Electric bass
Alternate name(s)
- Electric mandobass
Maker
Gibson, Inc.
Maker
Gibson
Date1938 ca.
Place MadeKalamazoo, Michigan, United States, North America
ModelElectric Model J
Serial No.none visible
SignedOn peghead front in mother-of-pearl script: GibsonMarkingsnone
DescriptionIn the 1930s, Gibson, Inc. realized that the unexpected success of the Electro String Instrument Company's "frying pan"—an aluminum electric Hawaiian guitar—could not be ignored. Gibson introduced a competing electric Hawaiian guitar with a metal body in 1935, though it soon changed the body to a wooden one with sunburst finish. In 1936, Gibson introduced the matching ES-150 electric Spanish guitar and the EM-150 electric mandolin. It even made a few dozen electric plectrum and tenor banjos. The NMM's bass is one of five or more electric basses made by Gibson in the late 1930s, but these instruments were never mass produced. This instrument survives with an original Gibson case - only one of the five 1930s electric basses listed in the Gibson shipping ledgers was shipped with a case, and that instrument is described as an electric Model J, suggesting that Gibson thought of it as an electric mandobass at the time.
The hollow-bodied instrument has no sound holes, only an early blade pickup with hexagonal housing, often called the "Charlie Christian" pickup after the jazz artist who was an early adopter of Gibson's ES-150 electric arch-top guitar. Although the instrument appears surprisingly modern for its age, it has a long string length suited to upright rather than seated playing, and it is fitted with an extendable endpin (short scaling and guitar-style playing were hallmarks of Fender's revolutionary Precision Bass, the first commercially successful electric bass, introduced in 1951). It also has a unique, pedal-operated, felt string mute that presumably would dampen the strings enough to imitate the sound of an acoustic bass. The instrument features a beautifully figured maple body with shaded sunburst lacquer and a mando-bass-type neck with flush frets. Another Gibson electric bass was purchased second-hand from the Honolulu Conservatory of Music in 1940 and was used by Mrs. Theodore E. Snow, who as a teenager performed with her family's musical ensemble, the Hawaiian-themed Tropical Islanders. This bass, now at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, has a larger guitar-shaped body and no string mute. Gibson did not bring any electric basses to the mass market until the violin-shaped Gibson Electric Bass (EB-1) in 1953.
Two other 1930s Gibson electric basses survive. One bass was sold to Mrs. Theodore Snow of Kalamazoo, who used it in her family band The Tropical Islanders, which is now at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. A third recently resurfaced, with a body similar to the Experience Music Project instrument and a damper system like the bass at the NMM.
Top: Two-piece quilted maple
Back: Two-piece quarter sawn maple
Sides: Maple
Neck: Three piece neck of maple with mahogany strip through center
Fingerboard:
Radiused rosewood with twenty-four inlaid fret lines, mother-of-pearl dot position markers at frets 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, and 15.
Peghead: Maple
Tuners: Heavy-duty metal, open-geared tuners with small knobs
Nut: Bone
Heel cap: None
Bridge: Rosewood bridge behind adjustable dampening device with heavy felt on top.
Tailpiece: Nickel-plated trapeze style bridge that is installed under endpin assembly
Pickup: Magnetic bar-pickup
Knobs: Two black plastic knobs (one on each side of the upper bout)
Endpin:
Wood assembly with metal ringlet and thumb-screw. Grooved metal pin with rubber tip measures to 480 mm when removed from its housing.
Decorative Elements:
Top and back have a sunburst finish: honey colored on the inside darkening into a dark chocolate color towards the outer edges. The sides are sunburst at points to match the top and back. Neck and peghead are sunburst to match top and back. Cursive Gibson script in mother-of-pearl on peghead front. Four piece diamond mother-of-pearl inlay on peghead front. Top and back are triple bound in white, black, and white plastic. The neck is also triple bound in white and black plastic in the same general scheme. The top of the pickup is covered in black plastic and is triple bound in similar white, black, and white plastic color scheme.
DimensionsOverall Instrument length: 1391 mm (54-5/8 inches)
Vibrating string length: 1080 mm (41-1/2 inches)
Fingerboard length: 825 mm (32-7/16 inches)
Width of fingerboard at nut: 43 mm (1-11/16 inches)
Width of fingerboard at body: 70 mm (2-3/4 inches)
Width of upper bout: 290 mm (11-1/4 inches)
Width of waist: 240 mm (9-1/2 inches)
Width of lower bout: 416 mm (16-1/4 inches)
Width of sound hole: n/a
Depth of body at neck: 90 mm (3-1/2 inches)
Depth of body at bottom: 90 mm (3-1/2 inches)
ProvenanceA 1976 letter by Julius Bellson, Gibson Historian, stated that just two of these basses were made by the Gibson Company; however, shipping ledgers show at least five. This bass belonged to Les Paul's longtime friend and brother-in-law, Wally Kamin, who provided bass background in many of the recordings by Les Paul and Mary Ford.
Purchased in 2003 from Elderly Instruments, East Lansing, Michigan.
Published ReferencesArian Sheets, "Early Rumblings for an Electric Bass; NMM Acquires Gibson's Prototype Electric Bass Guitar, ca. 1938," National Music Musuem Newsletter 32, No. 2 (May 2005), pp. 4-5.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 2003
Object number10474
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