, but it never went into production. There were small builders who built an acoustic bass, such as Tony Zemaitis for Mike Oldfield. And then you have Mick Donner and Richard Siegle, They designed the Washburn AB-40 (and its cheaper sibling, the AB-20) and suddenly, in the 1990s, MTV Unplugged emerged: a program grafted onto the Dutch Twee Meter Sessies, where famous artists performed their repertoire acoustically. Acoustic basses became hip, Washburn was just in time, many brands followed, so maybe we should have mentioned Washburn here first?
22 Framus Triumph/Ampeg baby bass
The first EUB’s
The electric double bass, also known as EUB (Electric Upright Bass), has become a staple in bass country. Of course, there are some honorable mentions, such as the Dutch Van Zalinge bass, designed by race car driver Henk van Zalinge. Sting and Stanley Clarke played on such a Dutch product. Ned Steinberger has been making fantastic EUBs for years, also as five-string, with bass guitar cues, etc.
For the most influential EUB, we choose two models. In Europe, the Framus Triumph Bass (still available as a Warwick) was popular. Introduced in 1953 as a 4/60, the model was widely used in the jazz world. Notable users include Guy Pratt and Silvano Matadin of Urban Dance Squad.
The Dopyera brothers are not only the people behind the Dobro (Dopera Brothers), but they also invented the Zorko Bass in 1958. This was a compact EUB with a hollow fiberglass body and wooden neck/key. Ampeg's Jess Oliver (the man behind the Fliptop) changed the bass slightly. Of course Ampeg (amplified peg) was known for double bass amplification and since 1962 the bass was for sale with the Ampeg name, licensed from Zorko. The bass was now called Baby Bass and there was also a five-string version. The body was no longer fiberglass, but a special plastic called UVEX, made by Kodank, and padded with a foam. Not only was the Ampeg Baby Bass an influential EUB, but its specific sound - heard on many movie soundtracks - made the bass unique.
23 Hagström H8
The first octave stringed bass
The Hagström H8 is the world's first mass-produced eight-string bass. Over two thousand shortscales were built between 1967 and 1969, and Hagstrom still has (nowadays without the umlaut) two models in its range. You could think of it as the bass version of the much older twelve-string guitar: the four bass strings have an extra, thinner string next to them, tuned an octave higher. According to Karl-Erik Hagström, the idea came through an American dealer who had a customer asking for such a bass. Eric Krackow was the customer's name, by the way. At a time when you didn't have octave pedals, you got a unique sound, which was also too crazy with solos. Hagström advised in her leaflets to experiment with different tunings. For example, you could also tune the octave string as a fifth. The eight-string bass is still not commonplace, but among its users we see big names like Jimi Hendrix, Scott Reeder, Lemmy, Chris Squire, Mark Egan, Nick Lowe, Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, Mike Rutherford of Genesis and, of course, John Entwistle, who used it a lot on Who albums. Later brands like Rickenbacker and Warwick also came out with such basses. Nowadays you also see some ten-string basses (5x2) and a separate honorable mention goes to Hamer and Cheap Tricks Tom Petersson, who together developed the twelve-string bass. Here we see four bass strings with two octave strings each.
24 Danelectro Longhorn
Cheap and light
Nat Daniel showed that you don't need expensive woods. His vision, which Paul Reed Smith (PRS) and many other builders adopted, is that a strong neck and a light body is the perfect combination. So the Longhorn has a very tight neck (with 24 frets!) and a hollow body made of a wooden frame with a plate of masonite, a moisture-resistant hardboard often used for kitchen countertops or roofs, in front and back. The pickups were placed in lipstick enclosures and the bass became a success by players such as Rinus Gerritsen, John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Frank Kraaijeveld, Tom Petty and many, many others.
25 Supro Pocket Bass
Cut back with bass
Above, the "doubling" of the (contra) bass with a six-string Danelectro was already mentioned: tic-tac bass, because of the click of the thin pick used in this process. But it took an extra bass player! So an instrument was developed that could play both the low of the double bass and the click of a pick.
Supro and Airline (after 1960), and later National, developed such an instrument. The Airline/Supro had a body and ultra-short (guitar size!) neck of mahogany, National made the body partly out of fiberglass; thus the model fit nicely into the "Val Pro" series. The trick of the instrument: under the bridge is a piezo pickup, without preamp. Turn that in (separately, the piezo sounds like you're amplifying the bass only through your tweeter), then, in addition to the neck pickup's bumpy tone due to the short neck, you hear the click of your pick.
Does it work? The mahogany Supro/Airline in particular, with flatwounds of course, is considered an ideal studio bass! Unlike the Airline remake from the 2010's, which definitely looked nice, but whose electronics were built like those of a regular bass guitar, with a separate output for the pre-amped piezo. Note: Meanwhile, Eastwood also has a (wooden) Airline remake and it is indeed made with the original specifications!
Thanks to Remus Aussen, Rob van den Broek, bassoutpost.com, Maarten Plukker and Hidde Roorda
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Thank you!
The early Italian influence on Japanese basses before the lawsuit period is worth mentioning. With mother of toilet seat highlights and switches everywhere , it was a wonderful period.
Things got rather boring when they began to churn out the LP and Strat copies.
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You are right. Thanks. This top 25 is not perfect, and maybe too simple for us nerds. For this I had the average reader in mind.
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This is just a detail in all that great work, but this was the first time I ever heard this: "Early basses had flatwound strings and damping under the chrome cap, for a short, dry double bass sound. Soon players removed that damping and in the 1970s Rotosound came out with the first roundwound strings."
I knew early electric bass strings were primarily flats, but I had never heard that rounds weren't even available until the early 70s. I've always preferred flats, but I started playing the electric in 1967 and there were flats on my '63 P-bass when I got it.
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Great article! Thanks for sharing!
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This is just a detail in all that great work, but this was the first time I ever heard this: "Early basses had flatwound strings and damping under the chrome cap, for a short, dry double bass sound. Soon players removed that damping and in the 1970s Rotosound came out with the first roundwound strings."
I knew early electric bass strings were primarily flats, but I had never heard that rounds weren't even available until the early 70s. I've always preferred flats, but I started playing the electric in 1967 and there were flats on my '63 P-bass when I got it.
If I'm right only Danelectro used rounds. Entwistle went to Rotosound to make the roundwounds for normal basses.
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Great article! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! I think it appeared two years ago in my magazine.
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If I'm right only Danelectro used rounds. Entwistle went to Rotosound to make the roundwounds for normal basses.
The early '60s Danelectro I had did come with roundwound strings which surprised me a bit because every other bass out there seemed to come with flats. I actually thought they were a bit strange and didn't like them at the time.
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The Silvertone Danelectros always came with rounds, even back to the late 1950s. But you couldn't buy them separately. That's supposedly why Entwistle went to Rotosound, otherwise he was having to buy a new bass just to get the strings he wanted.
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The story goes JAE bought several Danelectros cos he broke te strings.
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He must have found strings , or maybe just kept buying new Longhorns. There’s lots of live shots of him playing Longhorns. Back in the later 60’s I remember occasionally seeing someone using those odd shaped things. But had no idea the were just cheap little things. I just assumed they’d be in the same price range as Rickenbackers and Gretsches.
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The story goes JAE bought several Danelectros cos he broke te strings.
He ended up with 3 while recording My Generation, and ultimately ended up using a Jazz Bass with tapewound strings for the final version.