Inspire, Educate, Connect
President's Corner — Volume 49 #1
Guest Column: Amplifying the ISB
2027 Convention Chair and ISB President-Elect Dennis Whittaker shares the ISB's vision for electric bass inclusion.
At the Isle of Man Double Bass Competition in 1978, Gary Karr lauded the variety of instruments and performers on display. While other string instruments have minor variety in their architecture, the bass has MAJOR practical and cosmetic varieties to accommodate players of all shapes and sizes. Rounded and sloped shoulders; gamba and violin corners; D, Eb, and F necks; solo and orchestral tuning; French and German bows; standing, sitting, and so on. It was the fact that there were SO MANY WAYS to play the bass that made it interesting and FUN.
To add to Gary's enthusiasm, we've finally added ELECTRIC BASS onto the ISB board, magazine, and convention, amplifying our mission to Inspire, Educate, and Connect. I know Gary would be joyously smiling along with the rest of us.
Electric bass inclusion is not just a "wink and a nod" to the instrument, players, or styles in which it shines. Nor is it a token acceptance of a "niche instrument" or any specific genre. It's a long-overdue embrace of a member of the bass family with a significant role in our civilization's music of all types, in all regions of the world, played by human beings of all kinds!
Just as the upright bass has variety, there are as many varieties of electric basses: body styles from FSOs (Fender-shaped objects) to Thunderbirds; passive and active electronics; Precision, jazz, MM, and hybrid pickup configurations; roundwound and flatwound strings; tube and solid-state amps; fretted, fretless, and fanned fingerboards, and so on.
It's a reflection of the evolving circle-of-life growth of musical styles, occupations, and musical acts that demand increasingly more creative sounds and approaches. And in turn, as more possibilities are created, so do creative humans use those abilities to find more interesting and effective ways to connect with others.
It's an understatement to say that the musical world has grown more varied and diverse. Most of the bass gigs and styles that exist now did not exist when I started playing upright and electric bass back in 1977. But, over the years no matter the style changes or technical evolutions, one thing that has remained constant is the BASS and its role in music. The bass is, has been, and will always be the foundation of the music in our species. But, since Paul Tutmarc in 1935 and Leo Fender and George Fullerton in 1951, it's not just in the upright bass any more.
For amateur bassists, upright/electric basses provide interest, fun and variety. For today's working bassist, however, proficiency on both upright AND electric has become the industry standard. Even in some symphony orchestras, there are bassists in the sections who double on electric bass on pops subscriptions. It's not niche, it's necessary.
I hope you're as thrilled as I am to deepen our bass rabbit hole and to continue exploring an ever-expanding world of BASS and bassists. I'm looking forward to continuing to make boundlessly creative music together.
Dennis Whittaker
Read this issue of Bass World, Volume 49 #1 (Members Only).