1st evr bassist

[John-Paul666]

So just for trivia sake, anyone know who was the first musician to use the ELECTRIC bass

[j-raj]

Originally Posted by John-Paul666

So just for trivia sake, anyone know who was the first musician to use the ELECTRIC bass

Garry?

j/k...

[superbassman2000]

Leo Fender

[corinpills]

Maybe not the first, but Monk Montgomery (Wes' brother) was in the game pretty early. He got his fender right from Leo.

[Groundloop]

Since the question was about electric bass (not necessarily electric bass guitar), my guess is Ampeg cofounder Everette Hull:

"In 1946, Everette Hull, an acomplished pianist and bass player, organized a partnership with Stanley Michaels under the name "Michaels-Hull Electronic Labs." Their mission was to produce a new microphone pickup that Hull designed. The pickup was fitted on the end of an upright bass and was dubbed the Amplified Peg or "Ampeg" for short."

Consider all hairs split, and let the flaming begin.

[MikeyFingers]

Yeah, that's cool and all, but I think he was talking about the bass GUITAR. But you knew that already, didn't you.

[Techmonkey]

IIRC there was another company that made an electric bass guitar before Fender did, but the company was a complete flop outside of the city, so they never made it big... Audiovox or Ultravox or something like that?

[DJ1]

It was Leonardo Da Vinci.

You would have been able to read about it in the Da Vinci code but during the edit of the final draft the publisher decided to leave that chapter out.

By all accounts Leo was an awesome funk player and won bass player of the year consecutively from 1471 to 1474.

The album cover of his double platinum "Hey Mona Lisa" is apparently still viewable in France somewhere.