my Gretsch baritone bass thing diary

[aen]

BOOM. six string bass 29 and some odd fraction inch scale


Borked.



First Impression:
1. This neck sucks. After playing only really nicely fitted, and usually glossy finished fender necks, this neck ("satin" finish) feels like shit. Might have to FINISH the neck. I understand that you can sell your guitars cheaper if you don't FINISH them, so I guess I'm willing to take it, especially considering I traded for a Bit Mangler.

2. This idea is very cool.
It's a lot of low strings. As is the case with all the short scale six string basses out there, it really is it's own animal. I bumped up the low string to a 105 in an effort to tighten up my low D tonez. I'm finding that it's still not very good at my traditional bass style. HOWEVER, I think there's a pretty good chance I will change this over to A-a, we have a few songs where I go no lower than an open A, and 2 songs I usually play on the beast

Tuned AEAA

3. Pickups might be really weak. I don't play a really intense bass or anything (mustang RI) and it has wayyy better response/snap/bass/powarrrr clean. Again, i think it hsould be fine as a baritone.

4. After playing Fredo's bass VI, nothing really compares.

[Mo Law-ka]

4. After playing Fredo's bass VI, nothing really compares.

This thing is really cool looking, but I agree, if it's not a bass VI, IT AINT SHIIIIIIIIIIT

[benecol]

Aen, be prepared for me to nag you about all sorts of info on that one - when I get another baritone, it'll be one of those or a Jerry Jones.

[aen]

Totally willing.

[Ankhanu]

Nice.
I was pretty curious about these, but chose the Schecter instead. I've heard a couple reviews/demos of this one and thought it sounded pretty good.

I can't see a VI style bass being very good for dropped tunings; the strings just don't have the tension for lower tunings. If you figure out how to set it up to work, let us know what you had to do.

As for more traditional bass playing (I know you said YOUR traditional bass playing, so this may not apply), I did have some issues adjusting to the VI style and traditional playing styles. The string spacing does make it a little difficult, but I've gotten used to it and no longer find it limiting. At least with the Hellcat VI, the tone of a standard bass is still available with a VI type too. It's a delightfully versatile design... it baffles me that it never took off.

[Mages]

you can polish a satin finish into a gloss finish.

[benecol]

you can polish a satin finish into a gloss finish.

... but you can't put your arms around a memory.

[aen]

Nor can you hug with nuclear arms.

I think part of my issue is that the gretsch has a really flat fretboard. Im very partial to the curvy fretboards.
But I'm gonna gig it next week and make an informed decision as to it's tuning future...

[ultratwin]

3. Pickups might be really weak. I don't play a really intense bass or anything (mustang RI) and it has wayyy better response/snap/bass/powarrrr clean. Again, i think it hsould be fine as a baritone.

I reckon a set of those new GFS mini-hums would be hotter (prolly the Liverpools, among the choice), and now with teh filtertron lookz they should squeeze in with all the cool ya need. LINKO

[aen]

OK!
So I rigged it up with a 15 on the highest string, which gives me the same high range as my 4 string baritone. We practiced, jammed and recorded with it on Wednesday night, and it really worked pretty damn well for bass and baritone. It seems like it just needed some time to "settle in." I will probably drop the 15 down to a 13, it gets really tight when it's stretched across 30"

You can hear it sooooooonnnn!!!

[paul_]

My band tracks bass with an SWR Workingman 15 and CAD KBM 412 as pictured on left of first pic!

[aen]

Fuck yeah dude!
I spent 3x the cash on a bass mic, and the cad beats it hands down.