This allows bass players to use higher registers during soloing while retaining a familiar scale length and string spacing.

In the early 1970s, Ron Carter and Stanley Clarke were independently exploring the possibilities of stringing their instruments in a higher, or piccolo, tuning.

The scale length will usually be similar to that of a standard 1/4 to 3/4 size upright bass, with thinner strings to allow a higher-pitched tuning.

Jazz bassist John Patitucci used a six-string piccolo bass, unaccompanied, on his song "Sachi's Eyes" on his album One More Angel.

Michael Manring uses D'Addario EXL 280 piccolo bass strings, in a variety of tunings, on his four-string hyperbass, made by Zon Guitars.