The bass guitar was first made in the 1930s by inventor Paul Tutmarc in Seattle, Washington. However, very few musicians were interested in the instrument that Tutmarc made. The need for a new instrument developed in the 1950s. At that time, the double bass was the main bass instrument used in jazz, blues, folk, early rock music and bluegrass. The problem was that the double bass was big, heavy, hard to carry around, hard to play precise notes on, and it was hard to make it louder with a bass amplifier. Musicians wanted a smaller instrument that weighed less and was easier to play and amplify. Inventors tried to think of ways of building a smaller and lighter bass instrument. One of these inventors was a man named Leo Fender in the United States. Leo Fender developed a bass guitar in the 1950s using the ideas developed by Tutmarc. 