Difference between Double Bass and Bass Guitar

I think all of you Bass-people want do both. Or at least you wanted. Or you'll want.
Bass Guitar is more practical, and more common. It's mainstream in Bass World. Double Bass is little bit more exotic, right?
I mean, if you ever tried it, probably you fell in love. Like I did.
But at that time, I was all about the looks, and that big, silly thing was just - too much. Now, I'm kind of sorry...

Ok. The difference.

Bass Guitar - it's guitar shaped (don't say!), it's stringed (4,5,6,7...strings), we play it with our little fingers or a pick and we're using bunch of techniques for that (strumming, plucking, slapping, popping, tapping, or thumping).
Bass Guitar has a longer scale neck and is tuned an octave lower in pitch than a guitar.
Of course, there's electric and acoustic Bass Guitar. Can be fretted (more common) or fretless (tone similar to a double bass).
Ok, this was easy.



Double Bass - or Upright Bass, or Rockabilly Bass. Sometimes Contra bass. Maybe the rockabilly is not correct expression (couse it's a music style). We could also call it jazz bass, or classical bass. But, it's very common in rockabilly that it deserves the name.
This is the biggest bowed instrument (played with bow) and has the lowest pitch (the lowest note of a double bass is an E1). It's considered to be a member of the violin family. Heh.

The fingerboard of the double bass is fretless.
The Double bass is played either with a bow (arco) or by plucking the strings.
It is used in classical music, jazz, 1950s-style blues and rock and roll, rockabilly/psychobilly, bluegrass, and tango.

Modern double basses are usually tuned (low to high) E-A-D-G such that the open highest string, G, is a perfect eleventh (a perfect octave and a perfect fourth) below middle C.

There are two major shapes of the double bass - the violin form, and the viola da gamba form.
Two kinds of bows - "French" or "overhand" (similar to other orchestral string instruments) and "German" or "Butler" bow (shorter, and is held in a "hand shake" position).




Octobass - yes, there's one more....this is an extremely large (3.48 meters) bowed string instrument (so large that it took two musicians to play: one to bow and the other to control the fingering!).
It has three strings, and is a larger version of double bass.
It was never so popular among composers, but there are exceptions. Like Hector Berlioz.