There are multiple instruments referred to as a bass banjo. The first to enter real production was the five-string cello banjo, tuned one octave

Octave

In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...

 below a five-string banjo. This was followed by a four-string cello banjo, tuned CGDA in the same range as a cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 or mandocello

Mandocello

The mandocello is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It has eight strings in four paired courses, tuned in 5ths like a mandolin, but is larger, and tuned CC-GG-dd-aa . It is to the mandolin what the cello is to the violin.-Construction:Mandocello construction is similar to the...

, and modified upright bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 versions tuned EADG. More recently, true bass banjos, tuned EADG and played in conventional horizontal fashion have been introduced. There are also varieties of bowed cellos with skin resonators that use this name.

Five-string cello banjo

The five-string cello banjo was originally a gut-stringed instrument with a 3" deep 16" diameter rim, marketed by S.S. Stewart in 1889. Advertising copy used the terms "bass banjo" and "cello banjo" to refer to the same instrument.

Other banjo makers manufactured similar instruments, including A.C. Fairbanks, with a with a 12⅜" diameter head and a 29½" scale length and A.A. Farland, with 12½" head and a 28½" scale. Gold Tone is the only contemporary manufacturer.

Four-string cello banjo

In 1919, Gibson began manufacturing a 4-string cello banjo, known as the CB-4. Other vintage manufacturers of four-string bass banjos include Bacon & Day. Gold Tone is the only contemporary manufacturer.

Gibson bass banjo

Gibson produced a separate instrument called a "bass banjo" from 1930 to 1933. This was a 4-string instrument, played as an upright bass, with a stand substituting for a spike. It was tuned EADG, the same as Gibson's mando-bass.

Bassjo

The Bassjo, also referred to as the banjo bass in a 2006 article featuring Les Claypool

Les Claypool

Leslie Edward "Les" Claypool is an American musician and writer, best known as the lead vocalist and bassist in the band Primus. Claypool's playing style on the electric bass mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends and slapping.Claypool has also self produced and engineered his...

 on the cover of Bassplayer Magazine was made by luthier Dan Maloney. Maloney was a friend of Claypool's approximately ten years ago when Claypool asked him to construct a guitar with "a banjo body and a bass neck ("Les Does More" 43)." The Bassjo can be heard on Claypool's 2006 album "Of Whales and Woe

Of Whales and Woe

Of Whales And Woe is a solo album by Les Claypool, the bassist of Primus. The album was released on the May 30, 2006. The album features Skerik , Mike Dillon , and Gabby La La . "Back off Turkey" also features Les' children, Cage and Lena...

" on the track Iowan Gal", as well as Primus

Primus (band)

Primus is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Jay Lane. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by Lane, though the latter two departed...

' "Captain Shiner" from the album Tales from the Punchbowl

Tales from the Punchbowl

-Critical reception:In his review for Allmusic, Daniel Gioffre describes the album as "unabashed prog rock... which even the thick dollops of irony that the band seeks to impart to its compositions are unable to mask completely." He also notes that "the high-energy angular rhythms that Primus is...

Gold Tone bass banjo

Gold Tone produces a commercial version of the bass banjo. It has a 32" scale and a 13" pot.

Heftone upright

An unusual bass banjo variation is the Heftone bass, which combines a large, 22" banjo pot with an upright spindle to produce an upright bass banjo.

Bass and Cello Banjos