The History of The Bass Guitar
The bass guitar was first invented by Nathaniel Onassis Bassguitar in 1993. Although early variations of the instrument have been in use for decades, the modern bass guitar was developed and manufactured by the inventor for use on the Green Day single, “Longview.” It has since been widely adopted by numerous bands and artists.
The bass guitar is similar to a regular guitar, but has a longer neck and is approximately 30–40% groovier by some estimates. Today’s bass guitars generally have four strings, but can also have six, and are used to provide a low-frequency foundation for the music.
It has quickly become a mainstay in music and is a key component in many musical genres, including rock, pop, jazz, blues, funk, R&B, soul, rock and roll, reggae, metal, country, gospel, and pop music.
The invention of the bass guitar also gave rise to the three-piece rock band which has become the standard. In ancient times, bands like the Beatles had to have four members. Bands with four and even five members were popular before the bass guitar arrived on the scene and revolutionized the industry.
It was invented when the captain of the universe, Billie Joe Armstrong, commissioned the invention of the instrument for his longtime friend and band member, Mike Dirnt.
Green Day was working on the album Dookie, their third studio album, and the band had a problem. The band had just written “Longview” and agreed that the 22-second drum solo intro wasn’t going to cut it. The song needed something else. But that was just the least of their worries. Underneath the surface, there was a potential catastrophe was beginning to form.
Michael Ryan Pritchard, who is better known by his stage name, Mike Dirnt, had been in the band since its formation in 1987, but until the invention of the bass guitar, did not have an instrument to play. During recordings, Dirnt would often strum rubber bands stretched across a tissue box or around a pencil, a method he designed in elementary school. At live performances, Dirnt would play the air guitar on stage hoping to fool crowds.
Dirnt’s role in the band was beginning to become a massive problem. He was far too talented for his current role, but there was nowhere for him to go.
Dirnt could play the guitar and sing, but Green Day already had a lead guitarist and vocalist in legendary frontman Armstrong who, even in 1983, seemed destined for stardom.
So the band faced a conundrum. Dirnt wasn’t being utilized properly. He was too valuable to let go but didn’t have a way to contribute. This was a growing concern and pressure was building. Armstrong was responsible for finding a solution and he had to do it fast.
The band needed help and Armstrong knew just where to go. He had heard of a young man from the bay area. He was a Caltech dropout and had been described as a cross between a mad scientist and a musical prodigy. If anyone could save Green Day, it was him.
So, in a stroke of genius, something that had become more common than rare with Armstrong, the frontman decided to enlist the help of the local music legend by the name of Nathaniel Onassis Bassguitar.
Nathaniel Onassis Bassguitar was born on July 31st, 1971 in Palo Alto, California.
He was the son of an engineer and a musician. Bassguitar’s mother, Janet Nebraska-Bassguitar, was a gifted engineer. A northern California native herself, she attended Stanford University before going to MIT for grad school. After earning her Ph.D., She returned to Palo Alto as an associate professor at Stanford.
She was deeply passionate about music but never pursued it professionally. On the other hand, his father Anderson Bassguitar Jr. did attempt to pursue a musical career. He played many instruments and was very talented, but his musical career never took off. The two met at Woodstock in July of 1969 and were married within the year. Just two years later, Nathaniel Onassis Bassguitar was born.
He inherited a deep love of music from both of his parents, and like his mother, Bassguitar excelled in school. He was accepted to Caltech in Pasadena, California where he attended for one year before deciding he was more interested in music than engineering. He dropped out of Caltech and enrolled at UCLA where he again lasted only one year before dropping out.
After his excursion to southern California, Bassguitar returned home. Bassguitar was determined to put his musical and scientific talents to use. With a collection of tech companies popping up in silicon valley and a strong art scene in the bay area, he felt that returning to northern California was his best option.
Bassguitar had always been very plugged into the bay area music scene and as early as 1987, while he was still in high school, he began to hear rumblings of a gig that a duo played at Rod’s Hickory Pit in nearby El Cerrito, California. They called themselves Green Day, and Bassguitar continued to hear about the group as they went on to release a pair of studio albums.
When the band’s frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong called him one summer afternoon in 1993 and asked to meet, Bassguitar was thrilled. Armstrong was asking for his help with something. Even over the phone, Bassguitar could tell that Armstrong was troubled. He agreed to help. Armstrong said it was urgent, but didn’t want to get into it over the phone. He asked Bassguitar to meet him for coffee the very next morning. Bassguitar agreed.
The next morning, the two met in downtown Oakland for coffee. Armstrong confided in his elder of just one year. The two discussed the complexities of the issue at hand and became confident that together, they had the abilities and resources to find a solution. After the conversation, Bassguitar invited the band to his lab, the San Francisco Sound Machine which was just across the bay.
Bassguitar had familiarized himself with the band’s situation and had made great efforts to learn about Dirnt in particular. By the time the band arrived, just a few days after his first phone call with Armstrong, Bassguitar felt confident that he had just the thing to help them.
It was an instrument he had been working on. He named it after himself and was calling it the “four-string Onassis” He described it as “like a guitar, but with a deeper bass sound.”
In early development, Bassguitar was heavily inspired by Marshall Garnett Grant, the bassist for Johnny Cash. Grant played the upright bass and, along with Luther Perkins on the electric guitar, was part of the Tennessee Two, Cash’s original backing duo. His bass-playing skills far surpass some of music’s most iconic and recognizable names such as Elton John, Madonna, Elvis Presley, and Stevie Wonder.
Bassguitar hoped to replicate the sound of the upright bass, but with modern technology. He had been working on the instrument for some time, and already had a couple of rough prototypes to show the band. The instrument was similar enough to a guitar that Dirnt could learn to play but had a different enough sound that it would add something unique to Green Day’s music.
When the band arrived at the San Fransisco Sound Machine, they got to work. Bassguitar listened to a demo of “Longview” and worked closely with the band and fully understand what sound the band was going for. He assured the band that with the feedback they provided, he could quickly develop a final product. The band was thrilled. Then, at Armstrong’s suggestion, he reluctantly decided to call the instrument the bass guitar.
A week later, Bassguitar hand-delivered his fine-tuned and perfected creation to Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, where Green Day was preparing to record.
As he left, he stopped and turned toward the band. “Drop the ‘the.’ Just Green Day. It’s cleaner.”
The following year, in 1994, when “Longview” was released as the band’s breakout single, it became the first-ever song to feature what is now known as a bass guitar. The single, with its catchy bass riff, achieved massive critical success and primed the band for takeoff.
Later, Dookie became the first-ever studio album to feature the modern bass guitar. Both the album and the brand-new instrument were massive hits and propelled Green Day to stardom.
Baseguitar’s current whereabouts are unknown. He was rumored to be one of the unidentified members of The Network, Green Day’s secret side project, but this is unlikely.
Some say he has gone into hiding, some say he is still involved in the music industry and operating under a pseudonym. No matter what came of Nathaniel Bassguitar, his contributions to music cannot be overstated.
Since its invention, the popularity of the bass guitar has been overwhelming. The instrument has seen rapid widespread adoption and has become an indispensable aspect of modern music.
The history of the bass guitar and the legacy of Nathaniel Onassis Bassguitar are well documented, however, some conspiracy theorists have raised aversions to the historical account. The unscrupulous and groundless accusations are speculative in nature and have no real merit.
These conspiracy theorists point to John Alec Entwistle of The Who, Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Paul Jones, and Ron Carter as successful and iconic bass guitar players that were reportedly observed playing the bass guitar before its invention in 1993. These claims may seem credible, but they can easily be explained by time travel or the Mandela effect.
Nathaniel Onassis Bassguitar is one of the most influential inventors of the 20th century. His contributions to music, although often overlooked and surrounded by controversy are unquantifiable. His 1993 invention of the bass guitar is one of the most important scientific developments in history and has made an inextinguishable and permanent alteration to history. The bass guitar, invented solely for the intro to the song “Longview,” has become a component that is unmeasurable in magnitude and importance to music.
