There are a range of musical instruments that can be collectively be regarded as bass instruments since they are in the bass range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles, often going well beyond simply providing a rhythmic and harmonic foundation for other instruments to build on. What they have in common is that they are the lowest tuned and largest instruments of their respective families. A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... Bass (IPA: [], rhyming with face), when used as an adjective, describes tones of low frequency or range. ... In music, the range of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. ...

As will be seen from the page on musical instrument classification, categorizing instruments is far from simple but examples grouped by general form and playing technique include: At various times, and in various different cultures, various schemes of musical instrument classification have been used. ...

• Electric bass (also known as the bass guitar) and acoustic bass guitar is often mistaken as a part of the guitar family. In fact it is a descendent of the double bass, and is therefore a kind of bass, yet it does take aspects from both the bass and the guitar.

• Double bass from the viol family (usually the instrument referred to as a "bass" in European classical music and jazz. Sometimes called a "string bass" to differentiate it from a "bass horn".)
• A bass horn, such as a tuba, serpent, and sousaphone from the wind family and low-tuned versions of specific types of brass and woodwind instruments, such as bass clarinet, bass trombone and bass saxophone, etc (less common usage)
• Washtub bass, a simple folk instrument

A musician playing one of these instruments is often known as a bassist, certainly in the first two cases, although other terms such as 'bass guitarist', 'double bassist', 'bass player', etc may be used instead. Fender Precision Bass Bass Guitar is a commonly spoken phrase used to refer to the electric bass and horizontal acoustic basses, a stringed instrument similar in design to the electric guitar, but larger in size, commonly fretted and sometimes fretless and with a lower range. ... The acoustic bass guitar (also called ABG or acoustic bass) is an acoustic string instrument based on the configuration of the electric bass pioneered by Leo Fenders electric Fender Precision Bass. ... Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ... Various sizes of viol, from Michael Praetorius Syntagma musicum (1618) The viol (also called viola da gamba) is any one of a family of bowed, fretted stringed musical instruments developed in the 1400s and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. ... Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ... Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in African American musical styles blended with Western music technique and theory. ... The tuba is the largest of the low-brass instruments and is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the ophicleide. ... A serpent is a bass wind instrument with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument but side holes like a woodwind instrument. ... A sousaphone player, showing how a Sousaphone is carried The sousaphone is a type of tuba often used in a marching band. ... The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... The bass saxophone (or bass sax for short) is the second largest existing member of the saxophone family (or third largest, if the subcontrabass tubax is counted). ... The washtub bass, or gutbucket, is a folk instrument that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. ... A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ... Paul Chambers, acclaimed jazz bassist A bassist is a musician who plays a double bass or electric bass (also referred to as bass guitar). ...