Five string violin Five string violin A five string violin is a variant of violin with an extra string tuned to a pitch below the violin's usual range. In addition to the G, D, A, and E strings of a standard violin, a five string violin typically includes a C string. (Six and seven string electric violins also exist, adding lower strings tuned to F and B.) The five string violin was created as a solution for improvisers that allowed musicians to combine the pitch ranges of violins and violas. Bobby Hicks, an award-winning bluegrass fiddler, popularized the five-string violin in 1963 as
Violone with the violin, but can't necessarily be described as genuine violin family instruments because their tunings, proportions and/or construction issues may be at odds with the other sizes. In the Renaissance and Baroque era and even in the 2000s, there are players who changed or adapted their instruments in unique ways. In this category we might find bass viols that are tuned in E (instead of D), or where the bottom string is tuned an extra step lower, to a C (a pitch found in numerous Baroque works). Or we might find a contrabass/double bass tuned in fourths, but with