Is this a bass guitar?

[gln1955]

What do frets have to do with it? This has frets too but it's not a guitar anything.

View attachment 4200589

Reference to ongoing epic thread about a missing fret.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

Reference to ongoing epic thread about a missing fret.

It was a cold grey November morning when Sam Spade got the call about a missing fret...

 

[yodedude2]

its a bass!! EADG, 30.5 scale
View attachment 4200560

i really, really like this picture.

 

[Slevage]

For all practical purposes, yes, it's a bass guitar.

Technically, it was sold as an electric bass fiddle. It can't be bowed. And bass fiddle is another name for an upright.

Nomenclature is weird.

Can the center two strings be bowed, or is it more like Jimmy Page bowing his E string?

 

[Rib 13]

Its a bass guitar to me

In 1936 (especially during the Great Depression), calling it Bass Fiddle makes more sense to market it to that eras demographic to sell it....Marketing it as a Bass Guitar in that era would be like marketing it as a
Bass Flying Saucer......

 

[iiipopes]

I thought this was the bass fiddle

View attachment 4200479

Or would that be bull fiddle, dog house, etc.?

 

[Killing Floor]

I called it a bass fiddle because that was what it was called when it was released. It's what it was called, not necessarily what we would call it today.

View attachment 4200529

My guitar home amp is 18W and it’s loud as heck.
And if you’ve flown lately you know how luxurious “Airplane Linen” can be.

 

[Killing Floor]

Here's a YouTube video with a guy playing it:

It sounds pretty good!

 

[Rib 13]

It sounds pretty good!

definitely far from my cup o tea but surprisingly better than some basses made three decades later
imo. of course

 

[Turnaround]

Someone had better come up with the definitive definition of what a guitar is then Every one I can find says 6 or 12 strings...

It's a Tenor Guitar.

 

[OnederTone]

It’s a bass, but this thread is bait

 

[Deleted member 165050]

It’s a bass, but this thread is bait

It really isn't. And it's sad that every thread at the moment is called out as "bait". Paul Tutmarc's invention 85 years ago is interesting. Just as the Rickenbacker inventions in the 1930s and the even earlier Gibson inventions were. Not bait, musical history. There will be a written test later.

 

[OnederTone]

Absolutely no one that is aware of it has ever disputed Tutmarc’s creation as being the first bass guitar. It can be debated if Leo Fender was aware of it before creating the first mass produced and commercially viable electric bass guitar.

Posting a thread asking if it is or isn’t, especially by your response above that it was intended to start debate so you could show how much musical history you know certainly is bait

 

[Turnaround]

"Bass Guitar" is an odd description of what we call electric bass. A Precision Bass does not look much like a traditional guitar - it's the wrong shape and has the wrong strings. What Leo Fender actually called it is not entirely clear - I have seen representations of the original patent documents that variously refer to the instrument as an "electric bass" and as a "guitar" (but not bass guitar). It is documented that Leo was thinking of upright bass players having to haul around that "doghouse" from gig to gig and having to work hard to be heard. There are some notes about his idea to develop and electric bass for them. And later, after the Precision was slow to catch on widely, he had the idea to appeal to guitar players allowing them to double on bass. I think perhaps that's when he started to refer to his instrument as a "bass guitar".

For my part, I don't like to refer to the instrument as any kind of guitar. IMO it's an electric bass, period. By and large it's not played like a guitar, but it is played like a double bass, though held more like a guitar. The function of the instrument is more akin to the double bass than the guitar.

Maybe I'll avoid nomenclature issues and just call it Fred.

 

[micguy]

So, some are calling it a bass guitar because it has frets. Does that mean my fretless isn't a bass guitar?

I say it's an attempt at a bass guitar; a rather unsuccessul one, but an atempt nonetheless. It exists mainly so cranky people can complain and bring it up whenever someone calls a P bass the first bass guitar. It's been more successfull in that role than it ever was as a musical instrument.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

Absolutely no one that is aware of it has ever disputed Tutmarc’s creation as being the first bass guitar. It can be debated if Leo Fender was aware of it before creating the first mass produced and commercially viable electric bass guitar.

Posting a thread asking if it is or isn’t, especially by your response above that it was intended to start debate so you could show how much musical history you know certainly is bait

Since you're clearly here just for confrontation, welcome to my Ignore list.

 

[Ric5]

Is this a bass guitar?

That is a bass guitar that has historical significance

 

[Pdaddy1978]

What would you do if you broke a string on that thing in 1936??
Pop into Guitar Center?

 

[Thump_N_Bloom]

That is an electric baritone ukelele.

 

[retslock]

It's actually just the question, I'm interested in what people think. Given its small size it could as easily be described as a tenor guitar.

Depends entirely on it’s sonic range. Bass is low, tenor is high. It’s a short scale bass guitar.