<P> The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and four to six strings or courses . The four - string bass, by far the most common, is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest pitched strings of a guitar (E, A, D, and G). The bass guitar is a transposing instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds (as is the double bass) to avoid excessive ledger lines . Like the electric guitar, the bass guitar has pickups and needs to be connected to an amplifier and speaker, which makes a sound loud enough to hear . </P> <P> Since the 1960s, the bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section . While types of basslines vary widely from one style of music to another, the bassist usually plays a similar role: anchoring the harmonic framework and establishing the beat . Many styles of music include the bass guitar, including rock, heavy metal, pop, punk rock, country, reggae, gospel, blues, symphonic rock, and jazz . It is often a solo instrument in jazz, jazz fusion, Latin, funk, progressive rock and other rock and metal styles . </P> <P> In the 1930s, musician and inventor Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, Washington, who was manufacturing lap steel guitars, developed the first electric string bass in its modern form, a fretted instrument designed to be played horizontally . The 1935 sales catalog for Tutmarc's electronic musical instrument company, Audiovox, featured his "Model 736 Bass Fiddle", a four - stringed, solid - bodied, fretted electric bass instrument with a 30 ⁄ - inch (775 - millimetre) scale length . The adoption of a guitar's body shape made the instrument easier to hold and transport than any of the existing stringed bass instruments . The addition of frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily than on fretless acoustic or electric upright basses . Around 100 of these instruments were made during this period . </P> <P> Around 1947, Tutmarc's son, Bud, began marketing a similar bass under the Serenader brand name, prominently advertised in the nationally distributed L. D. Heater Music Company wholesale jobber catalogue of 1948 . However, the Tutmarc family inventions did not achieve market success . </P>

When was the first electric bass guitar made