1963 & 1964 Fender Bass VI

[bterry]

Hi All -

New member, I wanted to say hello and share a few old Fender basses I own. Not sure if you all are into Fender VIs, but I use them a lot as both a bass and lead instrument, and they are some of my favorites. Thought you might like these two, both original and fantastic players!

I was also hoping to see if you all knew a bit more about Fender custom colors on pre-cbs basses. I know the Fiesta is a rare color, but my hunch is that the black custom color, though not as rare these days, would have been quite unusual and rare back in the pre-cbs fender days...what do you think?

1963 Fiesta Red:

1964 Black:

 

[bterry]

I would love to see everyone else's Bass VIs as well! These are some of my favorite instruments!

 

[JIO]

beauties

 

[godofthunder59]

Wow! They are amazing!

 

[TCSS]

drooldrooldrooldrooldrool

Welcome!

 

[bterry]

Thanks! Glad to be here!

 

[vickerekes]

Here's my daily driver for 40+ years: '62 with a few mods. My forearm is wearing through the sunburst.

 

[bigtone23]

Very cool VIs!
Here's mine. It's a Squier, modded and upgraded with a preamp, series/parallel switching, solid bridge, fret leveling and bone nut. Just installed 80s Peavey triangle string trees (not shown). I love it. I would love to add a black one like the OP's to the mix. Maybe I'll paint the headstock to match, it looks really cool on that '64.

 

[consectaneus]

Beautiful Bass Vi's everyone. I'm guessing that black '64 is a particularly rare bird, though you are right to say any custom color (and on a Bass VI at that) is rare, but Fiesta Red is relatively more common.

My fav has to be the Foam Green one they had for sale at Fretted Americana some years back.

 

[bterry]

Yeah, I do believe that the black on a pre-cbs VI in particular must be quite a rare bird. As I understand it, black on pre-cbs basses in general is rare to begin with...

I was lucky to find this one, it was a one-owner and is in essentially mint condition w/ the original hang tag w/ serial number and mute/cover as well.

 

[birdman14]

1963 Fiesta Red:

Oh god, this is an absolute beauty. Perfect shade of Fiesta Red right there. How are you using them in groups, if at all?

 

[bterry]

Hi -

I use them several ways, mostly in the studio. Sometimes I just use it as a straight bass (through an old Ampeg B15 or something similar), or I'll use it in combination with a P bass for doubling or also for recording certain songs where I want different sounding bass parts in different places (i.e., one bass in verses, one in choruses, etc.).

I also run it through an old '64 Twin Reverb for melodic or atmospheric parts, usually with tape delay + reverb or for solos as well. For my latest record I used it in all these various ways, and there are a couple of solos as well, one is overdriven, played through a 70's Hiwatt I always string them up with LaBella flatwounds for everything.