page_title: Bass guitar
section_title: 1930s
hierarchical_section_title: Bass guitar / History / 1930s
caption_attribution_description: English: Paul Tutmarc outside his music studio at 804 Pine St. in Seattle, Washington, U.S. He is known as the inventor of electrically-amplified double basses, electric basses, and lap steel guitars, etc.
context_page_description: The bass guitar, electric bass, or simply bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music.
  The four-string bass 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. It is played primarily with the fingers or thumb, or by striking with a pick. The electric bass guitar has pickups and must be connected to an amplifier and speaker.
context_section_description: In the 1930s, musician and inventor Paul Tutmarc of Seattle, Washington, developed the first electric bass guitar in its modern form, a fretted instrument designed to be played horizontally. The 1935 sales catalog for Tutmarc's company Audiovox featured his "Model 736 Bass Fiddle", a solid-bodied electric bass guitar with four strings, a 30 ¹⁄₂-inch (775-millimetre) scale length, and a single pickup. Around 100 were made during this period. Audiovox also sold their “Model 236” bass amplifier.
caption: Paul Tutmarc, inventor of the modern bass guitar, outside his music store in Seattle, Washington
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