Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Quick question if anyone knows. How would you tune a Fender Bass VI? Do you tune it to EADGBE?

Yep.

It's a baritone guitar, tuned a full octave lower than a standard 6er, but not like a contemporary 6-string bass, which is tuned CGDAEB...

The idea that Leo had was to provide a sort of bass with an extended upper range. The smallest gauge string on the Bass VI is a wound .025" E.

I love these instruments. I got to play a '66 at Rudy's, they wanted somehting wacky like $8k for it. I'm always on the lookout for the Japanese ones - i'm trying hard not to cave and get one of the Fender CS ones.

An octave lower 'eh?

You got it, Gerald. Do you have one of these?

John, there's a Japanese one on the 'bay right now, $1600 with a couple of days left.

Yes I just got the CS one. I tried going an octave lower on the low E for starters. The string flaps all over the place. Am I doing this correctly? Or am I just an idiot?

The one I played had a really tight low E string. The low E on the VI should be exactly the same as a low E on a bass.

Quote: "but not like a contemporary 6-string bass, which is tuned CGDAEB"

I think most 6 string basses are tuned BEADGC ... at least that is how I would tune one if I played one ... and the 7 string basses that I have seen were tuned F#BEADGC ... most 5 string basses are BEADG ... but some are EADGC ... and some 4 strings are tuned BEAD or ADGC ... and then of course there are many more alternate tunings ...

and the only old Fender VI that I played was tuned EADGEB with fat flatwound strings ... I think it was about 28" in scale if I remember correctly ...

I think Paul was quoting from smallest string to largest string instead of the usual method of largest string to smallest, that's the way I interpreted it. If you're tuning in fourths that is.....

oh ya ... I missed that ... duh!!!