I own an LP jr. It can only make manly sounds. It turns any wimpy amplifier, into a MANplifier. You play an E chord on it, and you grow a beard...all over your body. It was the guitar of choice for Leslie West (when he had good tone), for a period Steve Marriott used a double cutaway version. Also favored by lumberjacks, firefighters, secret agents, x-men, sasquatch, Han Solo, Danny Trejo, Dale Earnhardts ghost, Optimus Prime, Rosie O'donell, and the guy that landed that plane in the Hudson saving all of those people. This one, is perfect. I will have nightmare's about this guitar. I will be making a full on adoration post, with about forty photo's of these tomorrow. Until then, try and keep your monitor clean, ponyboy.
A very young Robert Smith with a rare custom color BassVI
There are certain sonic colours that I have always had an abnormal attraction to, most of which I find criminally under utilized. Amongst these timbres, and at the very top of the heap, would be the sound of the androgynous long scale "bass guitars" originally produced by Danelectro in the mid 1950's, and perfected by Fender in the early 1960's.
Featuring a shorter scale length and a lighter string gauge than standard bass guitars, they are truly the final hermaphroditic product of a bass/guitar Punnett square. The Fender version was used by George Harrison (and occasionally John Lennon) on the songs where Paul could be found playing guitar or keys (check that awesome descending THWACK on "Helter Skelter") to maintain the bottom end, while often still performing a melodic task. It was also favored by Robert Smith of The Cure and a laundry list of other players, however my personal favorite example of the Bass VI is that MASSIVE riff Joe Perry kicks out in Aerosmith's "Back In The Saddle Again". There is a natural chorusing to the strings that I believe is really specific to a 30" scale 6 stringed instrument, and it's really quite epic through a big fat clean amp with a bit of reverb and a lot of head room. It's a much more nimble feeling instrument than a regular bass, sort of the SUV that drives a bit more like a sedan? I'm not quite sure how else to describe it if you haven't played one, but it's an experience and I drool over vintage and custom shop reissues pretty consistently in my internet window shopping. They also feature the same trem system you'd find on a Jaguar or Jazzmaster, which is super sensitive to the touch, however, I have a feeling it may be a bit less so with those beefy string gauges. Suffice to say that this feature set in the right hands can make for an incredibly expressive instrument.
So much ass.
Here are the issues: they're exorbitantly costly these days. They're rare because there isn't much demand for them, so new ones are only produced by Fender's Custom Shop, and vintage ones are VERY collectable. So if you feel the need to get your "bwongs" on, be prepared to shell out pretty hard for the real deal, in the $3-4k range for a reissue, which always appear to have Fender's Relic'ing treatment (artfully distressed to look and feel vintage), and in the $5-6k range for a vintage sunburst example, and finally in the $20k range for a custom color example.
The cheaper alternatives are sundry Danelectro reissues from the 90's, or one from Jerry Jones, who makes great Dano style instruments like the Bass VI for around $1200 new, think $7-800 used. These are very similar to the vintage Dano's, like the one I believe you hear in the hands of Vincent Bell on Angelo Badalamenti's theme from Twin Peaks (uncredited as he preferred). The Jerry Jones reissues are made with MUCH improved construction methods and materials in comparison to their Dano cousins (both vintage and reissue), while retaining that look and tone. USA Custom Guitarsis now making these bodies and necks, so it is possible to build a partscaster version, however, to do it right you're still in the $12-1500 zone if you're painting it professionally. This might be a cool route for a more personalized one than the JJ's or Custom Shop Fender's. Finally, the cheapest route to a bass VI comes from Rondo Music in Nj, in a very cool pseudo-Rickenbacker shape. These are made in a factory they own overseas, and probably have a bit different tone as they're semi hollow, but Rondo is known for a quality piece at a ridiculous (::cough::sweat shop::cough::) price.
"Diane, I'm starting to think Laura Palmer was murdered by KILLER TONE"
Rondo's 30" Ri(ck)p-off
The only other Bass VI's worth mention are the Gibson EB-6's, which were actually produced prior to the Fender. They're very cool, but again, very expensive as they were produced in even smaller amounts than the Fender's, and only available in a vintage format. Cool stuff, but not really as useful and I presume the inherent thickness we all love in a Gibson standard scale electric translates to 'mud' in a Bass VI. They were originally made in a 335 style, and then an SG style in the mid 60's.
This EB-6 is currently going for almost $7k at The Chicago Music Exchange (though they are biased high on everything)
Hopefully this post has inspired people to get a little more interested in this oft overlooked freak of bwong-y nature. Get into em, but whatever you do, don't look at Nigel's!
edit: here's a vid of Phil X playing the ONLY other seafoam green Bass VI, the sister guitar to Nigel Tufnel's!
