How Many Types of Double Bass Are There?
Eight types. Eight names. One instrument that's not actually in the violin family. It's the only orchestral string instrument descended from the viol — which is why it has sloping shoulders, tunes in fourths, and gets called every name in the book.
Quick Answer
8 types of double bass in working use: standard 4-string acoustic, 5-string, electric upright (EUB), hybrid/laminate, hand-carved, travel bass, slap/rockabilly bass and Baroque period bass. The instrument also has 8 different names — double bass, upright bass, contrabass, bass viol, bass fiddle, bull fiddle, string bass, doghouse bass. Looking for the bass guitar, the drum kit double-bass pedal, or the contrabass clarinet? All handled near the bottom of this page.
One instrument. Three completely different musical lives.
Below: the four open strings of a standard double bass, tuned E-A-D-G in perfect fourths — unlike every other bowed string instrument. Below that: the same seven notes played orchestral arco (bowed), jazz pizzicato (plucked walking-bass style), and rockabilly slap (percussive). Same instrument, same notes, three musical worlds.
E1 at 41 Hz is the lowest open string in the orchestral string section — five-string basses can go even lower, to a B0 below 31 Hz. Most laptop speakers can't reproduce the fundamental at all; you're hearing the harmonics.
These are three completely different physical techniques on the same instrument. Arco means drawing horsehair across the string — the orchestra voice. Pizzicato means plucking with the fingers — the entire jazz tradition. Slap means snapping the string against the fingerboard for a percussive crack — rockabilly, country, early jazz. Most working bassists know all three.
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Eight names for one instrument
More than any other instrument in the orchestra. Each name comes from a different musical world where the bass earned a living.
Why the double bass is not actually in the violin family
The violin, viola and cello all tune in perfect fifths (G-D-A-E on the violin, an octave lower on the viola, another octave plus a fifth lower on the cello). The double bass tunes in perfect fourths (E-A-D-G). That difference is the signature of a different family entirely.
The double bass descends from the viol family — specifically the violone, the "big viol" — not from the violin family. Viols always tuned in fourths with a major third in the middle (much like a modern guitar). When the double bass was absorbed into the symphony orchestra during the 17th and 18th centuries, it kept its viol tuning rather than adopting the fifths tuning of its new neighbours.
There is also a practical reason. At the double bass's scale length — roughly 105 cm of vibrating string — tuning in fifths would require finger stretches no hand can comfortably reach. Fourths are physically playable; fifths would mean two consecutive notes were six inches apart on the fingerboard. The viol tradition simply matched the physics.
The viol family ancestry also explains the bass's sloping shoulders — that gentle slope where the body meets the neck. Violins, violas and cellos all have rounded shoulders. Look at a double bass next to a cello and the difference is unmistakable. After you see this once, you can identify the instrument across a room.
The 8 double bass types in working use
From the orchestral standard to the modern travel and electric variants.
| Type | Strings | Where you find it |
|---|---|---|
| 4-string acoustic (standard) | 4 | The default. Symphony orchestra, jazz, chamber, theatre, opera pit |
| 5-string acoustic | 5 | Adds a low B (or low C with extension). Used in late-Romantic and modern orchestral writing — Mahler, Stravinsky |
| Electric upright bass (EUB) | 4–5 | Solid or semi-hollow body. Output to amp. Touring jazz musicians and crossover players who can't carry a full acoustic |
| Hybrid (laminate top) | 4 | Mass-produced, plywood top with carved back. Most school and student instruments |
| Hand-carved bass | 4–5 | All carved spruce top and maple back. Professional orchestral instruments. Major maker basses can cost $30,000–$200,000+ |
| Travel bass | 4 | Removable neck or collapsible body for air travel. Czech-Ease, NS Design and others |
| Slap / rockabilly bass | 4 | Often set up with higher action and gut or nylon strings for percussive slap playing. Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker |
| Baroque double bass | 3–4 | Period instrument, gut strings, often 3-stringed historically. Used in early-music ensembles |
Double bass body shapes also vary — violin-cornered (sharp corners, modern look) and gamba-cornered (rounded, sloping, closer to the original viol) are the two main traditions. These are body-pattern variants rather than separate instrument types.
The sizes — and why "3/4" is the "full" size
Unlike violins, cellos and every other string instrument, the standard "full-size" double bass is the 3/4 size, not the 4/4. A 4/4 bass exists but is rare and very large — used mainly by tall players in big orchestras with low string requirements. Almost every professional double bassist plays a 3/4.
| Size | Body length | Typical age / player |
|---|---|---|
| 1/8 | ~75 cm | 5–7 years |
| 1/4 | ~85 cm | 7–10 years |
| 1/2 | ~95 cm | 10–13 years |
| 3/4 (the professional standard) | ~110–115 cm | Adult players — orchestra, jazz, all serious work |
| 7/8 | ~118 cm | Larger orchestras with strong low-string requirements |
| 4/4 ("full") | ~120+ cm | Rare. Very tall players in major orchestras |
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The six players who built the instrument's reputation
Two classical, three jazz, one across both. Tap a card to read more.
Not what you were looking for? The five things "double bass" doesn't mean
"Double bass" shows up in five other places in music. None of them is this instrument.
1. Bass guitar (≠ double bass)
The electric bass guitar — invented by Leo Fender in 1951 as the Precision Bass — is a horizontal, fretted, electrically amplified instrument played like a guitar. It has 4 strings tuned exactly the same as the double bass (E-A-D-G), which is the entire source of confusion. Fender designed it specifically as a portable, amplifiable replacement for the upright bass in dance bands. Same tuning. Different family. Different instrument.
2. Double bass drum pedal (≠ double bass)
A drum-kit accessory: either two bass drums (each with its own pedal) or a single bass drum operated by two foot pedals. Allows the rapid kick patterns associated with metal, punk and hard-rock drumming — Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) and Vinnie Paul (Pantera) are reference players. The "double" refers to two bass drums, not the orchestral string instrument. Pure naming coincidence.
3. Contrabass clarinet ("double bass clarinet") (≠ double bass)
A woodwind, not a string. The contrabass clarinet is the largest member of the clarinet family, tall as a person, pitched an octave below the bass clarinet. Used for very low pedal notes in modern orchestral writing (Schoenberg, Stravinsky) and in large wind ensembles. It overlaps the double bass's range, which is where the "double bass clarinet" search term comes from.
4. Contrabass tuba ("double bass tuba") (≠ double bass)
A brass instrument — the largest tuba, pitched in BBb or CC, the orchestral bass voice of the brass section. Wagner scored extensively for it in the Ring cycle. Sits in the same low register as the double bass and overlaps in some music, hence the search term. See the tuba page for the full family.
5. Double bass (the cello mix-up)
People occasionally call a cello a double bass. They are different instruments — different family (violin vs viol), different tuning (fifths vs fourths), different size (75 cm vs 115 cm body), different shoulders (rounded vs sloping). See the cello page for the full comparison.
Sources
- Paul Brun, A New History of the Double Bass (Paul Brun Productions, 2000) — the standard scholarly history, including viol-family ancestry and the divergent regional tunings.
- Anthony Baines, The Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments (OUP, 1992) — the family-tree relationship between viols and the modern double bass.
- Fiona Palmer, Domenico Dragonetti in England (1794–1846): The Career of a Double Bass Virtuoso (Clarendon Press, 1997) — the Beethoven correspondence and the Gasparo da Salò bass's provenance.
- Lord Sutch, "The Double Bass: A History" — Galpin Society Journal, multiple issues — surveys of body shape and corner-style traditions.
- Gene Lees, Cats of Any Color: Jazz Black and White (Oxford, 1994) — Ron Carter, Charles Mingus and the post-war jazz tradition.
- Bill Crow, From Birdland to Broadway (Oxford, 1992) — primary-source memoir of New York jazz including double-bass players of the bebop era.
- Peter Watrous, "Scott LaFaro: The Bass Player Who Changed Jazz" — New York Times, 1991 retrospective — the Bill Evans Trio sessions and LaFaro's contribution.
- Fender Musical Instruments Corporation archives — original 1951 Precision Bass design documentation.
Continue exploring
Eight names, eight types, four strings, one instrument. Older than the violin family it stands next to — and not actually related to it.