The History of the String Bass
- The string bass became well established in the mid-1600s with the invention of wound-gut strings. Gut allowed for a much smaller string diameter than had been previously known, which eventually led to a more standardized scale length and easier playability. The strings also produced a greater amount of volume from a smaller resonating chamber, and the size of the unwieldy instrument was reduced to something similar to the modern bass.
- Frets made of gut were typically wrapped and tied around the fingerboard of the string bass for nearly a century after its creation. The use of frets began to fall out of favor in approximately 1800, and the bass would remain largely fretless until the early part of the 20th century. Bass guitars of today are available in both fretted and fretless varieties.
- The string bass usually has either a flat back, as is found in the viola family, or a curved back more suggestive of an oversized violin. The former style is the more popular of the two due to cost considerations, as the steps required to fashion a curved back increase production rates. String basses are built to suit the size and ability of players. They range from the full-sized, or 4/4, bass to 1/16th-sized student models. The most popular bass is the 3/4-size, which has a body length of approximately 45 inches.
- The string bass originally had only three strings, which was largely the standard from the early 1600s until the first part of the 20th century. Early string basses were often tuned according to musician preferences, but by the 1920s most musicians had adopted the standard bass tuning of A-E-D-G. Classical players usually follow an F#-B-E-A tuning. The modern string bass is almost exclusively four-stringed. Some three and even two-string models are occasionally used by professional musicians, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
- The string bass was usually fashioned from spruce and maple from the time of its creation until the early 20th century. Modern basses feature a variety of woods which may include pine, cedar, poplar and beech. Aluminum basses came into vogue during the 1930s, and the latest generation of instruments may sometimes feature graphite or carbon composites.
