The change to a "guitar" form made the instrument easier to hold and transport the addition of guitar-style frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily (which also made the new electric bass easier to learn).Ī self-taught electrical engineer named Leo Fender developed the first mass-produced electric bass in the 1950s. Audiovox's sales catalogue of 1935–6 (also featuring a solid body six-string electric guitar) listed what is probably the world’s first fretted, solid body electric bass that is designed to be played horizontally - the Model #736 Electric Double Bass. Paul Tutmarc developed a guitar-style electric bass instrument that was fretted and designed to be held and played horizontally. The electric bass is also used as a soloing instrument in jazz, fusion, Latin, and funk styles. The bass is typically used to provide the low-pitched bassline(s) and bass runs in popular music and jazz. Since the 1950s, the electric bass has largely replaced the double bass in popular music. The bass is similar in appearance to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and scale length, and, usually, four strings tuned one octave lower in pitch, in the bass range. The electric bass guitar (also called an electric bass or a bass) is an electrically-amplified fingered (or plucked or picked or slapped) string instrument.