DOUBLE BASS

Largest and lowest-pitched member of the volin family.
Also known as the countrabass, the double bass is usually about 1,8 m (about 6 ft) high and has four strings turned to sound EE AA D G (EE=third E below middle C; G = second G below middle C) and pitched an octave higher. A low 5th string is sometimes added, tuned to the C below the E string.

On some instruments the E string is extended at the head and fitted with a mechanism that claps off the extra length; releasing the mechanism allows the string to sound the low notes down to C.

Three-stringed basses were common in the 18th and 19th centuries (often tuned A G D) and survive in Eastern European folk music. Early bases of the 16h and 17th centuries had four or five (or rarely six) strings

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