Q: Who invented the electric bass guitar?

A: A Seattle inventor named Paul Tutmarc and his Audiovox Manufacturing Company developed an “Electric Bull Fiddle” in 1935 that had a solid body and frets, and was designed to be held horizontally, like a guitar.

However, Leo Fender is credited with developing the first successful electric bass guitar, the Precision Bass. The prototype for the P-bass was built in 1950. It was released as a production model in 1951. Fender’s instrument was considered so defining of the bass guitar as an instrument that the category became known generically as the “Fender Bass.”