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The Short-Scale Six-String Club Part 3 - for the original six-string basses!

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#161
johnp352 said:
that's really good..a double neck eb6/eb2..

I played an original eb6 and while it had a wowzer effect going amongst people that it would wow..blehhh..really, for most of the useful tones generated out of it, you'd be better off with any 30" scale single coil 4 string bass.
Click to expand...

Interesting - sounds like you found that the semi-hollowbody didn't really contribute much to the sound then? I have a 30" scale Starfire Bass semi, and I've been very curious about the EB-6 (the Agile Harm being the closest anyone's come to a remake), but in my experience semi-hollowbody resonance works better in the guitar range than the bass range. If someone did a remake with the pickup(s) closer to the bridge and with a better bridge, I'd still find it hard to resist, though.

Oh good grief, I just checked, and of course this clown got to play one:



Edit: or did you mean one of the SG-body ones?
 
#164
hellboy said:
Interesting - sounds like you found that the semi-hollowbody didn't really contribute much to the sound then? I have a 30" scale Starfire Bass semi, and I've been very curious about the EB-6 (the Agile Harm being the closest anyone's come to a remake), but in my experience semi-hollowbody resonance works better in the guitar range than the bass range. If someone did a remake with the pickup(s) closer to the bridge and with a better bridge, I'd still find it hard to resist, though.
Edit: or did you mean one of the SG-body ones?
Click to expand...


I don't think the bridge PU on a Gibson Bass VI does anything for the "bass VI-ness" of the instrument, which is why those things never took off..that's a guess on my part..but also from experience. Maybe it's the mahogany of the SG that "dulls" it..the board in the middle of the EB 6? the inheritantly weak bridge pu..maybe only in comparison to the other pu, which is wonderful for dubwise, but not so wonderful for the twang-wise? What I do know is that in Bass VI land, a huge part of the charm is the certain sproing from sc's..JJ's, Fender, real dano's, even my Burmese Driftwood Dead off 67..and the Gibby's don't do that.

I had a Starfire for a while too..Rick Turner was (is...) a master at doing magic with that big Hagstrom pickup..they'd tear them apart (coil tap them) and do the circuit bender thing..take a look at Jack Cassidy's NASA control center/circa 1966 SF sometime ;)

I also had a Rick 4005 and have played the uber rare 6 string version as well. Though I wish I still had the evil thing, as the lawyers who collect stuff have made these worth stooopit money, I have to say it was a terrible sounding instrument..unbalanced, ungainly..terrible weak sound..though it looked cooler than snot. I picked it up used at a Sam Ash in NJ on a whim on a tour 30 years ago..$400..with case..but after trying to get it to sound like anything resembling a musical instrument..I gave up. the Bass VI version was the same..terrible. Awful..blehh.

YMMV..but find someone who has played one or both..and is not trying to sell you one...and you'll get the same review.

So when I saw the Agile, it brought back some very odd memories..of things that look very nice..until you plugs 'em in.
 
#165
tim bucknall said:
still wiki-ing:
did Brian Wilson use a VI or a bari?
what about the cure in 1981?
Click to expand...

hey Tim..I dunnknow for sure about Brian..but Carol Kaye used a NJ Nate Dano Bass VI on sessions..and that sound..muted right hand, pick, played through a Fender Concert..is on BB stuff and other crappy 60's pop stuff that sold bazillions and can still be heard every summer at Taste of Armpittsville at 2PM in the beer tent..

Again though..if you take a 4 string dano, slap on some flats, and do the right hand mute/thin pick through a 4 or 2x10 fender tube product..you'll get the same thing..the range most of this stuff used was the bajo range, sometimes, in true hillbilly fashion, to simply double the upright..the Cal sessions with Carol and Tommy Tedesco (sp?) and Glenn Campbell fer chris sake..used to do all sorts of oddball double ups. So though it might have been played on a Bass VI, it MIGHT have as well been played on a similar 30" scale 4 banger.
I have done this little trick a few times as well, especially on hillrod sessions..clickity clickity to double a heavily muted P bass..but on a JJ "bass"..with 4 strings..always got lottza nice comments on the cool "six string bass part"..
 
#166
johnp352 said:
I don't think the bridge PU on a Gibson Bass VI does anything for the "bass VI-ness" of the instrument, which is why those things never took off..that's a guess on my part..but also from experience. Maybe it's the mahogany of the SG that "dulls" it..the board in the middle of the EB 6? the inheritantly weak bridge pu..maybe only in comparison to the other pu, which is wonderful for dubwise, but not so wonderful for the twang-wise? What I do know is that in Bass VI land, a huge part of the charm is the certain sproing from sc's..JJ's, Fender, real dano's, even my Burmese Driftwood Dead off 67..and the Gibby's don't do that.

I had a Starfire for a while too..Rick Turner was (is...) a master at doing magic with that big Hagstrom pickup..they'd tear them apart (coil tap them) and do the circuit bender thing..take a look at Jack Cassidy's NASA control center/circa 1966 SF sometime ;)

I also had a Rick 4005 and have played the uber rare 6 string version as well. Though I wish I still had the evil thing, as the lawyers who collect stuff have made these worth stooopit money, I have to say it was a terrible sounding instrument..unbalanced, ungainly..terrible weak sound..though it looked cooler than snot. I picked it up used at a Sam Ash in NJ on a whim on a tour 30 years ago..$400..with case..but after trying to get it to sound like anything resembling a musical instrument..I gave up. the Bass VI version was the same..terrible. Awful..blehh.

YMMV..but find someone who has played one or both..and is not trying to sell you one...and you'll get the same review.

So when I saw the Agile, it brought back some very odd memories..of things that look very nice..until you plugs 'em in.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the report, John. Yeah, a good single coil seems essential for these instruments. The Gibson basses might have done better if they'd reversed the pickups (mini at the neck, mud at the bridge), but even that might not have saved them. And fair warning on the Harm, too, think I'll wait until I've heard one.
 
#167
"I don't think the bridge PU on a Gibson Bass VI does anything for the "bass VI-ness" of the instrument, which is why those things never took off..that's a guess on my part..but also from experience. Maybe it's the mahogany of the SG that "dulls" it..the board in the middle of the EB 6? the inheritantly weak bridge pu..maybe only in comparison to the other pu, which is wonderful for dubwise, but not so wonderful for the twang-wise?"
Click to expand...

Of course on (the solidbody version of)the EB-6 both pickups are the same.
 
#168
right..the more I look at the eb 6 SG..it becomes apparent..what you have is a sort of lower sounding SG..which is maybe the opposite guitar of a Jaguar, which is what a Fender BassVI does, no? Mahogany for the low end, humbucking pickups..Maybe a Firebird with mini buckers would have been a better platform..but I hesitate to say that, as it will end up on the offset forum, and SOMEBODY will get a hold of Warmoth and a year later..a 3 pickup Firebird Bass VI...out of alder...in Shoreline Gold..with a big Maestro trem arm..and see Hellboy, this is how it starts. ;)

...and undoubtedly that guy who has all the wonderful instruments will have the only one they made in Kalamazoo, and he'll be reading this, and there will be some Jah awful youtube thing of his clowness prancing around with it doing "Hot Child in the City" or some other equally miserable dreck....and ARGHHH!
 
#169
Hi everyone,

I have a favor to ask to those who have the LaBella string set for the Hellcat VI. I bought a 30" 6-stringer that has no tremolo system and want to order the custom Bass VI flatwound string set from Picato. However, since my bass has no trem, I need shorter strings than those Picato makes for the Fender. I'd greatly appreciate it if someone who has the LaBella strings could measure their lenght to get an appropriate idea of what to order. You can PM me as well.

Thanks much :hyper:
 
#172
Thanks for the info. I'll try the LaBella sets too, but they're out of stock. Besides, I want to try the Picato strings because they're of custom gauges...

Anyways, mine is a just a copy: An old 1960's short scale bass neck modified for six strings, bolt onto a Strat-like body. I have no idea what it sounds like as a bass VI since it came with guitar strings, tuned A-a.
 

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#176
Seen this?

Invalid Link Removed

Bass6 Body and Neck

Similar in shape to the Jazzmaster® body, the Warmoth Bass6 body is designed specifically to mate with our 30” scale Warmoth Bass6 necks. String tuning is most often E-E, one octave below a standard guitar with a typical string gage of .084, .072, .056, .044, .034, .024, inches. The sound reaches deeper than a guitar and higher than a bass to produce unique tones used by the Beatles, The Who, Blink 182 and Aerosmith.
Top rout only
Top rout bodies are designed to be used with the Warmoth Bass6 pickguard. (Pickguard same pricing as a Pbass® pickguard. Call to order).
Available in the same woods and pricing as our Jbass® bodies.
Universal pickup rout facilitates Strat single coils or Gibson size humbuckers.
Only compatible with the Warmoth Bass6 necks.
Click here to see compatible necks in stock now.
 
#179
iamthebassman said:
Seen this?

Invalid Link Removed

Bass6 Body and Neck

Similar in shape to the Jazzmaster® body, the Warmoth Bass6 body is designed specifically to mate with our 30” scale Warmoth Bass6 necks. String tuning is most often E-E, one octave below a standard guitar with a typical string gage of .084, .072, .056, .044, .034, .024, inches. The sound reaches deeper than a guitar and higher than a bass to produce unique tones used by the Beatles, The Who, Blink 182 and Aerosmith.
Top rout only
Top rout bodies are designed to be used with the Warmoth Bass6 pickguard. (Pickguard same pricing as a Pbass® pickguard. Call to order).
Available in the same woods and pricing as our Jbass® bodies.
Universal pickup rout facilitates Strat single coils or Gibson size humbuckers.
Only compatible with the Warmoth Bass6 necks.
Click here to see compatible necks in stock now.
Click to expand...

Interesting...

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Bass6SunBurst3UP.jpg


Edit: These two octave Bass 6 necks have a 10" radius.

Invalid Link Removed
 
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