Editing Washtub bass (section)

==History==
[[Image:ElectricInbindiBass.jpg|180px|thumb|left|Electric "inbindi" bass which is amplified by a public address system]]
[[Ethnomusicologist]]s trace the origins of the instrument to the [[Ground bow|'ground bow' or 'ground harp']] – a version that uses a piece of bark or an animal skin stretched over a pit as a resonator. The ''ang-bindi'' made by the [[Baka people (Congo and Sudan)|Baka people]] of the Congo is but one example of this instrument found among tribal societies in Africa and Southeast Asia, and it lends its name to the generic term ''inbindi'' for all related instruments. Evolution of design, including the use of more portable resonators, has led to many variations, such as the ''[[dan bau]]'' (Vietnam) and ''[[Ektara|gopichand]]'' (India), and more recently, the "electric one-string", which amplifies the sound using a pickup.

The washtub bass is sometimes used in a [[jug band]], often accompanied by a [[washboard (musical instrument)|washboard]] as a [[percussion instrument]]. Jug bands, first known as "spasm bands", were popular especially among African-Americans around 1900 in New Orleans and reached a height of popularity between 1925 and 1935 in Memphis and Louisville.

At about the same time, European-Americans of Appalachia were using the instrument in "old-timey" folk music. A musical style known as "gut-bucket blues" came out of the jug band scene, and was cited by [[Sam Phillips]] of [[Sun Records]] as the type of music he was seeking when he first recorded [[Elvis Presley]].

According to [[Willie "The Lion" Smith]]'s autobiography, the term "gutbucket" comes from "Negro families" who all owned their own pail, or bucket, and would get it filled with the makings for [[chitterlings]]. The term "gutbucket" came from playing a lowdown style of music.<ref name="Music on My Mind">{{cite book |last=Smith|first=Willie the Lion|title=Music on My Mind: The Memoirs of an American Pianist, Foreword by Duke Ellington|year=1964|page=11|publisher=Doubleday & Company Inc. |location=New York City}}</ref>

In English [[Skiffle music|skiffle]] bands, [[Australia]]n and [[New Zealand]] [[bush band]]s and [[South Africa]]n [[kwela]] bands, the same sort of bass has a [[tea-chest bass|tea chest]] as a resonator. [[The Quarrymen]], [[John Lennon]] and [[Paul McCartney]]'s band before [[the Beatles]], featured a tea-chest bass, as did many young bands around 1956.

A folk music revival in the U.S. in the early 1960s re-ignited interest in the washtub bass and jug band music. Bands included [[Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions (album)|Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions]], which later became The [[Grateful Dead]], and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, which featured [[Fritz Richmond]] on bass.