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How the Fender Bass Changed the World - Chapter 6, Ride the Wild Bass As the 1950s drew to a close, the low end was getting more and more attention. Quite a few hit songs from that era were based on twangy licks played on Fender or Danelectro basses - or, sometimes, just by whacking the low E string on a standard electric guitar. That's what Eddie Cochran did on "Summertime Blues (1958), which has sometimes been described as a song with electric bass. Not true–but clearly lots of low-end presence didn't hurt.

Nokie Edwards gave the punchy sound of the Precision Bass a big boost on the immortal instrumental "Walk Don't Run," a hit for The Ventures in 1960. (Edwards, originally the group's bassist, later switched to lead guitar). The tune was highly influential, especially among 1960s California surf bands–many of which were equipped top to bottom with matching Fender instruments.

In a 1997 article in Vintage Guitar Magazine, Peter Stuart Kohman wrote: "The surf/instrumental rock genres of the early 1960s were crucial proving grounds for the still-newfangled electric bass, and many of the seminal records in these two interrelated styles are also showcases for the Fender bass sound. You can't really imagine surf music without a Fender bass–this is not true of any earlier rock & roll style. During this era, the bass guitar went from optional to essential equipment and set up the electric bass for its dominant role in the British Invasion, folk rock, and all that followed."

Kohman goes on to pointo out that bassists in budding surf bands played different types of electric basses, including Harmony and Danelectro instruments, but it was a sign of success to have a shiny new Fender bass, usually in a custom color like Candy Apple Red or Lake Placid Blue. The musicians who played these flashy Fenders approached them like guitars rather than uprights, playing downstrokes with a flatpick and going for a tighter, more focused sound than the thud of an acoustic bass. The instrument's potential was just beginning to be tapped.

pgs. 56-57, by Jim Roberts. Contributed by Gavin "Windansea Beachboy" Ehringer, June, 2007.