Thursday, September 15, 2011

Leo Fender and His Creation of the Vintage Bass Guitar

By Alan Brenner


When you play a vintage bass guitar, it conveys you the feelings and the sound of that period in which it was born. You can avail the same rush of feelings when you play a guitar which was assembled by the same hands and in the same period as a guitar played by a favorite musician.

There are numerous vintage guitars out there just waiting to be played, like a vintage Peavey guitar. Below are some of the Fender Bass guitars you may find while looking for a vintage guitar.

Huge selections of electric bass guitars have been sold in the period of years. If the guitar is a vintage bass guitar then it would be usually manufactured between 1920 and 1970. Listed below are some of these guitars that have been introduced to the music world by Leo Fender.

Presently known as the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, it had launched the Fender Precision Bass (or P Bass) in the year 1951. It is described as the best selling electric bass of all periods and was exclusively designed by, the founder, Leo Fender. Its initial design was similar to the Telecaster and was then redesigned to look like the Stratocaster in the year 1957. Later on, immediately, the single-coil pickup was substituted with a split humbucking pickup. This is a solid body guitar consisting of a maple neck and a fix bridge.

The Telecaster version of the Precision Bass was re-introduced in 1968 as the Telecaster Bass and has undergone numerous redesigns and reintroductions since then.

The Jazz Bass (or J Bass) was commenced in 1960 and was the second vintage bass guitar from Leo. It comprised of a solid-body with a fixed bridge. They had 2 single-coil pickups and also comprised of two pole pieces per string. This provides this vintage bass guitar with a bright, rich midrange and was designed to compete with the sound of the Rickenbacker bass. It resembled the design and was marketed alongwith the Jazzmaster.

The Fender Mustang Bass was the final guitar that was designed by Leo Fender before he departed from the fender. It was manufactured from the year 1966 till 1981 and was later re-introduced in 2002 by Fender Japan and is still under continuous production. Bridges with 4 adjustable saddles and a split single-coil Mustang Bass pickup have been compiled in this solid-body design.

The Music Man Sting Ray is another vintage bass guitar Leo Fender had a played a part in. Released in 1976 by Music Man. Music Man was founded by Leo Fender and two other Fender employees in the early 70s. Like the Precision bass this is a solid-body guitar with a maple neck and fixed bridge. The String Ray was available with one or two high-output humbucking pickups and was the first mass produced bass guitar with active electronics. These active electronics gave the ability to add a 3 band equalizer and along with its higher quality made it preferred choice for slapping.

Born in 1909, Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender, is frequently regarded as one of the most significant figures in the origin of electric instruments, he bid farewell to the world in 1991. He was the founder of 3 music companies, G&L Musical Products not stated above, besides he also designed guitars and amplifiers, vintage bass guitars being one of them listed above.

There are a lot of guitars to select from and countless reasons to select any particular model. So when you are ready to find a vintage guitar do a fast search for Samick guitars for sale or whichever brand you are looking for and good luck.




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