1) Leo Fender's Fender Precision
2) Roger Rossmeisl's Rickenbacker Bass (4001 series)
3) Johnny Mørch (custom basses, scroll design cutaways)
4) Carl Thompson (extra-long scale bass guitars)
5) [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I have some pretty steep standards for creativity. One is that it must be in the realm even if it is out-of-the-box. So I like designs that step far out in front, but preserve geometric / harmonic / musical relations that have become standard over the history of the instrument's development. Unique is not always creative, nor is creative always unique. Original? Don't get me started....
Fender was foremost in the development of the instrument. He declared that musically it was a derivative of the double bass and guitar. He established a beautiful modern design that is in fact derivative of ancient lutherie design principles throughout. That is why it has been such a durable design. He did his homework, and quite a lot of it;- without the aid of the internet, and it is quite remarkable that his headstock design, for years believed to be spun from his own mind, can be found on a 200 year old vihuella in a European museum. Someone famous once said that creativity was the ability to hide your sources well! Then he put a lot of original thought behind that homework as well. Result: Industry Standard for a half century plus so far.
Rossmeisl brought some original thought to the sound of the instrument and some subtle improvements in ergonomics in ways that Fender did not as well as bringing the instrument the fine attention to detail associated with European lutherie, which was his heritage as a student from Germany's centuries old Mittenwald lutherie school. This philosophy was diametrically opposed to Fender's incorporation of American "mass production" methodology and to this day separates the products of the two most influential makers of bass guitars. More than anything else, Rossmeisl established the alternate path of construction with a neck through design.
In 1970, Johnny Mørch became the grandfather of modern custom bass guitar lutherie. His "curl" or "scroll" design upper cutaway was actually the idea of a guitarist Thomas Puggård-Müller whom he collaborated with. This design earmark was not significant except that it became over the years a trademark of quality custom bass making, being adopted by American maker Carl Thompson, and later possibly echoed in the design of the Ritter Okon, a collaboration of Jens Ritter with bassist, Stefan Okon. Mørch experimented with just about every possible idea that customers brought him over the years from blatant copies of Fenders and Ricks (rarely) to totally over the top one-of-a-kind (more usual) masterpieces. It was Mørch who placed the sky as the limit on bass guitar design and construction.
Just after Mørch, American Carl Thompson began building custom guitars, but soon became known as a bass specialist. At some point he began making instruments with longer strings with the bridge set almost beyond the end of the body. In my mind, this was a true stroke of genius in expanding the tonal possibilities of the lower range of the instrument while maintaining a playable ergonomic design. Like Mørch, Thompson contributed greatly to the use of natural wood color and grain in the look of the instruments.
Respecting all of this history and truly bringing it to the next level is today's Jens Ritter. Sharing some of the same heritage as Rossmeisl, but undoubtably influenced greatly by concepts introduced by Fender, Mørch, and Thompson, Ritter has redefined bass lutherie as fine art as well as fine craft. His instruments possess in addition to all that came before, refined concepts of design and proportion and shape. It could easily be argued that his basses are as much related to the concepts of Antoni Gaudi as Fender, Rossmeisl, Mørch, or Thompson.
[Edit: Sorry! Pictures of these we have all seen some of, I would think]
Preceded the Euro models of today. These still had solid maple wings, great tonal variety w/active electronics and 
