First mass produced active bass guitar..?

[SlapbassSteve]

Just been working on my dissertation on the evolution of bass guitar role and tone since 1960, and it's got me thinking- what was the first commercially available active bass guitar? Am I right in thinking it was the original MusicMan Stingray or am I overlooking something?

[Beer of the Bass]

Surprisingly, it may have been Hofner, as they were offering active circuitry in basses from the mid-late 60s. [url="http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/factfiles/active/electronics.html"]http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/factfiles/active/electronics.html[/url] The guys who founded Alembic were also early adopters of active circuitry, but I guess they don't come under "mass produced".

[Stacker]

Weren't there some odd-ball Brit one in the '60s that had boost switches in them? Would these count as 'active'?

I would guess MM , followed very closely by the Ibanez MC series.

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1365430167' post='2039453']
Surprisingly, it may have been Hofner, as they were offering active circuitry in basses from the mid-late 60s. [url="http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/factfiles/active/electronics.html"]http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/factfiles/active/electronics.html[/url] The guys who founded Alembic were also early adopters of active circuitry, but I guess they don't come under "mass produced".
[/quote]
Were they fitted to basses though? The OP does state active basses.

[Happy Jack]

They certainly were fitted to basses: http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/library/Hofner%20vintage%20instruments/Hofner%20500%205%20Active%201972%20SOLD

This is the only known active Hofner 500/5 in captivity; it used to be part of my collection of vintage Hofners before I sold it to a more serious collector in the States (Fran, for those who follow these things).

The control plate:

[IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Hofner%20vintage%20instruments/Hofner%20500%205%20Active%201972%20SOLD/50051972Active.jpg[/IMG]

This particular active version was never mass-produced, but the circuitry here is identical to that used in active versions of the Hofner 500/5 Violin bass.

[Musky]

Vox produced quite a few basses with active electronics around 66-67. No idea when the first one was introduced though.

[chris_b]

I guess you've already looked at these?

http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/factfiles/active/electronics.html

http://www.alembic.com/family/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_guitar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Fender

[ead]

Nice slice of history there Happy Jack.

[SlapbassSteve]

Cheers folks! Some very interesting stuff there indeed, Hofner is the absolute last company in the world I'd have expected to have done something as forward-thinking as that from so early on- especially like the built-in fuzz and wahwah. Interesting as well that they phased it out in the eighties and decided to stick with passive... I need to read into Alembic a bit more.