Derived from the double bass, which several manufacturers tried to electrify from the 30’s on, the electric bass guitar was created by Audiovox in 1933 and then perfected by Gibson, Rickenbacker, Höfner, and especially Fender in the 50’s and 60’s. Similar to the guitar in form, the original instrument had 4 strings stretched over a fretted neck but was soon to undergo many variations, just like guitars: acoustic basses, acoustic-electrics or electrics, fretted or fretless, with some models having 5, 6, 8 and even 12 strings.