In the 1930s, inventor Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, Washington, developed a guitar-style electric bass instrument that was fretted and designed to be held and played horizontally. Audiovox's sales catalogue of 1935-6 (also featuring a solid body six-string electric guitar) listed the world’s first fretted, solid body electric bass that was designed to be played horizontally — the Model #736 Electronic Bass Fiddle (German text). The change to a "guitar" form made the instrument easier to hold and transport, and the addition of guitar-style frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily and made the new electric bass easier to learn. Tutmarc's inventions never caught the public imagination and almost no further development of the instrument took place until the 1950s.
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