ShortScale.org

SO COOL!


Some of you may know, but I'll fill you all in on the back story here.
A while back, maybe two months or so? The President of Schecter emailed me! So that's pretty cool for starters. Then I read the email, and it got even better. Michael (The Prez) was looking ot put together some "demo boards" - pedal boards for artists to use when they try out Schecter gear.
Then we get to the best part. He asks if we do trades.
In my experience, when someone from another music related company wants to do some "strictly business" dealing, they just ask if we will sell them the shit, and if they can have a discount. when someone actually wants our shit, like desires it, they ask if you want to trade. So right away i was like FUCK YEAH I WANT A HELLCAT!
and the rest is history. I actually decided on the Stargazer 12 (awesome also) and the Ultra VI, because well, the Hellcat is so goddamn ugly.

Now for a review!
First impressions: Wow. Really a gorgeous machine. Reminds me of a motorcycle. Silverburst all over. Ships with roundwound strings.

Craftsmanship: Schecter's craftsmanship has always impressed me, and this one is no exception. Everything is expertly done. I don't know if it's "just" set neck, or if it's Neck-Through, but it feels like on giant piece of wood. Schecter was nice enough to ship this in a case that looks purpose-built for the U-VI. The pickup selector switches are kind of sticky and cumbersome, so consider that if "quick switching" is important to you. I;ve only had it for like 11 hours, but the tuning has been stable.

TOANZ: The tones are many and varied. each of those three humbuckers can be coil-tapped, so right there you have a lot of damn sounds. Neck PU in full HB mode is very nice and beefy, and will do a perfectly good "Normal bass" tone. The other positions and combos all do various different flavors of honky and toothy. The middle and bridge pickups are where you go for that "classic" VI sound. It's a very bright instrument, but it provides plenty of low end whallop through a proper amp. Obviously you can get a really different feel and sound if you were to switch to flats. I'm sure I'll try eventually, but I kind of view the U-VI as a hulked out guitar, so I will probably utilize the bright toanz.

Feels: The All Important Feel!
The fretboard is wider than a Fender Bass VI, but not as ungodly wide as the gretsch electromatic baritone bass whatever they call it. The Bon Iver they ought to call it. So on one hand, I'm less likely to hit the wrong string, but I am stretching more.
The thing is HEAVY, let there be no bones about it. It is also neck heavy. I have a solution for this though. Hold the fucking neck in my left hand while I fret the strings and quit whining like a little baby. I found myself saying out loud (again) "It's a whole different animal." So after getting pretty decent at guitar, and finally holding my own on bass, picking this up is that much stranger. I'm not going to embarrass myself making a demo until I can play it with some soul and confidance.

SUMMATION: So glad I have it! It's providing me with a new set of sounds and challenges (leaving it tuned standard for now, just to make it thrice as difficult) and I'm thinking of a number of places to put it in my solo stuff I've begun.

I'll admit, it's not Fredo's pink Custom shop Bass VI. That thing is like God's Cock. But as far as the VI's available today this is a really REALLY good option. it DESTROYS the Gretsch. The neck on that thing felt like a Wal-Mart knockoff guitar, the tuning was all over the place, the pickups sounded like a soda can full of sand and twigs, and the fretboard was like 8 inches wide. It is considerably better than the Thundercats as made by former Shortscaler Robert(original) but I'm pretty sure it's because that was a crazy idea to put a bronco bass neck on a jag body and make a Fake VI.

I wouldn't really put this in the Baritone category. It's much more Bass than that. Baritones are a super easy jump from standard scale. So while there are plenty of cool baritones out there (Especially the Fender Jaguar Baritone Limited Bass VI Custom Classic Edition) or whatever they ended up calling it, the VI's are really REALLY different instruments.

The End.

PS, yes I will do an demo and review for the Stargazer 12 which might be even more awesome?!?!?!

Noice overview, so lucky of you to get a lovely pair like that from the firm.

Really looking forward to hear what kind of Aen (Sub) Standard tunings will be popping speaker cones in the Mid-West this summer. Special request: Please do an chorus'd Bamontez up-da-neck solo in the demo over a fuzzy RR tune whenever it happens.

DUDe they are made in South Korea! I thought of you because you are the only person I know who lives in South Korea.

Viva Kimchiland! Glad my fellow countryfolk tinkered your new guitar into something useful.

And you already know this, but I think of you whenever I hear Garrison Keillor's monologue on PHC, simply 'cause you're the only person I know who lives 80 miles away from the Twin Cities.

That thing looks badass as hell. I second the awesome Schecter notion. Love me some Schecter basses.

man, i picked an ultra up one time and they are def heavy as hell. the neck heavy action kinda put me off a bit.

I've always wanted to try one of these. Looking forward to da demo fo sho.

aen wrote:
The thing is HEAVY, let there be no bones about it. It is also neck heavy. I have a solution for this though. Hold the fucking neck in my left hand while I fret the strings and quit whining like a little baby.

That's one of the things that's bothered me on this board. the whole heavy neck issue. I have never ever in my life felt the weight of t nack to be too heavy. it's just not something i've come across, so when i hear people moan about gibson/epiphone, etc, I honestly have no idea what they're talking about. If your wrist is too limp, give your wang a good rubbing.

gaybear wrote: If your wrist is too limp, give your wang a good rubbing.

<---- Whilst looking at my sexy avatar.

Similar impressions to my own. I love my Ultra VI, but I don't find the coil-splits to be all that useful; I find there's little change in tone, and just a volume drop (same with my old Hellcat VI)... this could be useful if the switches were smoother, but with how they're made, switching isn't fast enough to use the splitting to go from clean to overdrive (which I could do with the Hellcat's push/pull pot split). I really wish the pickups were better, and that there was an actual tonal difference between the split and full buckers, but alas... even with the splits being ineffective, there are plenty of tones available. I use it as a principle bass and as a baritone in some songs, and it fills both roles quite handily; amp really makes a difference in its performance/sound.

I'm pretty certain the neck is set, not neck-thru... I haven't really had any issues with neck heaviness either, but I use a fairly grippy cloth Fender strap, pretty much nothing dives with it As for overall weight, it is kinda heavy, but my old Hellcat was even heavier.

I'm gonna suggest swapping out the strings for a set of LaBella HC-6S (steel) of HC-6F (flats), they'll be far superior to the ones it shipped with. I had the nickel wound strings for a while, but I found them a bit dark for my tastes. The LaBellas are probably the best strings for these guys... and they're by far the cheapest.

I have 2 Ultras .. Prolly 3 soon ( might 86 the Toronado for an Ultra 3 ) . Heavy guitars but play SUPER solid and just play awesome IMO .