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The Short-Scale Six-String Club—for the original six-string basses!

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#941
kslight said:
Usually you can tune a VI like a baritone, but not the other way around, dependent on the scale length and gauge of strings used. You *might* be able to pull off a VI tuning on a 28.5" (not 27") scale, but it would be a bit loose feeling for my tastes I think. I think of a VI as having at least a 30" scale, and an E-E tuning is still slightly loose feeling on a 30" scale IMHO, though if you made it any longer then chords would be difficult to pull off. But with lighter gauge strings you can do an A-A or B-B baritone type tuning on a VI with ease, though I personally have never had a reason to do this.
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Here are the strings that I was considering to buy; if you look at the first set, it says "fits most 27" to 29" baritone guitars," and they're "Bass VI" strings, so do you think that means you can do an E-E tuning on a baritone, or something like B-B?

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#942
I have had all manner of baritones and basses of this nature - if it's E you're after and intend to use what Fender recommends by way of strings you really need to stick as close to the 30.5" those strings were intended for.

My current bari is 28.5" and is awesome at A but sucks at anything lower IMO.

FWIW I have wanted a Bass VI since I can remember, but have always lacked either opportunity or funds. The closest I got to it was a Fender Custom Shop Bajo Sexto - a 30.5" scale Telecaster - and it carried the E in spades.
 
#943
Here are the strings that I was considering to buy; if you look at the first set, it says "fits most 27" to 29" baritone guitars," and they're "Bass VI" strings, so do you think that means you can do an E-E tuning on a baritone, or something like B-B?
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Especially because you only have a 27" instrument...I'd say save your money, those strings aren't going to get you down to E without an unplayable amount of flop. That's designed for the 28.5" Jag VI if you wanted to try E-E tuning on it (regular bass VI strings would not normally fit, the strings you are linking to are bass VI gauges but are specially made for baritones only, not bass VI)...but everyone that I know of has found tuning down to E unsatisfactory on anything less than a 30" instrument. The closest analogy is probably that it would be the equivalent of tuning down to A or B on a 24.75" guitar...yeah you might be able to get there with heavy enough strings...but it sounds and plays like crap.

Not to be blunt but there really isn't any way to get a decent sounding E-E tuning without a longer scale guitar, 27-28.5" is really designed for B-B or A-A...that's it... There are even some folks out there who wish their bass VI was slightly longer yet for a better E.

Before you get gear lust for a bass VI, you might consider what exactly you want to use it for...do you really plan on going below A in your music/do you want to use a bass VI in a normal bass role, or do you want to use it as a deep guitar? Me personally, I prefer to use my VI as a deep guitar, and I don't use the low E string except for arpeggios and upper fret melodies (part of the VI sound for me is just the guitar-like parts on heavy strings, not necessarily being able to play low). In all honesty, most of what I play on my VI could be done on an A-A baritone without too much of a sacrifice in tone. But I like the longer scale of the VI and the deep tones it affords me, regardless of whether I use the absolute bottom of its range.
 
#944
"I have now taken delivery of 2 of the 6 sets of these PICATO Bass VI Custom Strings - one for the Jaguar Baritone Custom VI and one for my Fender Bass VI (1967). They sound brilliant! I've gigged both guitars and whilst the sound is different (long live the 1967 Bass VI) the strings do a great job on both.
As a bass player, they do exactly what I want. The sound is deep and they resonate perfectly, no overtones from the bottom E which I've often had from some strings. If you close your eyes you wouldn't know it wasn't a Jazz or a Precision. Playing however, is a joy, use a pic and you get the Fender "click" or "tic-tac" but stroke and they sound mellow and full. I recommend them to anyone."
_________________
Ginger of JINKS THE GROUP

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http://www.picato.co.uk/

:)
 
#945
"Hi, I know I am repeating myself (a different thread) but here goes:-
Firstly, let me state that I am a Bass Player and my comments are confined to using the Fender Bass VI and the Fender Baritone Custom VI only.
Having hunted around the web and the forums, I've at last sourced the best Stainless Steel Flat Wound strings I've ever used.
I've got both a Fender Bass VI (1967) and a new CIJ Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom.

The stupidity of having different ball end sizes is a pain (Fender seem to have a surplus of Jaguar bridges/tails hence a Bass with standard guitar bits). All the re-issues seem to have bits from the Jag. The early Bass VI's had a wider bridge and the trem accommodated large ball ends. Not so the JBC!

I've been trialling some sets for the Bass VI and the JBC and can now pass on a recommendation to anyone who wants them. The price is about £26.00, although this is provisional as I've been helping PICATO get the gauges right for playing Bass on both guitars. I use the E - E tuning for which both guitars are designed.

If I could get RotoSound to make up Nylon covered ones I would probably give them a try as I prefer not to mess up my frets, but until then the PICATO "smoothies" are the best, do no damage to my frets or fingers!

The PICATO don't change tone when moving up the strings from the G to the B and E. I hated that with the old Nylon covered strings so all in all the pitch, durability and playability of the PICATO are yet to be beaten.

For anyone interested, I can recommend my local retailer who will sort out your requirements.
B&T Keyboards (Guitars Amps and anything else as well) 9 Claremont, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 1HA, UK. The boss is Roger Flack who is a really helpful guy as are all his staff. Nick Hibberd is particularly knowledgeable about my strings as together we've changed gauges around to get the best out of both the Bass VI and the Jaguar Baritone Custom.
Anyway, with B&T's and PICATO's help we've developed sets especially for Bass and to my specification, helpful or what?.

Currently the gauges I find best for bass are E-100 A-80 D-50 G-43 B-35 E-30
The length, which is critical, is 31.75" for the JBC and 35.5 for the Bass VI, from ball end to taper. Any longer and there isn't enough string to wrap around the bottom E M/C head before the thick part of the string comes into contact with the peg. If you order through B&T Keyboards you'll be sure to get the product we've been developing.

If you get some and like them - please pass on your praise/concerns through this site. I guess there are many of us bass players who love the Bass VIs for Bass and have difficulty getting appropriate strings.
The telephone number for B&T Keyboards is (UK) 01424 434480
Sorry for the length of this contribution but the "devil" is in the detail!"
_________________
Ginger of JINKS THE GROUP

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#946
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#949
So, is this the short-scale 6-string from Rondo we've been waiting for? It's not, right?????

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Yeah that's what I told him we wanted...is that not what you were expecting...???

:D

No I don't know the purpose of that short scale 6-stringer...but I wouldn't expect to see the Agile VI we want for at least 3-6 months...
 
#951
Question for you guys. Would like to add some light distortion to my sound with my Hellcat VI. Not really interested in a fuzz-like tone per se. Any recos? Do I look at distortion or overdrive pedals and any recos?
 
#952
Question for you guys. Would like to add some light distortion to my sound with my Hellcat VI. Not really interested in a fuzz-like tone per se. Any recos? Do I look at distortion or overdrive pedals and any recos?
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It really depends on how you play your VI... Like do you want a pedal that retains most of your low-end or are you okay with bottom-sucking because you play it like a guitar... And what kind of amp you are running into.

For my Hellcat VI, I use a few different distortion pedals with different levels of success for different applications. I have a custom tubescreamer-type pedal that I built specifically for the VI, which I set up so it retains a lot more low-end than the standard design, but the bottom is also switchable so I can have tons of bottom or just enough. I use it as a very mild drive/tone shaper of sorts, because it always cuts some bottom end, and it sort of seems to take some of the mud out of the VI tone in a way that I think a strangle-switch probably does. So that is usually an "always on" pedal.

Then I use an Electro Harmonix Metal Muff, which actually sounds really good with the Hellcat VI. If you wanted to make a super heavy guitar-type sound, this is the best I've run into. There's a song I played in my old band that we recorded using the Hellcat VI and the Metal Muff, and another recording engineer was like "How did you get such a huge guitar sound?" because it sounds like a colossal guitar. It does suck out a good amount of bottom...not an excessive cut, and mine does have a full EQ so if you wanted to adjust further you could.

I also use a custom Rat-clone, modified for more low-end. This with the Hellcat VI is really more of a fuzz than anything, the bottom end is obviously too much for the circuit to handle...but it can sound kind of cool for a fuzzy type thing... Even modified it still cuts a lot of bottom. I tried modifying it for a lot more low-end, but it seemed like if I let any more bottom in then it just totally went nuts and sounded like ass.

I also have a chorus that I built for bass that works pretty well when needed.

Those and a few other pedals I then run into the Bright channel on my Fender 59 Bassman RI...which sounds pretty cool for what I do, though I play mine more like a deep guitar than a bass.
 
#957
I use the same picks for guitar, bass, and bass 6 - Clayton .63 large rounded triangles - acetyl polymer - I swear by these things - they rarely break, and they are non-slip too.

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And I have found that anything stiffer really makes my wrists and forearms hurt (I had bilateral Carpal Tunnel Syndrome repair surgery 5 years ago and since then my grip strength is reduced, and my forearms get really sore). These strike a good balance of flexibility for up and down strokes and not being too flimsy. I have not tried going up to their .80s recently, I guess I could try that.

I recently have taken to using these, the Jazz ones they offer, mainly because they are black ;)

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