The original Fender Bass V was a quirky and unusual electric

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 model produced by Fender between 1965 and 1970. It was the world's first five string bass guitar, a popular concept today.

The Fender Bass V is unusual in its dimensions: although it is three inches longer than a P-Bass

Fender Precision Bass

The Fender Precision Bass is an electric bass.Designed by Leo Fender as a prototype in 1950 and brought to market in 1951, the Precision was the first electric bass to earn widespread attention and use. A revolutionary instrument for the time, the Precision Bass has made an immeasurable impact on...

, the Fender Bass V has only 15 frets. A high C

Musical notation

Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...

 string was added to a combination of traditional Fender body designs. (At the time, not much about electric bass construction was traditional because it was still a new technology.) The idea behind the top C string was to enable reading bass players to get to the high notes on the instrument easily, without having to go up the neck. The top note on the instrument is E-flat which is the same top note as a standard 20-fret 4 string Jazz or Precision bass.

Originally came with chrome bridge and pickup covers.

Players did not accept the Fender Bass V, partly due to its size and shape. Players also had problems with the small amount of space between strings. Only about 1000 Fender Bass V models were produced, before being discontinued in 1970. Surplus bodies were then used in the construction of the Fender Swinger

Fender Swinger

The Fender Swinger was a short-lived electric guitar model released by Fender in 1969, with few made...

.

Players

The following players are purported to have owned a Fender Bass V:

• James Jamerson
  James Jamerson
  James Lee Jamerson was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of Motown Records' hits in the 1960s and early 1970s , and he is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history...
  
  , Motown legend
• John Paul Jones
  John Paul Jones (musician)
  John Paul Jones is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. Best known as the bassist, mandolinist, and keyboardist for English rock band Led Zeppelin, Jones has since developed a solo career and has gained even more respect as both a musician and a...
  
   of Led Zeppelin
  Led Zeppelin
  Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
  
  
• C.F. Turner of Bachman-Turner Overdrive
  Bachman-Turner Overdrive
  Bachman–Turner Overdrive is a Canadian rock group from Winnipeg, Manitoba, that had a series of hit albums and singles in the 1970s, selling over 7 million albums in that decade alone. Their 1970s catalog included five Top 40 albums and six Top 40 singles...
  
  

Literature

• Peter Bertges: The Fender Reference; Bomots, Saarbrücken 2007, ISBN 978-3-939316-38-1