A prominent classical upright bass player and teacher,
Eli Magen, who played in the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra until his retirement and is also a great jazz player who studied with Eddie Gomez in the early 70s and has recorded with some of the greatest jazz musicians in the world, started on electric bass and was a highly acclaimed studio musician in the 60s, once told me that only when he moved to upright he has realized that the electric bass is essentially really a bass
guitar. I was almost offended. A couple of years later I started on upright, and I think I see what he meant.
The electric bass is a guitar family instrument that covers the bass range.
Sub-bass or contra-bass range. The bass range is covered by the cello or the bass strings of a guitar.
An upright bass is a violin family instrument
Formally it's a viol family instrument, like the violone and viola da gamba. Unlike the violin, viola and cello, It has sloping shoulders, flat back, tuned in 4ths and played with a German-style bow.
Yeah I'm fun at parties