What has changed about the bass guitar?

Answer 1

The Bass Guitar was invented in the 30ies, but really knew the success in the 50ies (with the shadows). It had replaced progressivly the double bass in rock bands because of the gain of power it brought the sound.

The main changes occured in the 80ies and the 90ies.

The instrument

the Extended-Range Basses are bass-Guitars with extra strings allowing to play lower or higher than a 4-strings classic bass.

The electro-acoustic basses : "invented" to give a sound near to the double bass, generaly used by bands in unplugged sessions

The Chapman stick : played by Tony Levin has 10 strings and allows to played both on bass and guitar tunes.

The evolution

The most important evolution is the use of electronics in the bass (connections, effects .... ) and of computing in recordings.

The play

It has been evoluting with more and more players using the pick rather than the finger.

Especially in styles needing power (heavy metal ....).

To be continued ....

and improved

Answer 2

Bass guitars have longer necks, usually 4-6 strings ( some even higher) that are fatter than usual to play octave lower,weight more but the weight distributed out.