As I outgrow my starter bass I've been thinking about picking up an Eastwood Bass VI. Does anyone play a bass VI? I've heard they are hard to play fingerstyle due to the tight string spacing. Can it fill the traditional bass guitar role well?
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Anyone here play a Bass VI?
- Thread starter MajorTom
- Start date
I wouldn't exactly call this traditional bass, but Bill Laswell played one here:
It is capable of filling a normal bass role, just won't exactly sound like a regular bass.
It is capable of filling a normal bass role, just won't exactly sound like a regular bass.
I really like my VI. You can play it any way you like if you spend enough time working on it. People play standard guitars with their fingers, there's no reason why you couldn't play this style of bass that way as well.
A note is a note. If you wanted you could pretend the two higher strings didn't exist without any trouble.
Not familiar with Eastwood. My VI's have done better with heavier than stock strings, and I think the staytrem bridge is a must buy.
A note is a note. If you wanted you could pretend the two higher strings didn't exist without any trouble.
Not familiar with Eastwood. My VI's have done better with heavier than stock strings, and I think the staytrem bridge is a must buy.
Had two for years - a 1991 MIJ Fender and a 1960 Danelectro "tic tac bass" VI, the shorthorn body. Then the novelty worn off and I sold both. Not really a bass and not really a guitar, and apparently I had no real use for it.
One thing I learned is that a VI (the Fender VI anyway) really needs flatwounds.
One thing I learned is that a VI (the Fender VI anyway) really needs flatwounds.
Nobody rocks a VI these days quite like Julie Slick. She plays it mostly like a guitar in her band EchoTest (with bassist Marco Machera):
.... like a guitar/bass hybrid for solo looping/soundscape-y stuff:
.... and sometimes like a regular bass (although she mostly favors her 4-string Bob Glaub for this purpose):
.... like a guitar/bass hybrid for solo looping/soundscape-y stuff:
.... and sometimes like a regular bass (although she mostly favors her 4-string Bob Glaub for this purpose):
Anyone here play a VI? Plenty of folks do. Let me search it for you - already have, actually, in a past post of mine:
Also worth a look (ramblings aside), the thread the post above appeared in.
...whatever that is. There isn't one bass sound. The VI can sound like a bass, because it is one. Of course, one with a short scale (like many others), standard guitar pickups (as some other basses have) and ultra-narrow spacing, which affects feel and playability (if you rely on a wide-spacing long run-up to attack notes...you don't have it here, gotta make do with less). Mine (not a Fender/Squier) wears tapewound strings currently, and sounds like a bass (also did with rounds or flats on, through a bass amp or the PA). Not like any and all of them, of course. I play it fingerstyle (regular bassist's two-finger pizz usually, but sometimes thumb+index+middle, guitar-style).
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I play an Ibanez Mikro 28,6" scale with slim 95 gauge E string as my main bass, so I am perfectly aware of that.
Maybe I should have been more accurate and have wrote traditional bass in stead of regular, cause there is such thing as a traditional bass sound, then again English is not my first language, so I might slip in articulating my self 100% correctly some times.
What I meant is that you won't get the sound of a 34" with 110 + gauge E string out of an instrument with a 30" or less scaled neck and and an E string with 90 or less gauge (I believe 86 and 90 gauged E strings are standard for Bass VI type instruments).
I also wrote just on the other side of the comma of what you chose to quote me for "It is capable of filling a normal bass role,...", so excuse me, but frankly I get the feeling you are trying to pick up an argument just for the sake of picking up an argument.
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Def. think my next bass is going to be one of these. Appreciate the video clips and discussion.
I have a Squier BVI, pretty cool instrument but I would never use it as a replacement for my traditional bass. It's tuned an octave higher and a little awkward to play finger style (for me). I definitely see its value in the studio and may use it on the duo gigs.
- Jul 30, 2006
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- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist:Regenerate Guitar Works Carvin, Micheal Kelly Guitars
@NoiseNinja: full disclosure, I wrote what I wrote to the benefit of others who may feel daunted by comments to the effect of the instrument not sounding like a bass. Since you didn't actually go that far, I thought I had calibrated my reply to acknowledge as much. Believe it or not, I totally wasn't up for trolling tonight.
Not sure if I agree with your concept of traditional bass. If you have a Fender Precision or Jazz specifically in mind just say so, is all I meant.
Implied in your statement, but it bears pointing out explicitly, is that the above has nothing to do with the number of strings, and applies (at least on paper - I've got no experience with them) to a Musicmaster or a Bronco, or a Danelectro Longhorn, just as it does to a Bass VI.
As regards strings, they can be changed. I've used a .106" as an E; a member here uses a .120 tuned to C.
(Yep, it does get pretty crammed past a certain gauge.)
Oh, and another thing (Columbo style ;p): your English is way better than mine, if you ask me..
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Not sure if I agree with your concept of traditional bass. If you have a Fender Precision or Jazz specifically in mind just say so, is all I meant.
There you go. Agreed, completely.
Implied in your statement, but it bears pointing out explicitly, is that the above has nothing to do with the number of strings, and applies (at least on paper - I've got no experience with them) to a Musicmaster or a Bronco, or a Danelectro Longhorn, just as it does to a Bass VI.
As regards strings, they can be changed. I've used a .106" as an E; a member here uses a .120 tuned to C.
(Yep, it does get pretty crammed past a certain gauge.)
Oh, and another thing (Columbo style ;p): your English is way better than mine, if you ask me..
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If you believe regular basses are two octaves below regular guitars, and that bass VIs sit right in between, you're mistaken: it's one octave, and the low E of a VI is exactly the same as that of, say, a Fender Jazz.
When I was in San Diego a few weeks back, I bought an inexpensive acoustic guitar at a music store and they had a Squire VI there. I was able to play it for a bit and it would definitely take a LOT of getting used to. But: as someone who likes to push the range of the bass into the treble (and also sometimes the other direction, thank you octave pedals and dedicated subwoofers) I think it would be a very useful bass to have on hand for home studio work, even if I don't use it for performing.
The scale and feel were very much like a (slightly) larger guitar. Would be very easy to play familiar guitar chords on this thing. I can only imagine that would sound muddy, though. I only play chords very high on the neck.
The reviews I've read on Amazon made me a bit nervous of the Squire VI, and I certainly can't afford any of the other models. I really don't see the point of a whammy bar on a bass. I owned a Strat once, and keeping it in tune was a nightmare.
The scale and feel were very much like a (slightly) larger guitar. Would be very easy to play familiar guitar chords on this thing. I can only imagine that would sound muddy, though. I only play chords very high on the neck.
The reviews I've read on Amazon made me a bit nervous of the Squire VI, and I certainly can't afford any of the other models. I really don't see the point of a whammy bar on a bass. I owned a Strat once, and keeping it in tune was a nightmare.
Yes, I have one. Last time I buy cheap though...after I had some fretwork done, I quickly replaced the pickups for custom ones made by Paul Hendrix (a dutch pickup mastermind). It may be the first VI with pole pieces that actually align with the strings (distance outer poles is: neck 5.1mm, middle 5.2mm and bridge 5.4mm wide). He made me open coil pickups that fit the guitar perfectly. The black colour actually looks better on the guitar, I think. I removed the claw.
The new pickups sound more alive, clean, full, twangy and less glassy.
The new pickups sound more alive, clean, full, twangy and less glassy.
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Sorry, but I couldn't find any Fender VI covers of this
:I am sure with some practice some day you'll learn to master it yourself
On a more serrious note, of a song that isn't mentioned yet (has some of the Beatles songs been mentioned?), I know this though:
Also used by Roy Babbington from Soft Machine and Jack Bruce in Cream.
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buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
I have a squier VI... really good to mess around on, but I tried to play it in my classic rock band and it just wasn't for me. The string spacing IS much tighter and personally I can't play it as well with my fingers, I have to use a pick. It's cool but I'd rather have another 4 string or a 34" 6 string than the bass VI. Just my opinion
