The Bass Is Not a Guitar

[westen44]

https://www.premierguitar.com/pro-advice/the-root-of-it-all/is-a-bass-a-guitar

[Dave W]

He's full of excrement.

Bass is a tonal range. The electric bass is a guitar family instrument that covers the bass range. An upright bass is a violin family instrument that covers the bass range. Likewise with the tuba and bassoon.

He's also a historical revisionist. Most of the early adopters of the bass guitar were guitarists. Many if not most upright bassists resisted it and denigrated it until they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into adopting it.

[westen44]

Despite these things, there are a few points in there that I liked.  Such as the pride he seems to take in bass itself.  And how he notes there are certain people who have only chosen to play bass exclusively and have developed their own techniques, etc. 

My main problem is that this guy totally ignores rock music.  In my book, rock bass has done more for music than jazz bass, although he seems convinced otherwise.  I wouldn't want to go on a long trip in a car with him.  That's really not meant to be a joke.

[Basvarken]

So the bass is not a guitar
Yawn.  😴

[Pilgrim]

Whether or not Paul Tutmarc called his early version a "bass fiddle" and Leo called his a "bass guitar" is IMO not material.  The instrument is derived from the form and construction of a solid body guitar, and therefore it makes perfect sense to call it a bass guitar.

Seems likely to me that the guy who wrote that was out of ideas and decided to pull up an old quibble to meet his word count.

[westen44]

Whether or not Paul Tutmarc called his early version a "bass fiddle" and Leo called his a "bass guitar" is IMO not material.  The instrument is derived from the form and construction of a solid body guitar, and therefore it makes perfect sense to call it a bass guitar.

Seems likely to me that the guy who wrote that was out of ideas and decided to pull up an old quibble to meet his word count.

Anthony Tidd who wrote that is a British jazz bassist who lives in the U.S. now.  It would be my guess he submitted that article just to make some extra cash.  After reading over it, I think I misinterpreted part of it.  I read it too fast which, of course, is my own fault.  But if he is trying to say a bass can't be called a bass guitar, I very much disagree with that.  I use the terms bass and bass guitar interchangeably.  However, like I said, my main problem was what I considered an overemphasis on jazz bassists.  It's the main reason I stopped subscribing to Bass Player years ago.  Most of the time I couldn't give a damn about many of the bassists they feature.  For the most part they're bassists about as far removed from rock as you can get.  Of course, maybe they've made some changes and got back more to rock in the magazine now, but I don't know. 

[ilan]

A prominent classical upright bass player and teacher, Eli Magen, who played in the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra until his retirement and is also a great jazz player who studied with Eddie Gomez in the early 70s and has recorded with some of the greatest jazz musicians in the world, started on electric bass and was a highly acclaimed studio musician in the 60s, once told me that only when he moved to upright he has realized that the electric bass is essentially really a bass guitar. I was almost offended. A couple of years later I started on upright, and I think I see what he meant.

The electric bass is a guitar family instrument that covers the bass range.

Sub-bass or contra-bass range. The bass range is covered by the cello or the bass strings of a guitar. 

An upright bass is a violin family instrument

Formally it's a viol family instrument, like the violone and viola da gamba. Unlike the violin, viola and cello, It has sloping shoulders, flat back, tuned in 4ths and played with a German-style bow.

Yeah I'm fun at parties 

[Pilgrim]

[uwe]

"Yeah I'm fun at parties  "

 

Same tuning as a guitar, same construction, but two less strings, one octave lower and hence limited in its ability to produce chords. If it's not a guitar then, it sure is darn close.

The guitar for men to be exact.

[Pilgrim]

I see no reason not to call it a bass guitar.

"If it looks like a duck..."

Which is different from: "If she weighs the same as a duck, she must be.....A WITCH!"

[Dave W]

I see no reason not to call it a bass guitar.

"If it looks like a duck..."

Which is different from: "If she weighs the same as a duck, she must be.....A WITCH!"

And since witches are burned at the stake, they must be made out of wood! BURN HER! (or something like that)

[Pilgrim]

And since witches are burned at the stake, they must be made out of wood! BURN HER! (or something like that)

Do bass guitars float like very small rocks?

[doombass]

I found that article simply false and pointless. It is a well known fact that Leo's bass was intended to be a bass guitar so that guitar players could fill in on bass during recording sessions besides being a handier bass instrument on tour. Even this patent sketch says it is a guitar, it does'nt even mention "bass".



I suppose the writer felt a (to me unnecessary) need to in some way defend the solid body bass guitar from being just a simple bass substitute which it through several players has proved it is not. However that does'nt make it less of a bass guitar. That's just a tabloidy eye catching headline.

[uwe]

As a matter of fact: Only the guitar aspects of the electric bass helped it revolutionize modern popular music. Even Charles Mingus couldn't have played the bass guitar riffs of Yes' Roundabout on his double bass, not even on an electric double bass. Whole types of music such as funk and speed metal would have been unthinkable without the "guitarish" electric bass and its fast response.

Double bass has its place but it and electric bass guitars overlap only in places as regards their domains of sensible usage. And apart from being bowed, there is very little a double bass guitar can do that an electric bass guitar cannot have a sensible crack at. That doesn't work the other way around.

That doesn't mean that a well-played double bass cannot provide for breathtakingly beautiful music.

[ilan]

As a matter of fact: Only the guitar aspects of the electric bass helped it revolutionize modern popular music.

Agreed. At first it was the frets - a bass that finally plays in tune, always, was a big relief for producers - and then players began to realize quickly the huge potential of the new instrument beyond the frets, compact size and a magnetic pickup.