Regardless of how long back a peice of music was written, there has traditionally been a line created for the low end. Even if it is using the bass footboard on an organ, playing a upright bass with a bow, or playing the tuba, all musical pieces has required a bass structure, and this is in the form of a bass line.
We note the blankness when music is short a bass line or implicit bass part. As music grooves flourished into rock, jazz, blues, , was a need for a new kind of bass instrument to supply the full-bodied low-toned line. This is how the electronic bass guitar came into being. Though the first bass guitar was designed in the 1930's, it never managed approval until the Fender Bass brought the bass to the population. The preceding instrument, the double bass, been in existance for many years ahead of this. With it's circle of tone and amplification, the electric bass offered a sound that was a break from any other that had been heard before from the more traditional double bass.
Held and played like a regular guitar, the Vintage Bass differed from it's ancestor the double bass not only in it's arrangement during play but likewise in it's simplicity of use and portability. Modern bass players wheren't handicaped with a big bass to try to carry and cover.
The electric bass guitar looks like an modern guitar in that it's framework is solid, but the bass guitar has a longer neck than a traditional guitar. Also, contrary to an acoustic guitar which is hollow and has a sound hole, the sound of a bass guitar is amplified through a speaker. Tuned an octave deeper than a traditional guitar, the electric bass at first has only four strings. Even to this day, that's the most popular configuration.
While traditional guitars are characteristically picked or fingered, the electric bass can be played with a a wide range of methods including picking, thumbing and more.
The Fender bass is regularly a rhythm instrument. While playing with with a good drummer, a bass player can help shape the feeling of sound of the music in a means that non rhythm section instruments can't. The electric bass is a unique instrument and different than a four string guitar.
There are multiple type of styles for bass guitars today, not including the number of elements it can be constructed from. This choices are entirely up to the personal style the musician who owns the bass. Wood is the traditionally used material for basses. Exotic woods could be being used, and are popular, such as alder wood and ebony. The timbre of the different bass differs, and as such you could examine each one in order to know your preference. And, many pro musicians choose a frettless or fretted bass. This gives a peculiar outcome on the electric bass sound, as a frettless bass cords vibrate on the wood neck.
Edward is a music enthusiast and bass blogger at http://www.vintagefenderbass.net/