4001 six?

[gearhed289]

Interesting tailpiece. It looks like the ones on the 2 prototype 8 strings that were owned by Squire and Entwistle with the single "extra screw" at the end. Hmm...

I think some people miss the point of those "old school" 6 string basses. They're never going to sound like a modern, long or extra long scale BEADGC 6 string bass, and they weren't intended to. From what I understand, the initial idea was to give guitarists something that would be easy to translate if they needed to play some bass, being tuned EADGBE. They have a sound all their own, and were cool for that tic tac thing, doubling an upright. I bet a short scale 400X six string would sound cool!

[jaymi]

Interesting tailpiece. It looks like the ones on the 2 prototype 8 strings that were owned by Squire and Entwistle with the single "extra screw" at the end. Hmm...

I think some people miss the point of those "old school" 6 string basses. They're never going to sound like a modern, long or extra long scale BEADGC 6 string bass, and they weren't intended to. From what I understand, the initial idea was to give guitarists something that would be easy to translate if they needed to play some bass, being tuned EADGBE. They have a sound all their own, and were cool for that tic tac thing, doubling an upright. I bet a short scale 400X six string would sound cool!

It would definitely do something different. It's always nice to experiment a little and besides, the headstock could be put back as well as bridge and nut...

[partime]

My friend and I both had fender 6 basses in the 70's and 80's. They were fantastic, we both played with picks and could get great sounds plugged into the right amps. I got a big kick out of messin with them. I have one being custom built now, slowly but surely. It will be a nice addition to my two rics and gibson. A 6 string ric would be a beautiful thing, especially made by Rickenbacker.

[guitfiddle]

I have 3 Ricks' and 2 Fender Bass VI's. The Bass VI's have 30'' necks. It's really easy to see how this original item in the OP failed to be a usable E-E bass. Make it cadaver and start over again (4 strings please ).

[aceonbass]

I think the main problem with the Ebay 4001/6 bass was that it had full width inlays added. This just killed the necks ability to hold any extra tension. I know someone who's doing this conversion on one of my 4003/8 conversions and I don't have high hopes for it after the strings are tuned to pitch. Doing a 4-2-6 on a 4003 wouldn't actually be too hard, if you don't mind the spacing, but drilling extra holes in the headstock won't work. It would need to be done as a piccalo bass though as there really isn't enough room at the nut for 6 standard gauge bass strings.

[ilan]

It would need to be done as a piccalo bass though as there really isn't enough room at the nut for 6 standard gauge bass strings.

The Fender Bass VI has a 1 1/2" nut width (what Fender calls an A neck) and uses .025-.095 strings.

[jamespaul71]

still an extremely cool saddle system for it, any info on what it was/is?