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Whenever you're watching a band, either live or on TV, you'll notice that, while most of the guitars have six strings and are approximately the same length and size, one guitar seems to have only four strings and is quite a lot longer than the rest. What you're looking at is a bass guitar.
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A bass guitar is tuned like a traditional guitar with two major differences. The bass guitar only uses the E, A, D and G strings, and these strings are tuned one octave lower than a six-string guitar.
The modern bass guitar was invented by Leo Fender in the 1950's. He thought that the bass could be a more driving force in country music, and what was becoming rock and roll, if several important changes were made. First, he completely redesigned the instrument along the lines of his other solid body electric guitars, such as the Telecaster and Stratocaster. Second, he put frets on the neck. Up until that point, bass guitars, or double basses, were fretless instruments, like their cousins, the cello, violin and viola. The addition of frets gave the instrument a much more precise sound, and also allowed guitarists to "double" on bass when needed.
Today the bass guitar is one of the most important instruments in all of popular music.
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