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Post subject: Baritone Bass
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:55 pm
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Has anybody had any expieriance with the Black top Baritone bass? I've got vintage Jazz, P Basses and PJ basses and one Tele and I've always wanted one more bass. I think I'm chasing that country tone. I don't know if the "Bass V" is the right guitar.


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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:46 am
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If you are looking for the classic tic-tac or "knack-bass" sound first popularized by Ladi Geisler then the new Pawnshop Bass VI is based upon one of the two original tic-tac 6-string basses which are sometimes called baritone guitars. (If you don't know who Ladi Geisler is, what the tic-tac bass or the "knack bass" sounds are...then you should read up on Mr. Geisler and check out some of his very classy work. He's a real pioneer player of the baritone guitar/6-string bass.)

1961's Fender Bass VI was Fender's answer to the 1956 Danelectro 6 string bass (also known as a baritone guitar) that had really started catching on with studio cats by the late 50's. Carol Kaye had one of these Danelectro 6's and other session players were frequently borrowing it for sessions, such as fellow Wrecking Crew player Glen Campbell.

The Fender Bass VI and the Danelectro 6 both had the reputation as studio secret weapons back in the 60's and 70's. By the early 60's the tic-tac sound was rampant and replaced the electric bass entirely in some genres of pop music. Like most pop music studio fads, tic-tac bass burned out. About the time that tic-tac was starting to burn out some producers discovered that using a 6-string bass/baritone guitar to double the electric bass part added depth and clarity to the bass line making the recorded bass tracks sound denser yet simultaneously clearer when the two instruments were properly mixed.

Besides the identical tuning and fingerings, the string spacing is also very similar to a Spanish electric guitar so that the Bass VI's and the Danelectro 6's almost have to be played with a pick. These two oddballs have always been primarily studio instruments and very few people ever played them out. But Mr. Geisler did with Bert Kaempfert and others. Check him out.

As much as it might pain me to admit it, I realized about ten years ago that some of Mr. Geisler's work on the Kaempfert sessions had definitely influenced me, at least to a degree and more than I'd care to admit in the 60's. His economy of play and preciseness was spectacular. He is one of those players whose style sounds so easy to duplicate right up until you try to duplicate it.


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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 2:14 pm
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The bass VI was also played by Jack Bruce in the early days of (The) Cream.

He is playing with his fingers, not a pick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=JkxYnrjyygQ

Recently I build a VI for myself and with a little practice I can play it with my fingers, but with a pick you get that tic-tac sound.


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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:30 pm
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Roy Babbington of later Soft Machine is another player who played a Bass VI with his fingers - his is a beautiful white with matching headstock - one of my favorite players.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKDuevCr90Q

HOWEVER, I think you might be talking about a different instrument - is this it?

http://www.fender.com/series/blacktop/blacktop-baritone-telecaster/

The Bass VI is tuned like a bass, with two extra high strings - the baritone you are referring to is tuned between bass & guitar - B to B, instead of E to E. Also, the scale length is shorter: 27" instead of the 30" of the Bass VI. So it probably won't work as a bass, but not sure how you want to use it. You could also look into the Pawnshop Bass VI as brotherdave mentioned above if you are looking more for a bass instrument.

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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 8:17 am
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Wasn't there a Jaguar Baritone a few short years back?

Art


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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 10:08 am
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Art1 wrote:
Wasn't there a Jaguar Baritone a few short years back?

Art

Yes - that was kind of a strange instrument - 28 1/2" scale (shorter than the 30" of the Bass VI) but still tuned the same (E-E, octave lower than guitar). It went under several names too - Jaguar Baritone Custom, Jaguar Bass VI Custom, and in Japan, the Jaguar Bottom Master! I had the Bottom Master - it was cool, had built in fuzz, but short scale on the low E was a bit of a limitation.

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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 3:45 am
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The Bottom Master has active electronics.

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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:06 pm
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chromeface wrote:
The Bottom Master has active electronics.

Umm, kind of. It had a built-in fuzz circuit - as far as I remember, that's what the battery was for. Definitely not active electronics in the normal sense of a built-in preamp with boostable eq. Please be more specific and accurate when you post stuff like this. A picture of a battery cover isn't enough.

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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 7:02 pm
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TonH wrote:
The bass VI was also played by Jack Bruce in the early days of (The) Cream.

He is playing with his fingers, not a pick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=JkxYnrjyygQ

Recently I build a VI for myself and with a little practice I can play it with my fingers, but with a pick you get that tic-tac sound.


Nobody is playing their instruments in that video. Ginger does some great theatrics. No one is plugged in. I remember some early videos where bass players faked it on regular guitars. It was part of the in-joke of those days. Lip-synching was ridiculous and they did their best to make a parody of it.

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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:18 pm
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modwiz wrote:
TonH wrote:
The bass VI was also played by Jack Bruce in the early days of (The) Cream.

He is playing with his fingers, not a pick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=JkxYnrjyygQ

Recently I build a VI for myself and with a little practice I can play it with my fingers, but with a pick you get that tic-tac sound.


Nobody is playing their instruments in that video. Ginger does some great theatrics. No one is plugged in. I remember some early videos where bass players faked it on regular guitars. It was part of the in-joke of those days. Lip-synching was ridiculous and they did their best to make a parody of it.


Yeah, there are one or two Three Dog Night videos where it was lip-sync'd an they made sure you knew it,. :lol:

Art


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Post subject: Re: Baritone Bass
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 6:28 pm
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modwiz wrote:
TonH wrote:
The bass VI was also played by Jack Bruce in the early days of (The) Cream.

He is playing with his fingers, not a pick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=JkxYnrjyygQ

Recently I build a VI for myself and with a little practice I can play it with my fingers, but with a pick you get that tic-tac sound.


Nobody is playing their instruments in that video. Ginger does some great theatrics. No one is plugged in. I remember some early videos where bass players faked it on regular guitars. It was part of the in-joke of those days. Lip-synching was ridiculous and they did their best to make a parody of it.

Good point, but it's still good to see Jack Bruce "playing" the Bass VI with fingers - he isn't so obviously "lip-synching" like Ginger - or this guy (who is actually doing the opposite):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0MzeMfcGxA

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