Why do bass guitars have only four strings?

For hundreds of years four strings were quite enough for the bass and other instruments (like cello, viola or violin) but in more recent times, electric basses have been designed which use 5, 6 or even more strings. read more

The Double Bass is a member of the string instrument family, a group of instruments (violin, viola, cello and double bass), descended from the viola da gamba and similar old bowed instruments, which have developed to have four strings (and occasionally, more recently, five), as the best solution to the many problems surrounding their construction. read more

The fact that a bass only has 4 strings doesn't mean it can only play 4 different notes. Every note on the E string isn't E, they're different. A standard bass has a range of a little over 3 octaves. That's 36 different notes. That's plenty to handle your duties as a bass player. read more