I'm looking for the earliest recordings featuring an electric...

[Michael]

... bass.  The books I have mention Monk Montgomery, The Bill Black Combo, and Dave Myers with The Four Aces and Little Walter, but little else.  Does anyone know of a discography of the earliest recordings with a Fender bass?  Thanks for any help.

[Dave W]

Hi Michael, I don't think such a thing exists. We know about some early players who played an electric bass in live performances but that doesn't mean it was used in the studio. In major studios, uprights were the standard for years after electrics were introduced. Even where old studio records exist, I don't know if it would be specified. Carol Kaye says that "Fender bass" was specified in studio records but I haven't seen any evidence that this is true outside of L.A. studio scene in the 60s.

Roy Johnson played a Precision with Lionel Hampton before Monk Montgomery. Did either actually record with it? I don't know. Shifty Henry (a/k/a Shifte Henri) was an L.A. bassist, bandleader and record producer. Leo gave him a Precision very early on to get him to promote it. Did he ever record with it, either for his own band or another band he was producing? I don't know.

Elvis' Jailhouse Rock EP from 1957 is one of the first I know of, with Bill Black playing bass on Jailhouse Rock and Elvis playing it on Baby I Don't Care. This was before the Bill Black Combo existed. Another from about the same time is Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, which had Jerry Lee Lewis' uncle (and later father-in-law) J.W. Brown on a mid-50s Precision. Butch Mattice of Johnny & The Hurricanes recorded with a Danelectro or Silvertone in the late 50s. Joe "Blue" Landry of Cookie & the Cupcakes was recording with a new style Precision by 1958. I think if we were able to dig around, we would find a lot more from the late 50s from studios outside L.A. and the big eastern cities.

[Michael]

Thanks, I kind of figured that standard bass was still primarily being used in the studios, probably for quite some time after the introduction of the Precision Bass.  Of the recordings I've been able to track down, there is quite a similarity of tone between the standard acoustic bass and the Fender bass, although the Fender is more distinct.  It just goes to show how well Leo did in capturing the sound of an acoustic with the original Precision.  Thanks again for the reply.

[OldManC]

I'd bet that most people involved in the recording of those early electric tracks would have done what they could to make those electric basses sound as close to an upright as possible, seeing as that's what they were meant to replace. As bass strings, amps, the recording medium and techniques evolved, I'd imagine the idea that an electric bass had to sound a certain way gave way as new possibilities were discovered (accidentally or otherwise) much in the same way the electric guitar took on a million voices of its own after years of sounding like an amplified acoustic.

[rahock]

Was it here, or on that other forum that most of us came from, that had a you tube clip of some band I never heard of before from the early 50s with a smokin' hot bass player on a 51P. The original thread had something to do with an opinion that the 51P was not the type of instrument a strong solist type of bass player would use, and there were no bass players of that caliber at the time .......... and then someone posted the clip. Hot freakin' band, smokin' bass player and an education for me on what was happening in the world of bass playing in certain circles  in the early 50s.

The memory is a little shakey on what type of music they were playing. R&B maybe    All I remember is I really liked it

Anyone remember this? It would be a nice piece to help Michael in his quest.......and I'd love to see and hear it again too
Rick

[bobyoung]

I had always noticed the electric bass on Jailhouse Rock too, it was tuned to e flat about 2 decades before that was common practice so that was a very modern song in it's day. I remember a Roy Orbison interview in which he said that he never had an electric bass in his band until about 1961, they were not very common in 50's music.
Even James Jamerson's early stuff was upright and he was wicked on that too.

[nofi]

jamerson was an upright player first.

[bobyoung]

jamerson was an upright player first.

Yup, hence my last sentence in my last post.

[Hornisse]

I saw an old clip of Jerry Lee Lewis and the guy was using a mid 50's P bass.  I always though Little Richard's bass player used the old Gibson EB bass that was in the Girl Can't Help It film. 

[Dave W]

I forgot all about Little Richard's bassist. Bob Daisley owns that bass now, he talked about it with Jules here: http://www.flyguitars.com/interviews/bobdaisley2.php

I mentioned Jerry Lee Lewis' bassist up above but I mistakenly called him his uncle. J.W. Brown was (is) his first cousin and the father of Myra Gale Brown, the 13 year old Jerry Lee married in 1957. All in the family.    If the clip you saw was the one where they're playing on the back of a flatbed truck, that's the opening scene of High School Confidential. You can see a couple of seconds of it in about three places in the trailer.

[pbassplayer]

attention rahock,
the band was the treniers,a las vegas r+b act who were big in the 50s and 60s and they used the "fender" bass

plenty of their videos on you tube..

[rahock]

attention rahock,
the band was the treniers,a las vegas r+b act who were big in the 50s and 60s and they used the "fender" bass

plenty of their videos on you tube..

THANK YOU,.................... just plain freakin' thank you
This was really bugging me
Rick

[rahock]

Damn, no it wasn't the Treniers
I checked them out on you tube and they were plenty good and I thought the bass player was great.... but that's not the group I was thinking of.
The guys I'm thinking of were white , at least I know the bass player was. That was one of the things that really impressed me, I didn't know of any white guys who could play like that in the early 50s .
Treniers were great though, I would highly recommend giving them a listen. The bass player is a hot ticket and in those days he must have knocked 'em dead.
Rick