Most influential basses

[Chris P.]

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

[morrow]

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 .

[gearHed289]

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.

[Basvarken]

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.

[Chris P.]

Thanks guys! Basvarken already e-mailed me back with some good stuff. But the first fiver, the Spector NS, Modulus... All great additions!

[morrow]

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 .

[ilan]

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

[Chris P.]

Thanks, great additions!

[Chris P.]

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

[Chris P.]

(all in random order)

[morrow]

Ibanez never actually made any basses , that was contracted out to various factories .

[Basvarken]

That's a bold statement...

[4stringer77]

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?

[morrow]

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

[Basvarken]

Well, in that case you could also say that Epiphone never made bass guitars. Not even in the USA.