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Carol Kaye and Electric Bass

#21
Lesfunk said:
Back in the day the term "fender bass" was a generic term for electric bass guitar just like "aspirin" was once a brand name
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Yes, I bought my first Fender Precision bass a couple of years after "back in the day". My awareness had of the term "electric bass" didn't come from Ms. Kaye so much as it did from the book "American Guitars" and the newly inspired use of the term by early Guitar Player Magazine. I bet they figured out by not referring to it generically as a "Fender Bass," they might actually sell ad space to other manufacturers...most of whom sold copies of Fender basses..... and so on:)

In short, I should have just stated in my first post that I'm one of those who is rubbed in the wrong way by Ms. Kaye.
 
#22
JimmyM said:
It was a VERY widespread kind of thing in America. Even on Elvis' "Aloha From Hawaii" concert which came out in like 71, Elvis introduced Jerry Scheff by saying, "On the Fender bass, Jerry Scheff." Many people called it the bass guitar as well...I'd say it was about 50/50. But nobody called it the electric bass until Carol did...that much is true.
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Liner notes used to credit players on "Fender Bass" in the 60's even when they were playing Gibson or whatever. It was just not an upright.

I remember seeing Carol's books in the early 70's and hearing rumors that she laid down the track on this or that tune (and not Jamerson). It was hot topic back in the day, people taking blood oaths that it was or wasn't her, and all the time, she was just eating the publicity up.
 
#23
lunarpollen said:
I wonder what the "professionals" who played Rickenbackers, Gibsons, Epiphones, Harmonys, Hofners, Voxes, Danelectros, Burns, etc. before 1969 refered to their instruments as.
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Gibson's EB-1 was originally called "the Gibson Electric Bass"; it was renamed EB-1 after the introduction of the EB-2, and we all know what EB stands for.
 
#26
GlennW said:
I don't think so. From what I remember if the liner notes or credits said something like "so-and-so, Fender bass", the guy used a Fender bass, not another brand.
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Rarely did you find credits for musicians on albums back then. And it was either Fender bass or bass guitar usually. But you do make a point about the Gibsons. Though it wasn't widespread to call it the electric bass (still isn't quite honestly) until Carol, I have to concede that Gibson was probably the inventor of the phrase.
 
#31
lunarpollen said:
I'd love to see a collection of ads and brochures for electric bass guitars and album liner notes from pre-1969 to see what they called them back then. Maybe compile some statistics to see what the most common terms were. "Bass", "bass guitar", etc.
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From a 1957 Rickenbacker catalog. "Rickenbacker Electric Bass."

Oh Carol... just stop.
 
#32
I've been through some "discussions" with Carol. First, I admire her contribution to both education and performance. And I think some people are missing the point. Lots of album credits and references did say "Fender bass" even if it wasn't an instrument made by Fender. And it's true that lots of union rolls listed it as "Fender bass" and not "electric bass"- I know that's what Don wrote down when I joined the AFM (Local #102) in 1976. And Carol did write one of the best books at the time on playing this isntrument. The critical factor in her books was that it was an electric bass and she used some stuff from her guitar playing and some other techniques that pertained to the electric bass. Her approach was NOT to just present it like an amplified version of the double bass.

But, like most CK things, there's a certain amount of hyperbole in there too. Of course Gibson, Rickenbacker, Fender, and others called it "electric bass" and "bass guitar"*


BTW, I despise "bass guitar". I don't play it at all like a guitar either physically nor conceptually. When I was younger, more stupid, and less diplomatic, I got tired of asking the leader in one band to just call it "bass" or "electric bass" so one night I left my StingRay at home and borrowed a friends Fender Bass VI. I played "bass guitar" all night long. Chuck Berry double-stop boogies, chords, used the whammy bar, everything like a guitar player. They never called my ax a "bass guitar again".
 
#33
I took bass lessons from Carol Kaye in the 1990's.

Our lessons were 90 minutes long, and half was typically spent listening to Carol tell me stories of her glory days. She is SUCH a rock music icon that I happily allow her to lay claim to the naming of the electric bass whether she actually did or not.

Carol turned me from a simple country bass player into a soulful funky R&B bass player, and for this alone I love this woman. In my eyes she can do no wrong.

:)
Tisabelle
 
#35
I remember a lot of jazz LPs back in the day would say Wilton Felder: Fender bass, Ron Carter: Fender bass, Richard Davis: Fender bass etc. I think just so people would know they weren't on upright, not the make of bass.
 
#36
Jerry-
I remember those albums, too...although, I'm trying to picture Richard Davis on anything but an upright bass. Does Not Compute! ;)

I dug out an old & original Fender catalog from 1970...they're calling it an electric bass.
The old Mel Bay bass book by Roger Filiberto called it an electric bass, too...I'm not recalling the year (my copy is from 1972...actually, the book looked like it was from the previous century). ;)
 
#37
JimK said:
The old Mel Bay bass book by Roger Filiberto called it an electric bass, too...I'm not recalling the year (my copy is from 1972...actually, the book looked like it was from the previous century). ;)
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LOL, sometimes I think we have a parallel universe thing going on.;)
I just dug out my old pink covered 'Electric Bass by Roger Filiberto' and the copyright on the inside says 1963. Man, I'm old!
 
#39
JimK said:
Yeah, mine has the pink cover, too.
1963, huh?
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I still haven't figured out what make bass was on the 'Position of the right hand ' page was, maple neck, chrome grill, lots of switches.
I've had this book for 37 or so years....was going to learn how to read.........yeah right!
 

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