Arnold Malloy, age 14, of  Galveston, Texas, for his question:

HOW LOW PITCHED IS THE DOUBLE BASS?

The double bass is the largest and the lowest pitche member of the violin family. The double bass is usually about six feet high and has four low pitched strings tuned to sound EE AA D and G. The EE equals the third E below middle C while the second G below middle C and is notated an octave higher.

A low fifth 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 clamps 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 and survive in Eastern European folk music. Early bases of the 16th and 17th centuries had four or five (or rarely, six) strings. Modern dance band basses occasionally add a high fifth string tuned to the C above the G string.

Until the 19th century, bass players used bows with the stick out curved in relation to the bow hair    long after the in curved bow was standard for violin, viola and cello.