Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

For the price, the more recent Danelectros are a great deal (though they don't sound as good as the vintage ones).

I would hold out for one of the vintage ones personally, they pop up from time to time. There are also a number of Danelectro conversions (medium-scale 4-string to baritone) out there (I own one), which have the same great sound and vintage vibe but are still fairly affordable.

"I would hold out for one of the vintage ones personally, they pop up from time to time. There are also a number of Danelectro conversions (medium-scale 4-string to baritone) out there (I own one), which have the same great sound and vintage vibe but are still fairly affordable."

I had one of those conversions, a ca.1960 Dano "short horn" bass (single pickup, 30" scale) professionally converted to 6 string bass, the only way to tell it was a conversion was the "naked holes" - if you remove the machine heads, the holes for the A and B tuners do not have paint inside them (60's Dano's were spray painted after the holed were drilled). I learned that from the person who bought my Dano. Anyway it had 'vintage vibe' and all, and could be played as a low-pitched guitar, but as a bass it was totally impractical. It was tuned like a bass, but had no real bottom. The Bass VI on the other hand, sounds like a bass.

I almost bought a Clarinet today at a yard sale for 15 bucks, does that count?

Um, no. It does not.

As for the Dano/Fender conundrum, I would suggest it's all a matter of perception. I played one tour using my Dano conversion through, of all things, a Fender Twin (at mid-low volume). No other bass/amp combo I have ever used has ever sounded more like an acoustic bass; absolutely gorgeous, round and resonant.

For some reason I can't pull it up right now, but there's a quote from Entwistle regarding his Bass VI, it says something to the effect of:

"Around 1964 or 65, I had a Fender Bass VI for about six months but I couldn't get any %$#*@$ bass out of the thing!!!"

I have owned/played 6-string basses for many years, including a Fender BassVI. Currently I own a Jerry Jones Longhorn BassVI and a Gretsch SynchroVI. These basses record very well, I use them for a hand-muted clicky sound known as tic-tac bass. A 6-string bass has 30" scale and is tuned E-E. A baritone guitar is tuned A-A or B-B. Jerry Jones has two models of 6-string bass and a baritone guitar.

not to be confused with the modern 6 string basses which are 34" to 35" scale and tuned BEADGC ... basically a 4 string with a low B and a high C added ...

Yeah...I hate those.

Or the old-fashioned 4 string basses that have a 42" scale.

Fender just confused things by calling the Bottom Master the "Jaguar Custom Baritone". I'll leave it at that for now...

Yep, over on the Yahoo BassVI group there was much discussion over the seeming lack of thought put into the naming.

Is that group still active Ronn? I used to lurk there but activity waned and I lost interest. Most of the discussion (if any) was around building replicas using US Custom Guitars parts.

There is still some of that but now it seems to have expanded focus a bit and there is mostly discussion of other VIs like the Schecter Hellcat, Fender Jag, Musicman(I forget the model),etc. And lots of string set comparison.

A little follow-up: I posted a quote from Entwistle claiming he "couldn't get any #@^%$) bass" out of his Fender Bass VI. I finally played a vintage (late '63) one the other day and frankly, I don't know what he was talking about. BEAUTIFUL sounding guitar, bass for miles (and miles and miles?). Then again it was through an SVT, which he didn't have back in '64, but still. All a matter of perception, no?

I've never had the problem he described.

Do you own a "real" one or a reissue?