A contrabass guitar is a low-register

Register (music)

In music, a register is the relative "height" or range of a note, set of pitches or pitch classes, melody, part, instrument or group of instruments...

 plucked string instrument

Plucked string instrument

Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such as way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate...

 in the guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 family with six strings

Strings (music)

A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...

.

History

Musical instruments

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

 called contrabass guitars having existed at least since 1899, when a "Grand Concert Contra Bass Guitar" was listed in Mr. Joseph Bohmann's catalogue. Bohmann, a violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

, guitar and zither

Zither

The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary citera, northwestern Croatia, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China...

  manufacturer from Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, developed a large 6-string guitar. While it is speculated that this instrument may have been tuned down one octave

Octave

In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...

 lower than a standard guitar, no reliable information is available about its tuning

Musical tuning

In music, there are two common meanings for tuning:* Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice.* Tuning systems, the various systems of pitches used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical bases.-Tuning practice:...

 or use.

The classical contrabass guitar is tuned EADGBE, like the classical guitar

Classical guitar

The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...

 but one octave lower. It is popular in Fado

Fado

Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...

 bands in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 and South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

. In this sense, it may actually be considered as an acoustic bass guitar

Acoustic bass guitar

The acoustic bass guitar is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually somewhat larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar...

, for it shares the same low-end range. Although called a contrabass guitar, the fact that it is tuned only an octave lower than a normal guitar makes it—in modern terminology—more an acoustic bass guitar rather than a contrabass

Contrabass

Contrabass refers to a musical instrument of very low pitch; generally those pitched one octave below instruments of the bass register...

 instrument. Its strings are much thinner than a conventional acoustic bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

, so it lacks the "thick" tone of those instruments.

Contrabass guitars from the 1970s are often tuned "B-E-A-D-G-C" (B=B0 - the lowest B on the piano). Some players prefer "B-E-A-D-F-B"—to preserve the intervals of a standard guitar and have the top and bottom notes at the same pitch. They usually are electric

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 instruments with a solid wooden body

Solid body

A solid-body instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electric pickup system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings....

. After a first, arguably non-satisfying attempt by guitar maker

Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...

 Carl Thompson to create such an instrument in 1974, the first entirely usable contrabass guitar was built by Ken Smith

Ken Smith

Ken Smith grew up in Iowa, and attended Iowa State University, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Landscape Architecture in 1976. After graduation, he apprenticed with sculptor Paul Shao, and worked for the Iowa Conservation Commission in Parks and Recreation Planning...

 in 1982 - again at the request of bassist Anthony Jackson, who would later ask Vinnie Fodera and Joey Lauricella of Fodera Guitars

Fodera

Fodera is an American manufacturer of electric bass guitars. Fodera Basses are made in the Fodera Shop in Brooklyn, New York. Vinnie Fodera and Joey Lauricella started their own company around 1983 after dissolving their working relationship with Ken Smith Basses. The company also manufactures a...

 to build him several instruments according to his ideas..
The contrabass guitar influenced the development of the six-string electric bass

Extended-range bass

Extended-range bass refers to an electric bass guitar with greater frequency range than the standard 4-string bass guitar. Bass guitars tuned one octave lower than a standard four-string instrument are also considered an extended-range bass...

.

Dav Byrne from the Australian band Terrorust

Terrorust

Terrorust is a deathgrind band from Melbourne, Australia, whose most prominent member is the influential and prolific metal drummer Matt Sanders...

 plays a contrabass guitar tuned "A-D-G-C-E-A".

In recent years, the use by the Niibori Guitar Orchestra has brought the contrabass guitar some renewed currency.