Paul Reed Smith’s initial foray into electric bass production took place in 1986 with the Bass-4 and Bass-5.

These 4- and 5-stringers shared the elegant looks and luxurious woods and inlays of the company’s standard guitars, but were not very warmly received by critics or players, and were dropped in 1991.

In 2000, a second generation model, named simply the PRS Electric Bass, was introduced: plainer and more functional than it’s predecessors, it had an alder body, a bolted on maple neck, and two passive pickups whose exposed blades were shaped to follow the radius of the instrument’s fingerboard.

The firm’s publicity described their tone as “fat and clear”.

A piezo transducer was fitted on it a month later.