Gene Fields, a research and development employee for Fender Musical Instruments, was tasked in 1975 with eliminating the dead spot-a particular location on the guitar’s neck where the resonant frequency causes specific notes to have a shorter sustain. But many of these "enhancements" brought to the surface an interesting design flaw embedded deep in the framework of the electric bass. Players began applying thickly coiled strings and plugging into stronger amplifiers while playing with picks and primitive stompboxes. Whereas the initial electric basses were intended to mimic the muted sound of an upright bass, the musical zeitgeist had shifted into a more streamlined, pop-driven sound that called for a brighter bass tone. And so, in all of its stoic glory, the electric bass had hit the market, and music changed forever.īy the mid-1970s the use of the electric bass in popular music had drastically evolved. A bright luthier and entrepreneur named Leo Fender heard the complaints of industry players and decided to spearhead the creation of a portable, electronic, and slickly designed bass guitar, largely modeled from Fender’s Telecaster design. To answer, we must look back nearly six decades to the retail boom of the electric bass, where the big bang of a central design flaw would later call for some radical experimentation and lead to a cunning design play that would later capture the imagination of the world.īy 1950, most live music had become bolstered by stronger electronics systems and amplifiers, leaving many bass players to helplessly compete for volume. Tina Weymouth playing a Steinberger with the Talking Heads The patient invasion of the headless bass into popularity begs several questions: Why would three of rock music’s most innovative bass players retire their mainstays for a guitar so foreign and peculiar? What was the advantage to playing an instrument without a headstock? Or perhaps most importantly, what are its origins? Where did it come from? That particular L2 currently hangs in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Later in the decade, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads would sport a L2 in the music video for " Flowers," and elsewhere on tour during the Little Creatures era, replacing her signature Hofner 500/2 Club Bass. By 1984’s Grace Under Pressure, the two basses had been entirely replaced in favor of the L2. Sting, known mostly at the time for playing fretless Ibanez models like the MC900, had traded in his main axes for something entirely uncanny-a bass without a headstock, shaped to resemble a small boat oar.Ī year or so later, Rush’s Geddy Lee had begun phasing out his iconic Rickenbacker 4001 and ‘72 Fender Jazz Bass for a Steinberger L2. It was a pivotal moment for the now infamous headless bass-the Steinberger L2 model, specifically, in this case-having breached the mainstream with an endorsement from one of the biggest rock stars of the moment. Slung over the shoulder of his yellow nylon jacket and striped shirt rested a peculiar instrument: a small, carbon-fiber bass guitar missing its headstock. But arguably the most memorable moment of the closing act’s performance was Sting’s bass. It was also a rather unorthodox attempt to extend an olive branch to the Soviet Union during a tense period of the Cold War. The US festival was a detrimental $12 million flop, in addition to a slew of overdoses and an unforgiving 110-degree weekend. This event was unique for several reasons.
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