Anthony Jackson

Anthony Claiborne Jackson (June 23, 1952 – October 19, 2025) was an American bassist. Described as "one of the masters of the instrument", he performed as a session musician and live artist. He is also credited with the development of the modern six-string bass, which he referred to as an electric contrabass guitar.

Background

Jackson played piano before starting guitar in his teens. When he turned to bass, he was inspired by James Jamerson and Jack Casady. Jackson worked as a session musician, in the Billy Paul band, and with Philadelphia International Records. Paul’s 1972 hit "Me and Mrs. Jones" was Jackson’s first No. 1 record. His performance on "For the Love of Money" by The O'Jays helped move the song to No. 9 on the pop chart and No. 3 on the R&B chart in 1974.
 

Jackson was a student of Jerry Fisher, Lawrence Lucie, and Pat Martino. He performed live in more than 30 countries and recorded in more than 3000 sessions on more than 500 albums. In 2016, Jackson missed some performances with Hiromi due to ill health.

Obituary

Jackson died on October 19, 2025, at the age of 73. He had Parkinson's disease at the time of his death.

Six-string contrabass guitar

Danelectro (1956), Fender (1961) and other manufacturers had produced six-string basses tuned one octave below a guitar (EADGBE), and Jackson had briefly played a Fender five-string bass tuned EADGC. Jackson first approached various luthiers in 1974 about the construction of his idea for a “contrabass guitar” tuned in fourths BEADGC, and Carl Thompson built the first six-string for Jackson in 1975. He first performed on the Thompson-built bass in 1975, recording with Carlos Garnett and touring with Roberta Flack. He later approached luthier Ken Smith to build him a six-string bass before finally playing instruments made by New York-based bass makers Fodera.

Jackson said that the idea for adding more strings to the bass guitar came from his frustration with its limited range. When asked what he thought of the criticism of the six-string bass, Jackson replied,

Why is four [strings] the standard and not six? As the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family, the instrument should have had six strings from the beginning. The only reason it had four was because Leo Fender was thinking in application terms of an upright bass, but he built it along guitar lines because that was his training. The logical conception for the bass guitar encompasses six strings.
 

From 1982 onwards, Jackson almost exclusively played a contrabass guitar. Prior to 1982, his main instruments included a 1973 Fender Precision Bass, a 1973 Fender Jazz bass fitted with a 1975 Precision neck, and a Gibson EB-2D bass. In 1984, Fodera introduced their first Anthony Jackson Signature Model contrabass, followed in 1989 by a single cutaway model, the “Anthony Jackson Presentation Contrabass Guitar”.