I am thinking of converting a Tele I have laying around that has a crappy neck to either a Bass VI or Bariton, with a conversion neck.
I have the feeling that with a Bass VI I will be stuck with something in between a bass and a guitar, where playing chords will yield shoddy results. Might be very cool for some things but not an very flexible instrument.
It would be nice to have it as an extended shortscale bass though ...
Bariton, closer to a regular guitar, but you have to transpose what you are playing which can be annoying but at the same time open up new tonal possibilities ...
Not ever having played either one of those I was just wondering what you guy's experience with such instruments is.
P.S. I know that it all really depends on personal preferences and playing style. Just wondering what you guys play with these instruments.
I'd go with the BassVI, since you don't need to transpose anything and from the clips i've heard it seems to sustain chords quite well.
They also sound freaking badass with Fuzzyz! 8)
Damn, I forgot to mention that you guys were supposed to convince me to go Bariton.
If I decide to go Bass VI, for the price I might as well get a Squier Bass VI, then will eventually get the Baritone neck anyway and will have yet another additional guitar ...
Please convince me to go Baritone ! :-D
I'm a bass vi player. I play chords with it all the time. Mine has humbuckers and I mostly play it high gain though. Mostly punk, metal, and prog. I had a baritone les paul once and didn't care for it. It was flappy and it couldn't make compelling bass OR guitar tones, but the bass vi does both well. The larger gauge with more tension just feels better to my fingers.
Go Baritone!
I have a Danelectro Baritone and like that sort of feel.
Quote from: drolo on March 25, 2015, 01:16:18 PM
Damn, I forgot to mention that you guys were supposed to convince me to go Bariton.
If I decide to go Bass VI, for the price I might as well get a Squier Bass VI, then will eventually get the Baritone neck anyway and will have yet another additional guitar ...
Please convince me to go Baritone ! :-D
I have the firm conviction of not convincing you of getting a baritone! :P
90% of my guitar player life have been on drop tuned instrument, all of them being standard scale instrument, either 24.75 or 25.5 scale. I'd had them tuned down to G but most of the time in C with the big string droped in Bb... i never felt like i'd need to have a longer scale to keep thing accurate or well sounding. Was simply using thickier strings and not going in extremes either for that.... the G tuning was brutal on that Jackson COW 7string... an .085 i think... but was still very easy to fret, tune and intonate.
I'd say go for a Baritone if you're already playing your guitars in E with string bigger than 56's.... otherwise i think it could be redundant a bit... that is my perspective of things of course.
Baritone, brah. I love it.
you can convert your tele to a bass VI. It's going to be harder than converting it to a baritone, but you'll need a good adjustment anyway.
if I were you I'll get both ;D
I've been playing lately in a semi-acoustic quartet where I play either bass or slide guitar. A bass VI or a short-scale bass would be awesome (small hands, you know...).
I've got the Squier Bass VI, it's lots of fun for $300. Convert the tele to a baritone, then buy a Bass VI.
Quote from: GermanCdn on March 25, 2015, 02:29:43 PM
I've got the Squier Bass VI, it's lots of fun for $300. Convert the tele to a baritone, then buy a Bass VI.
Funny, just before you replied I was writing that I was scared to end up like you when I decide to move to a new house :-D
(not that I am anywhere remotely near having a fraction of your guitars)
Quote from: GermanCdn on March 25, 2015, 02:29:43 PM
I've got the Squier Bass VI, it's lots of fun for $300. Convert the tele to a baritone, then buy a Bass VI.
Agree with the above. The Squier Bass VI is a lot of fun, I play my buddy's all the time.
Cody
you guys are evil tempters ....
you started this, asking guys that started modding and building pedals instead of sticking to the trusty boss and ibanez ones :D
Quote from: micromegas on March 25, 2015, 04:01:46 PM
you started this, asking guys that started modding and building pedals instead of sticking to the trusty boss and ibanez ones :D
LOL, and we can help you mod your pedals to suit your new baritone AND bass!
All your mods are belong to us
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Cleggy has a baritone and a Squier Bass VI. The baritone is a weird beast, to me it only ever sounded right with the Orange OR15 I had, with which it went into full Sleep mode and sounded bilbical (best I've heard both the amp and guitar sound). The Bass VI however just sounds bloody good and is bags and bags of fun.
He did put a nice bridge on it and some new pickup covers (stock ones are almost translucent). Stock pups are pretty good anyhow.
Quote from: juansolo on March 25, 2015, 05:15:47 PM
He did put a nice bridge on it and some new pickup covers (stock ones are almost translucent). Stock pups are pretty good anyhow.
IMO the Staytrem bridge is mandatory on a bass vi. It is the only way to get it to intone correctly, especially with a .95 low E. Plus it takes the bra off the tremolo system.
Quote from: Torgoslayer on March 25, 2015, 05:34:11 PM
Quote from: juansolo on March 25, 2015, 05:15:47 PM
He did put a nice bridge on it and some new pickup covers (stock ones are almost translucent). Stock pups are pretty good anyhow.
IMO the Staytrem bridge is mandatory on a bass vi. It is the only way to get it to intone correctly, especially with a .95 low E. Plus it takes the bra off the tremolo system.
yeah that's the one he fitted.
I built a baritone out of a Strat body and a conversion neck, and I love it. Granted, I'm a lefty and so I'll never have a chance to play a Bass VI, so I may be missing out, but I have no regrets whatsoever.
God damn it you guys know how to tempt a dude don't you ;D
I've got a spare tele body, parts etc.
All I need is a neck... the baritone conversion is calling me!
Would I be right in saying the baritone was the guitar used in a lot of spaghetti western soundtracks?
I think they used both Bass VI's and Baritones :-)
We're doomed to get both ...
Any good tips for necks in Europe?
The only reasonable one I found in the Eurozone is this Baritone:
http://www.musik-produktiv.de/goeldo-tele-baritone-rw.html
If i decide to buy a Bass VI neck it will probably be this guy:
http://www.befr.ebay.be/itm/151626501816?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
But if I get hit with customs taxes (very likely) it could come to cost more than 200 Euro ...
The Squier Bass VI can be found for 327 Euro ...
I can only think of
http://www.rockinger.com/index.php?cat=WG034&lang=ENG&product=N015R (http://www.rockinger.com/index.php?cat=WG034&lang=ENG&product=N015R)
that's the same manufacturer as your link, so ...
I've had good experience with buying from Warmoth in the past.
I've never had to pay any import fees, but that could just be luck.
As you say though, a Squier Bass VI can be had for very little moolah...
Decisions decisions!
Quote from: raulduke on March 26, 2015, 10:14:22 AM
I've had good experience with buying from Warmoth in the past.
I've never had to pay any import fees, but that could just be luck.
As you say though, a Squier Bass VI can be had for very little moolah...
Decisions decisions!
yeah, the Warmoth ones look great but will end up being much too expensive, especially if customs take their share (and they have been getting mental these last months here ...)
I have always had to pay customs when ordering from the USA, be it pedals or from Warmoth. Only PCBs are cool.
Plus: the Euro being so low makes Warmoth expensive these days. I wanted to order from there, too ......
Customs seems to be totally random in the UK. I think they just pick one box out of ten to apply a fee too ;)
From a less personal perspective... I agree with customs fees and I don't really have a problem with it.
However, finding UK/EU alternatives to certain suppliers can be a real ball ache (eg. a UK/EU Warmoth alternative).
Quote from: raulduke on March 26, 2015, 11:58:10 AM
However, finding UK/EU alternatives to certain suppliers can be a real ball ache (eg. a UK/EU Warmoth alternative).
This, so much.
You can find a Strat and Tele body and some neck in Europe, but that's it. You cannot choose pickup configurations, type of wood, chambered, f-hole, neck profiles, fingerboard radius, type of frets, nut slot, headstock, nothing.
There are so many guitar makers in Europe, and so many wood companies. Why don't they do it?
A friend of mine wants to set up something similar to warmoth here. It could take him years :) but he is young and ambitious. The main problem is that I do not think anyone in Spain could match warmoth prices, at least for the shipping.
Quote from: micromegas on March 26, 2015, 12:20:14 PM
A friend of mine wants to set up something similar to warmoth here. It could take him years :) but he is young and ambitious. The main problem is that I do not think anyone in Spain could match warmoth prices, at least for the shipping.
What do you mean? Warmoth shipping to EU is not cheap.
Quote from: Tremster on March 26, 2015, 12:23:22 PM
Quote from: micromegas on March 26, 2015, 12:20:14 PM
A friend of mine wants to set up something similar to warmoth here. It could take him years :) but he is young and ambitious. The main problem is that I do not think anyone in Spain could match warmoth prices, at least for the shipping.
What do you mean? Warmoth shipping to EU is not cheap.
It is cheap if you buy in bulk (at least it was...)
Quote from: raulduke on March 26, 2015, 11:58:10 AM
Customs seems to be totally random in the UK. I think they just pick one box out of ten to apply a fee too ;)
From a less personal perspective... I agree with customs fees and I don't really have a problem with it.
However, finding UK/EU alternatives to certain suppliers can be a real ball ache (eg. a UK/EU Warmoth alternative).
I don't £15 is an insanely low limit and if you go over by £1 say, you're taxed on the £16, not the £1 you were over, AND charged £8 for the priviledge of taxing you.
If the system was in any way fair I might not have an issue with it. But it isn't. So I do.
For big purchases you're screwed and just have to bite the bullet.
Maybe we should dedicate a section of the international swearing thread to customs :-)
A friend of mine bought a second-hand Suhr Gutrhie Govan from a guy in USA.
When it arrived here, Spanish customs told him to pay the taxes and he refused to. A month later the guitar appeared at his door.
It was risky, but I've heard similar stories. Maybe the don't have enough room for everything.
Quote from: raulduke on March 26, 2015, 09:50:51 AM
Would I be right in saying the baritone was the guitar used in a lot of spaghetti western soundtracks?
You would be absolutely right.
Quote from: lincolnic on March 27, 2015, 03:41:13 AM
Quote from: raulduke on March 26, 2015, 09:50:51 AM
Would I be right in saying the baritone was the guitar used in a lot of spaghetti western soundtracks?
You would be absolutely right.
Gaaargh I knew it.... I want one even more now... must resist!
Quote from: raulduke on March 27, 2015, 11:01:20 AM
Quote from: lincolnic on March 27, 2015, 03:41:13 AM
Quote from: raulduke on March 26, 2015, 09:50:51 AM
Would I be right in saying the baritone was the guitar used in a lot of spaghetti western soundtracks?
You would be absolutely right.
Gaaargh I knew it.... I want one even more now... must resist!
I've heard the same of the bass VI.... those guys were creative :)
this is my bari they made it for a few years in early 2003-5? maybe....they came as a bass 6 style e-e i restrung to b-b so i can do fast chords ect.
i have gone g-g it was the perfect mix of bass and guitar ....i found e-e to be just too low to play the way i wanted and hear every thing but garbled
ive a Gibson classic Les Paul, j-200, fender jazz master , great guitars, and this Japanese 600 dollar one ...this is my favorite
dunno if you're still making your mind up David, but here's my thoughts—
I've got a Squier Bass VI. It sounds great, has that Fender single coil sound and has a low-cut switch that helps clean up chords on the lower strings. It's got a 30" scale which you'll need if you want to tune E-E.
I've got mine tuned A-A, which took some getting used to but you're right, it does open up new tonal possibilities...
The nut and bridge are shite and will be replaced when I get some cash. It was a bitch to intonate and I've read a lot of people had real grief intonating it tuned E-E.
Definitely worth it though, sounds great with some term/reverb!
It's discussed in exhaustive detaile here— http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/21722/ (http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/21722/)
I've also got a Gretsch Baritone with a 29.5"scale, so it can be tuned E-E but I've got it A-A. Comes with mini humbuckers and sounds more piano-like than the Squier. Also has a licensed Bigsby which sounds gorgeous, strings are a real pain in the arse to change though.
I would recommend either of these as they can be tuned E-E, B-B, A-A or whatever and are great fun to play. You may not be able to get E-E with the shorter 27"-28" baritone necks.
ta
George
I am tending more towards a 30" scale neck at the moment. With this I can decide whether I tune it down to E or more like a bariton. (maybe I can even use a capo ..? ).
May I introduce to you, the Schecter Hellcat VI!
It has a 30 inch scale, just like the Bass VI, aswell as the 3 pickups (except the Hellcat VIs are tap-able humbuckers). For added oldschool vibe, get one in 3 tone sunburst:smug: .
I just ordered one the other day, and had a thread up about it yesterday aswell. As soon as I get it, and get used to the instrument, I will record soundclips (although they won't be the best quality) and give you a review. Hopefully I will get it before my gig thats comming up, in which case I will have mroe pictures and a more in depth review:bassist: . PM me if you have any questions, and be sure to check out the thread I started, "It's official, Hellcat VI coming my way!" or something like that.
Chandler