A little bass history- We’ll assume you are familiar with Leo Fender and the happenings from that point on (and that the original ‘Precision’ bass looked more like a Telecaster). Leo’s conception was to accommodate guitar players interested in assuming the bass role, but not prepared to tackle the double bass. The fact is, the double (acoustic) bass had a predecessor of it’s own. The Violone (vee-o-LO-ne) was the largest (and most cumbersome) member of the viol family used during the time of JS Bach and his contemporaries. Like Leo Fender’s ‘bass’ guitar, the double bass was a more portable, more playable version of the Violone. We digress yet again- the Violone was actually an upgrade from an even larger, older monster known as the Violone Grosso. Research suggests that each of these instruments were tuned in 4th.