Bass guitar in 1958. 1956 saw the appearance at the German trade fair "Musikmesse Frankfurt" of the distinctive Höfner 500/1 violin bass made using violin construction techniques by Walter Höfner, a second generation violin luthier. The instrument is often known as the "Beatle Bass", due to its endorsement and use by Beatles bassist Paul McCartney. In 1957 Rickenbacker introduced the model 4000 bass, the first bass to feature a neck-through-body design in which the neck is part of the body wood. The Fender and Gibson versions used bolt-on and glued-on necks. With the explosion of the popularity of rock music in the
Acoustic bass guitar instrument was little used in acoustic musical performances until the late 1980s, when the acoustic basses were used in performances on the "MTV Unplugged" television program. The Earthwood was quickly supplanted by the Washburn AB-40 designed by Mick Donner and Richard Siegle. The AB-40 and the more affordable AB-20 became the instrument of choice for bass players appearing on "Unplugged". Folk bass player Ashley Hutchings used the acoustic bass guitar with his Etchingham Steam Band in 1974 and 1975. An early user of the acoustic bass guitar in rock was English multi-instrumentalist and composer Mike Oldfield, who had one custom-built