What maker pioneered doubled and tripled string basses?

Remember, any thread that starts with a "who" will not go into the basses forum unless you consider basses to be people or if you're trying to ask a question along the lines of "who makes the best basses?", etc.

My understanding is that 5 String Basses have been around a long, long time. The first electric bass guitar was invented in 1951 so I'm guessing that the first five string bass was invented in the 50's as well. But I like the question as to who pioneered them because I don't know and I would really like to find out.

 

Hagstrom in the mid 60's had an 8 string... Hendrix used a Hagstrom 8 extensively in the studio...

as for 5's and 6's they really weren't much in vogue until the 70's Fender made the Bass VI in the 60's as well, Jack Bruce used one with Cream.....

Anthony Jackson claims the invention of the Contrabass (BEADGC) 6 string..... the builder was Carl Thompson...

 

An 8-string is not really a multistring, since it's basically a 4-string in terms of playing.

 

OK, my understanding is that a multistring bass is a bass with more than the standard four strings (no pairs), mostly 6 or more - e.g. the Conklin seven-strings.

String instruments with paired strings are probably as old as string instruments themselves, at least they date back to medieval times.
So there are no real "pioneers" in the last century.

 

A fusion Cat named Jimmy Johnson was the first guy I can think of who had a low b five ( alembic I think).


AJ

 

You need to add about 15 years to that. Sorry, but not only were they not "in vogue", they were virtually non-existant during the 70's. Based on my experience, fives and sixes didn't become "in vogue" until the 90's.

 

Try this LINK



Treena

 

That puts Hagstroem (Hagstrom?) in with 1968 for the first 8 stringed bass (assuming this was an instrument with strings arranged in sets of courses) from a reasonably large manufacturer.

I don't who played those early basses, but the name Hagstrom might help a bit in digging around.

Wulf

 

1956 : First 6 string Bass UB1 from Danelectro (Tuning: E A D G B E)

1960 : 6 string Bass EB-6 (Tuning: E A D G B E)

1962 : Fender VI (Tuning: E A D G B E)

1964 : Fender V

1968 : Hagstroem 8 String Bass

1975 : Carl Thompsons builds Piccolo Bass for Stanley Clarke and Anthony Jackson's 6 string bass (B E A D G C)

1981 : First 12 string Bass from Modulus

1983 : Ibanez MC 924 "half and half" (fretted to the 12th fret then fretless)

1986 : First 6 string bass with low B and High C tuning from Modulus

1989 : Double neck Basses from from Le Fay and Jerry Jones



Treena

 

Didnt ken smith have something to do with the first 5 string?

 

Gibson, Danelectro and Gretsch were all making double neck basses (one neck bass, one guitar) by the early 1960s.

Interestingly enough, while other members of the mandolin family use doubled strings, when Gibson made mandobasses in the 1930s they had only 4 strings.

 

Give www.8stringbass.com a try.

They would seem to be the ones who are hip to the history of the instrument.

 

Guys, just to let you know (or bring it to your attention), the guy is talking about octave strings. You know, like a 12-string guitar, PAIRED strings. Not a full 5, 6, 7, or 8 string bass like a Conklin or whatever.

Just, you know, trying to point it out.

 

I feel you Treena

wether the Bass string configuration is Doubled,Trippled,or singles extended it's all related in order to give close to origin info as possible.yes most modern instruments are realted to old world multi string instruments.
Habstrom and burns were first at presenting to us the 8 string Bass(a 4 string doubled.
Tom Peterson of Cheap Trick had Hamer Make the First 12 string Bass in the late 70's.Stanley Clark in the late 70's had Carl Thomson make the first Picolo Bass(an electric tuned an octave higher than the electric Bass).and Carl also made the first 5 string Bass utilising Anthony Jacksons Low B string concept as well as the first non Baritone 6 string Bass for Anthony in the Late 70's and Anthony later took it to Ken Smith who gave us the first wide string spacing 6 string Electric Bass.and Fodera gave us the 6 string electric a few years before Modulus who did make the first 18 string bass for Tom Peterson,but it later went to Allen Woody. Mike Tobias made the first 7 string electric Bass for my friend Bassist Garry Goodman in the early 80's,a few years before Conklin.Anthony Jackson,and Jimmy Johnson(with his Alembic.who at one time made a 8 string non doubled Bass for Bill Dickens.who later had Conklin make the first 9 string electric Bass.and lets not forgete the 10 string electric Bass that Shack from Germany made and gave to Jonas Hellborg) were the first to incorporate the low B string in modern music as we see it today.and I myself had Warrior make for me(there's a pic at 12stringbass.com) the first 15 string electric Bass(a 5 string trippled)and I have the first Bass I call a Sub Contra Bass(tuned low C#,F#,B,and Standerd E) Made for me by Scott Surine.the 15 string and the Sub Contra Basses are from my own personal concept of where I see Bass Going today.and I am not at all saying that I am in the same catogorie as the Bassist mentioned in this Thread

 

I remember 5 string uprights. I think Slam Stewart was one of the first to play (and popularize) one of these. I seem to remember it was a Kay.

 

i went to the Acoustic amp factory and got paid $20 around 1970 to test the 360 or some model amp and give them feed back. I think they had an add for bassists to do an evaluation ,so lots of guys were doing this.

While I was there , they showed me an Acoustic (brand name) "Black Widow" 8 string. it was the four doubled strings. It was very cool. Does anyone know where it went or if they ever made more ?