Last time on Bass Tone we looked at the daddy of all basses: the upright. Though it has many wonderful strengths as an instrument, there are some frustrating limitations, particularly for the non classically trained musician. We left off in the early 1950s, when a man called Leo Fender stepped in…

Fender Precision Bass

Released in 1951, Leo Fender’s “Precision” bass revolutionized bass playing. Its radical design maintained the tuning of the upright bass, but reduced the scale length from a whopping 42 inches to a manageable 34, added guitar-style frets on a bolted-on neck, used a sleek solid ash body, and flipped the whole thing on its side. A mark of Leo Fender’s genius is that the design decisions he made on the Precision have become the de facto standard of bass design. With only minor revisions, the Fender P-Bass—as it is affectionately known—is, along with its sister, the Fender Jazz (or J-Bass), still the most popular bass guitar in the world.

In this clip the open strings of an electric bass are played from E to G.

The innovative construction of Fender’s electric bass revolutionized music. Suddenly, the bass became portable and affordable, and any guitarist could quickly learn to double on bass. He chose the name “Precision” because Click to read the rest…

Well, it seems like it’s Rock Band week here at EasyEarTraining.com!

The new Fender Squier Stratocaster Pro controller for Rock Band 3 (Source: Engadget.com)

I’m a big believer in using music video games to learn actual musical skills, whether it’s improving your rhythm and group play with Wii Music, using music games on your phone or improving your singing with Rock Band, like Sabrina wrote about this week. But the power of video games to improve your musicianship just took a big leap forwards as Rock Band creators Harmonix, and guitar design legends Fender announced a real, playable guitar as a controller for the upcoming Rock Band 3 game.

The Squier Stratocaster Pro controller was just announced at the E3 conference in Los Angeles, Click to read the rest…