BigRedX

And as promised... I currently own three Bass VIs (Squier, Burns and Eastwood Shergold copy) and used to own a HB Mosrite-influenced 28" scale baritone guitar tuned B-B). My take on it is, that while most Bass VIs tend to be positioned as bass guitars for guitarists, the baritone guitar is very much a guitar with a lower range. A lot of this is down to the type and positioning of the picks on the two different instruments. Baritone guitars usually have the pickups in the standard guitar bridge and neck positions and they will either be P90 types or humbuckers. Most Bass VIs will have 3 single coil pickups with the middle one roughly in the P-bass position in relation to the string length. However what I have found to be the most important difference is down to what you can play on them. IME anything you can play on a normal guitar can be played on a baritone guitar, it will just be either a 4th or 5th lower (depending whether it is tuned B-B or A-A). All the standard guitar chord shapes work across all the strings and you should be able to get a clear and articulate tone even with full first position chords. On the Bass VI, while you can play it like a guitar, chord voicing are pretty awful until you venture up the neck or stick to the highest three strings. Play a first position E chord and it will just be an un-defined mush. Baritone guitars only go down to B or A so you won't get the full range of bass notes that you will out of a Bass VI. What I have found with both instruments though is that the supplied strings in every nearly case are much too light to get a decent tone out of the lower 2-3 strings. Baritone guitars suddenly sound much better with the heaviest standard baritone set from D'Addario, and Bass VIs are a completely different instrument once you fit either the LaBella Bass VI strings or the Newtone Axions. The only downside to putting heavier strings on the Bass VI is that the vibrato mechanism (if there is one) becomes almost impossible to use due to the increase in string tension.

Any bass that suits your playing style will make you play better. Because you can no longer claim that your bad bass playing is due to a poor quality instrument holding you back and because a bass you enjoy playing should encourage you to play more. Certainly when I got my first really good bass (a second hand Overwater) after having owned 3 very cheap and at best very average basses, my playing improved massively.

The most important ingredient to sounding like Jaco Pastorius is being Jaco Pastorius.

Having owned both they are too entirely different instruments. Will explain in full when I’m on a proper computer and can type properly.

Fantastic looking instrument. Be aware that the string spacing is tight at both the nut and the bridge.

Those "cool shades" are all standard automobile colours. It's not like Fender are in the paint shop formulating their own.

They certainly show off the fact that someone at Fodera has some serious carpentry skills, but in every other respect these three instruments epitomise what is (IMO) wrong with aesthetics in the boutique instrument market. Showing off technical skill over integrated and ergonomic design. And the decoration is applied to just the top with no thought as to how best to integrate it with the rest of the design and construction. And what is with those nasty plastic pickup covers and mis-matched knobs on the second a third photos? And the arrangement of them? It's boutique pedal syndrome all over again. Must try harder and go for some lessons in design and ergonomics.

Please explain using proper science how the plastic components will affect the tone of a pickup.

I bought a Squier Bass VIs many years ago when one of the European retailers was selling them at bargain bin (<£300 inc shipping) prices. I liked the concept but wasn't that impressed with the actual bass mostly because of what I considered to be a very narrow neck even by normal guitar standards (it is certainly narrower than any of the guitars I own). It was fun but a bit of a novelty item, and it would have stayed that way and probably been sold when I did my last big clearcut, but then the guitarist in one of my bands quite rather than replace him, we tried a couple of rehearsals with me playing the Squier, and rearranging the songs so that the synth player took over the bass parts when I was doing the "guitar" lines. It turned out to be quite effective, but I really couldn't get on with the neck on the Squier so I started a search to find something more suitable. For a while I was using a Burns Barracuda which had a wider neck but closer string spacing at the bridge compared with the Squier, but overall was easier to play. The Eastwood announced that they were going to be producing a Peter Hook signature version of the old Shergold Marathon 6 Bass. This is the Bass VI for me. A wider neck and string spacing at the bridge compared with all the other Bass VIs I had tried/owned. I'll almost definitely be selling the Squier and the Burns and buying another Eastwood to use as a backup at gigs. Here I am with my band "Hurtsfall" at last year's Leeds Goth City event playing the Eastwood:

Firstly do any of those things actually make a noticeable difference? Secondly you have to remember that technically better from a electronic, mechanical or magnetic PoV does not automatically equal a better sound (which is subjective any way). If it did valves would have disappeared from audio circuits a long time ago. Scatter winding which is one of the buzz-words when it comes to pickups is probably less good in terms of pure physics than coils wound in a more regular manner. Who's to say what is "better"?

The one time I changed the pickups on a bass I owned, it made absolutely no detectable difference to the sound of the bass.

I have opinions, I would like to make people think. Surely that's the whole point of posting on a forum like this. Alternatively I could just passively absorb all the crap on TV and Facebook...

Once again the important question is what exactly has Sting sold. Most reports don't bother with the details, but AFAICS it's just the publishing which ought be less than 50% of his performance royalty income.

I think the more important question we should all be asking is "Is a Fodera good enough to be played by me?" In my case the answer is "no". Its far too boring looking.

Before the 6U, I had 8U of stuff in one of those metal-covered plywood rack cases. Not only was it unfeasibly heavy but all the weight was distributed towards the front of the rack making it even more unwieldy.

Julian Cope Andy McCluskey

Having been a user of rack gear since the late 80s, I ditched all of mine a couple of years ago for a Helix Floor. Rack gear sounds like a good idea until you have lift it all. Even with lightweight stuff in it my 6U rack case was only just a one person lift.

The grey background behind the text doesn't match the grey background behind the guitars. Clearly fake.

Probably worth it just for having the original bridge cover.

It might not for you, but there are plenty of musicians I know who treat musical theory as hard and fast rules and never step outside of those boundaries.

That was entirely the reason for the failure at the gig in question. The venue was in a basement and the gig on a very hot summer's evening. There was copious sweat from both the band and the audience condensing on the low ceiling and dripping onto us and our equipment. We used to carry a suitable screwdriver for altering the "keyboard" sensitivity pre-set pot in cases like this, but this time there were only two available settings: off and playing by itself. However it would also regularly cease to function a couple of songs before the end of most gigs and those were in far less severe conditions. When I bought the Wasp I picked it over synths with proper keyboards and a more conventional and rugged build, due to the fact that it sounded loads better than the competition at the £200-£250 price point. I also saw the lack of conventional keyboard as an advantage in that it opened up a completely different way of playing synths. Interestingly I also played the Wasp myself at gigs in my next band, I never had any of these problems, which leads me to suspect that some of them at least were user error rather than anything to do with the unconventional design of the synth or extreme climactic conditions.

Learn to be able to hear in your mind what you want to play and then know where to put your fingers on your instrument in order to play it. If I'm stuck for ideas I simply "sing" along with the track until I hear something I like. IME singing has noting between the idea and the execution - i.e. its unhampered by (lack of) instrumental technique. I also ought to point out the to others my singing is awful, but in my head its good enough for me to work out the notes I want to play This way you'll never play anything "wrong" but you are also unlikely to play anything truly musically remarkable either. There's nothing wrong with knowing your music theory, but you also need to know when it might be more musically interesting and still tasteful to bend/break the rules too. There's a reason why it's only "theory" and not "law".

The best technically complex playing is the stuff that doesn't sound like it.

I think this is the 4th time this video has been posted in the last couple of weeks. It'll soon be up there with the Drummer at the wrong gig. BTW whatever happened to the cross-dressing Korean bassist?

Depends entirely on the strings and the material the frets are made out of. It also depends how/what you play. I had a guitar where I wore away the fret at just one position on one string because the band I was in at the time had a song where I would hammer on the string with my plucking hand and then "bow" it against the fret to produce a sustained note for 4 bars of a very slow song. Practicing/playing this song every day for 2 years eventually wore down the fret at just this position. BTW this was a plain guitar G-string, so it's not just the windings of round wound bass strings that can cause the wear.