Guide Note

The electric bass guitar was developed independently by several inventors between the 1930s and early 1950s, in order to replace the bulky stand-up basses then in use by country and jazz bands. It reached wide notice among musicians in 1951, with the introduction of the Fender Precision Bass, a four-stringed fretted instrument not much larger than a guitar, but tuned an octave lower.

Fast Facts

1. Traditionally has four strings
2. 5- and 6-string models are also popular
3. 4-string standard tuning, from low to high: E A D G
4. 8- and 16-string basses duplicate these notes with octave strings
5. Tuning is generally one octave lower than a guitar
6. Played by plucking or slapping with the fingers, or by picking

Many other models followed, from Fender and competing companies, and the bass guitar soon became ubiquitous in nearly all forms of popular music, providing rhythmic foundation and counterpoint to melodic instruments and vocals. While in no danger of extinction, it has been displaced to a certain extent, especially since the early 1980s, by synthesizers and sampling technology.

Acoustic bass guitars, oddly enough, follow from a different lineage: They were developed in the 1960s from a Mexican instrument, the guitarron.