Can You Use a Bass VI as a Baritone Guitar?
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
- When I was first shopping for a baritone guitar, I thought about buying a Squier Bass VI and putting baritone strings on it, but I had a lot of questions the internet couldn't answer for me. I bought a Modified Baritone Jazzmaster instead, but the question hasn't gone away. Recently, I bought a Bass VI, and decided to see for myself...
I've made a follow up video where I build my own custom baritone guitar with a conversion neck! I like it even more than the Ba[ritone] VI ua-cam.com/video/rtktyBGbr0U/v-deo.html
Awesome video! I used to do this with my Harley Benton Bass VI, and it has the exact same scale length. Went up to C2 with 12-60 strings, and I also went as far low as B0 one time with a 5 string bass set and singles (wasn't a very good idea in hindsight). Right now I have it set up in E1, and it plays fantastically. It's so amazing how versatile this instrument is.
You rule man! It’s not exactly cheap to be swapping around bass/baritone strings. Thanks for doing this.
That’s why I saved each set I took off so I could reuse them😅
I just bought a Harley Benton JA-Baritone guitar which has 22-frets and so my approach will be to play it as a combo-instrument, meaning that I'll play it as a six string guitar of which it is, but I'm also going to play it as a bass guitar too. Thanks for sharing this video love it!
Nice demo. Most baritone player somehow just shred and play fast. Appreciate your playing a lot.
Thank you! I mostly just never got good enough for djent
This is so cool! I recently got a Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI, and i put a flatwound bass vi set of strings on it. But I've recently been wanting to try baritone strings on it and this video really helps!
Glad to hear it! I love it even more as a bari
I did it with my bass vi. I have a four string bass but always wanted a baritone. I bought the custom xl baritone strings for it. Love it.
I've always been curious about this. Thanks for doing this man!
No problem! The internet was oddly unhelpful for what seemed to be a very common question.
A. Love the Holy Fawn shirt B. I was impressed how bright the Bass VI handles B Standard C. keep the Jazzmaster around
The Jazzmaster is on Bass VI duty now. I like the number of tone options the Jaguar style electronic give as a bari. I’ve swapped the necks to ease the nut and tuning machine issues
@@spaceships4728 I wanna see pics!
Thanks. Been thinking about doing exactly the same thing with my BASS VI. The one thing I did when I received my BASS VI was put a good set of flat wounds on it. And that, made all the difference. I know the flat wound tone is not for everybody but I'm definitely going to hang on to them in case I want to unbaritone the BASS VI. Update: put a set of baritone strings on my Bass VI and it sounds terrific. Only issue is that it's a long neck and sometimes it's a real stretch with certain chord shapes/positions.
I like the candid take. Good looking pedal board too!
Thanks! That's been a labor of love lol
There's a tour of the board on our channel if you're interested in that level of nerdiness!
y’know the 30” jazz and the squier bass VIs actually have the exact same neck, so they play pretty similar!
it’s cool to see someone doing shoegaze stuff on a bass VI, nice to see someone else is also doing that 😁
I’ve actually since swapped the necks! It was easier than replacing the tuning machines and nuts.
Comparing these two for purchase and one of my favorite bands is Holy Fawn so i knew i found the comparison i neeeded thank you.
Hell yeah! Ryan has a feature on our new album if you wanna check it out ;)
@@spaceships4728 I will for sure. Can't wait for the Houston show!
I’m glad you did this comparison! And I totally would have left the baritone strings on the 6. And I would have left the 6 strings on the baritone. I think you stumbled on something that makes the instruments sound better! That’s my personal opinion anyways! Thank you for your time!
I did leave them like that for about a year before I sold the baritone and modded a standard Jazzmaster with a conversion neck. The 30” scale length turned out to be too long for my smallish hands
Man! Me driving to work this morning I was thinking about those things..... You just answered my questions!!!! Thank you
Belated Happy Birthday, Brother Nat!
Thanks!
Awesome vid! Love the experiment. Great great guitar effects and the overall tone.
I use the pickup switch two outside in the up position, two center in the down position.
I had the jazz master a few years back and ended up trading it away before they skyrocketed in value. I have regretted it ever since. I recently purchased a squire bass VI and was wondering this exact scenario because of the string spacing! Thanks for making this video. I think I am going to get another bass vi and set it up as a baritone because I really do like it as a bass now that I set it up and put the higher tension strings on it.
I was in the exact same conundrum when I was first shopping for a baritone! Do yourself a favor and upgrade the pickups. I’ve since bought Lollars for the bridge and neck and Hot Rails for the middle
@@spaceships4728 I was looking at the lollars! Those are on the short list of things to buy. I am curious about the hot rail in the middle. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks again!
I discovered that Fender 24-100 Gauge Strings for E-E Tuning might work in that low tuning
Yeah, those are the stock Bass VI strings. They're nice
@@nathanielvsindustry They're a bit thicker than the old 24-84 Gauge Strings that Fender used to put on their Bass VI's. They're an improvement over the old gauges.
This was a interesting movie. You did a great job talking playing and recording....God bless you and thus is cool
I've been considering doing the same, but as a replacement for my acoustic baritone, which I typically tune A-A. I find it useful for playing along with others playing normal acoustic guitars, and frequently use it with a capo to do things I couldn't possibly reach on a normally tuned acoustic guitar. I'd love to hear what the bass VI sounds like with just the neck PU, and the tone rolled back -- maybe with some EQ or an acoustic simulator pedal.
Love will tear ist apart ... ♥️
Practically required on Bass VI
@@spaceships4728 Did Peter Hook play a bass 6 on that track?
@@martinemesguitar probably not. But his multi-string strumming style on that track is very fun to play on a bass vi
The sounds in the beginning convinced me not to get a Bass IV. Not right for me.
I've done it with my bass vi. I thought it was pretty cool. I just never got around to learning the chords though so I switched back to the bass strings.
Just a matter of transposing. I've been playing baritone for three years now and it still takes me a second.
I dont like the rattleling , its muddies and distorts - but besides that , its Beautiful ! I love the registre , down between a bass and a baryton !
All that can be taken care of with a proper set up. All I did here was swap out strings and start playing. I’ve done a lot of intonation and neck shimming and action adjusting since this video!
@@spaceships4728 🙂
Hi, question: does the bass vi intonate correct with the baritone strings?
You’d have to adjust the saddles some, but there’s plenty of room to find the right intonation.
HOLY FAWN!!!!!!
Hell yeah! Ryan did a feature on our most recent album.
Hey, very nice video! I am thinking about doing the opposite, buying a cheap barítone and convert to Bass VI. Do you think is feasible?
As long as the scale length is long enough. the 30" seems the absolute bottom end of the range. But I'm not sure if you could find many baritones on the market as cheaply as a Squier Bass VI though.
Hello, I think you'll find the bass vi has guitar pickups not bass, I have a bassVI by sub zero with humbuckers and they're standard guitar pickups, the squier bassVI has jaguar pickups if memory serves correctly 😉
Correct, they’re modified Jaguars. However, there’s not really an essential different between guitar and bass pickups besides the placement of the magnet poles for the strings and the way they are wound. Other than that, it’s mostly the same. Since the strings on a Bass VI is spaced the same as a standard six string guitar you can use any single-coil sized pickup. I actually really liked the way a Telecaster pickup sounded in the neck before I went to the Lollars
What would be the downsides of stringing this beasts with lighter gauges (Say EXL158) and what tunings could be achieved that way in your opinion?
The biggest problem would be string length-most lighter gauge strings aren’t meant for 30” scale length. It would also make lower tunings wobbly. B Standard or drop A might get a little dicey at the lower frets
@@spaceships4728 even if the set I told you about is meant for a baritone? I mean, there are 29.5/30" baritones out there. What would be their ideal strings/tunings?
@@vassili87 oh, if they’re baritone strings you should be fine. Didn’t know how light you wanted to go! I usually get the D’Addario’s and they’ve been long enough for my 30” scale
“EXL158 is optimized for modern, shorter scale electric baritone guitars. Can be used for down tuning on most standard electric guitars” says on official site. Maybe it’s not long enough.
They aren’t bass pickups. They are re essentially jaguar pickups. At least that’s what the original vintage bass vi guitars had.
That’s right. The stock pickups on the Squiers are a little thin though. I’ve since replaced them with Lollar Bass VI pickups.
Which baritone strings did you use? I bought a set of D'Addarios and the high B string didn't have enough length to do more than 1 wrap around the post and it wouldn't tune up to pitch as it was slipping under tension.
That’s what I used. It was a little shorter than I’d like but it wrapped a time or two.
@@spaceships4728 Hmm... my attempt was a failure so the strings ended up in the in the trash and put bass VI strings back on
@@MinivanMegafun100 there might be different string lengths on the market? Mine were XLs www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EXL157--daddario-exl157-medium-baritone-nickel-wound-electric-strings-014-068
@@spaceships4728 Maybe that's it? I tried the 13-62 gauge
XL, extra long.
Thanks for doing this. I’m leaning towards getting a baritone guitar but like the look and feel of the bass vi more than most baritones out there. I also like the idea that it could be used as a baritone or a bass vi proper. Did you find that the nut would need to be replaced with a smaller one? Also, what gauge and brand baritone strings do you suggest for using on a bass vi?
The stock Bass VI nut worked fine with baritone strings. I mostly swapped the necks for the sake of using the Jazzmaster as a Bass VI. As for strings, I use the D’Addario mediums, .014-.068
man wich are the songs played since 9:00?
The first one is our song Chatroom, now on Spotify. Everything else is just little riffs, some of which might be on upcoming releases
Audiochanger bigsby for that vibrato bar sound
Or: just get a guitar with a floating tremolo
@@spaceships4728 but you can use it on the jazzmaster and even on a gasp fretless bass
@@Reprodestruxion why is this the video you’ve decided to take your stand on? The Audiochanger is neat but not entirely relevant
@@spaceships4728 ok I respect your opinion. Its a good alternative for people who dont want to modify a specific instrument. But I liked what you did with the jazzmaster
@@Reprodestruxion thanks. I would also contend that the Audiochanger can’t emulate the shoegazy gliding technique that a Jazzmaster style floating tremolo does so well.
It really is not good as a bass (maybe for guitarists) better as a baritone tuned in A std of B std
A Bass VI has a particular sound that neither basses nor baritones can land. Disintegration by the Cure has a ton of great examples.
@@spaceships4728 I waiting to see what the new Fender vintera one is like maybe I'll get one of those , the Squier one has kind of a bad trem system for me and the nickel plating was not good either .
I'm a bassist I really dont like short scales .
Labella makes a good bass VI set which fits good if. I remember right it has a 100 for the low E.
@@michaelblaney4461 the floating tremolo on the Squier is a pretty standard term system for offsets-it just feels a little stiffer because of the string gauge. But if you're not into short scales, there probably isn't a Fender based model you're gonna like.
@michaelb. The Bass VI can do a surprisingly good job at being a "normal" bass as long as you play it like one and use a bass amp.
I saw Steve Kilby if the Church play his Fender VI live many years ago and playing through an Ampeg SVT you really couldn't tell it wasn't a P-Bass or a Jazz when he was on the low strings.
Flat wound strings and/or backing the tone off help to get the lower strings sounding more like a four string bass if that's what you are after. Unless you play rather gently somewhat heavier strings on the lower ones also can be a good idea. The usual low E on the Bass VI is an 84 which is rather floppy but moving to a 95 or 100 tightens it up a bunch and helps if more "normal" bass sounds are what you want.
@@7171jay I had the Squier one , it just did not work well for me . The standard Squier bridge would not intonate with the low E string . Every offset seems to need a. Neck shim and a bridge fix for them to work well . I still want the Fender one it has a better bridge for bass , a better functional locking tremolo ,chrome hardware and made for actual bass strings . Right now the only thing stopping me is the $1399 price tag.
To many effects to vet a true comparison.
I play both clean before adding effects. It’s a long video though so it’s possible you skipped right past them.
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