Uploaded May 2014 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
The first appearance of a fretted electric bass instrument that could be held and played like a guitar was around 1936, five years after Beauchamp and Rickenbacker invented the first electric guitar.
Inventor and musician Paul Tutmarc, created and marketed it as the Audiovox Model 736 Bass Fiddle. It was a 4-string, fretted, solid-body electric bass guitar with a 30.5" scale neck, not unlike the bass guitars of today. The addition of frets made it easier for the bass player to play in tune, and the guitar-like size and shape made transporting a bass far easier.
Tutmarc and his son, Bud, continued to market them until the late 1940s under the Serenader brand name.
However, the electric bass guitar was not a big seller until Leo Fender and George Fullerton made and marketed the Fender Precision Bass in 1951.
The first appearance of a fretted electric bass instrument that could be held and played like a guitar was around 1936, five years after Beauchamp and Rickenbacker invented the first electric guitar.
Inventor and musician Paul Tutmarc, created and marketed it as the Audiovox Model 736 Bass Fiddle. It was a 4-string, fretted, solid-body electric bass guitar with a 30.5" scale neck, not unlike the bass guitars of today. The addition of frets made it easier for the bass player to play in tune, and the guitar-like size and shape made transporting a bass far easier.
Tutmarc and his son, Bud, continued to market them until the late 1940s under the Serenader brand name.
However, the electric bass guitar was not a big seller until Leo Fender and George Fullerton made and marketed the Fender Precision Bass in 1951.
