I've been violently GAS-sing for a Fender Bass VI for quite a while now, but figured that I would never actually be able to acquire one. The Japanese version is attractive enough, but quite a bit out of my budget (especially for a secondary, niche instrument). Forget an original vintage one--waaaay out of my budget.

When I read that there was an (affordable!) Pawn Shop Series version, I allowed my hopes to get up a little...I knew there were a few electronic differences (switching, for one), structural differences (no string dampening "mute" mechanism) and pickup differences, but if the overall sound and vibe were there, I'd be ok with it...

I played one at the nearest Guitar Center, and was very impressed. Easy to play in the Tic-Tac method, as a "regular" guitar and as a "normal" bass substitute. Chords were a bit muddled, but that could be easily worked around. It was a bit of a challenge to play "slap" bass (due to the strings being closer together) but not entirely impossible. I personally liked the (totally non-original type) bridge pickup--nice and growly and a little bit dirty, even with a "clean" amp...overall, I want one even more than before.

I want to play this thing at gigging volume...a bass amp isn't entirely out of the question, but I'm not inclined to drag two amps when I gig, especially for a small handful of songs

My question is this: 
Will there be any damage to my '63 reissue Vibroverb with long-term use of a Bass VI?
Will it hurt the speakers or some other component of which I'm not aware?

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I'm sorry not to be able to give you a proper answer on that - but I suspect there will be more answers popping up here
Is this thing tuned an octave lower than a standard guit ? E to E ? If so it's pretty low - lower than more common baris...
I have a Danelectro (dead-on '67) which is tuned A to A . I've run this through my HRD at pretty loud rehearsals , and have not experienced difficulties yet .
Looking forward to a review

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A-man

I would not be inclined to bet the ranch on a pair of Oxford-esque 10's in an open-back cab surviving the low-frequency onslaught of a bass instrument of any type.

JMOOC

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

I would agree with that whole-heartedly...the original Oxford-style speakers blew after eight years of regular use (and occasional abuse, lol)...

I replaced them with what I could afford at the time--a pair of 50W Eminences. There wasn't a specific model name to these speakers, they were just "Eminence" brand.

With that in mind (also remembering that it's not an original 1963 Vibroverb, but rather it's a 1992 '63 Re-Issue), would you still see danger on the horizon?

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I would.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Crud. I might have to start the Bassman Ten Fund a bit earlier than planned...I've been wanting to get another of those for a while any way.

Do you have any suggestions with what I have on hand? Extension cab with a bass speaker (and unplug the 2x10 Eminences), perhaps?

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I see problems long term and short term.

Short term it won't sound as good as a separate bass amp because the preamp section is geared for Spanish electric guitar so the tone isn't right in the first place. When you couple that with the open back cabinet, which is probably the worst possible design for a bass cab I can imagine, you are handicapped further. in the end what you are left with is like using a VW hippy bus to tow a mobile home. It works, but not well nor for long.

Long term (or short depending on volume) it will damage the speakers and may overtax output transformer, caps, resistors, etc causing overheating which leads to premature failure.

If you gig with a beefy PA with subs and enough power to carry the bass then you have a couple of options. 1. A small bass combo amp with an XLR out to the PA so you can hear it yourself and let the sound tech control your level in the front of house mix. 75 watts and up is usually enough. 2. If the stage monitors are also bass capable you can use a bass emulator pedal like any of the Tech21 devices, Line 6 BassPod or even a Behringer BDI-21 which costs like $40. Any of those is preferable to using a Spanish electric guitar amp.

At low volume it isn't as risky into the Vibroverb but at show volume it is like roulette because the longer you play the more you lose.

There are lots of small bass combos with the power & a balanced XLR output. The XLR out is the number 1 priority for me in a gigging bass combo.

Yes you can fudge by plugging in a real bass cab to the Vibroverb and disconnecting the internal combo speakers. However then your guitar will sound different to you. If you want one amp to do both get a Showman head and cab stack. The Bassman 10 is a good studio amp but I was thinking of something much smaller and more compact yet with about the same or even more power. Bass micro combos are where it's at for me and where I think the future of combos is going.

The bass POD through the PA sounds like the best deal for me; the BOSE PA-thingy with a subwoofer would be more than adequate.

The reason I mentioned the Bassman Ten is my prior experience/love of that much-ignored and unfairly maligned ampilfer...it's not a GREAT bass amp, (nor am I a great bass player), but it wouldn't have the issues Arjay and Brother Dave mentioned regarding running the Bass VI through my beloved 63RIVV.

Also, it's an good-sounding (if off-beat) guitar and harmonica amplifier. Even with it's size and weight, it would be more than adequate for my three uses--guitar, harp, and the rare bass excursions.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

It's good to read your impressions of this gear in that the initial comments on the Bass Forum were not favorable. Seemingly a watered down version of the real deal, at a MSRP of a higher end guitar [e.g.$2800 range] they could'a had a 'V-8', and made a lot more people happy.

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"Another day in paradise!"

It might be a case of "lowered expectations" on my part, but I was pleasantly surprised at the feel, fit, finish and playability of the Pawn VI...especially the feel and setup. It felt like a good, solid instrument, like most of the hecho-en-Mexico Fenders I've played...no, it's not a Custom Shop Perfect Instrument...but I wouldn't be able to afford that anyway.

It's a very good instrument for it's price point, or even a small amount more.

I've had opportunity to play only one of the Japanese Bass VI reissues (very faithful/accurate reissue to my somewhat untrained, ignorant eye) and to look at (both live and in books) a handful of originals...the one time I got to play the Japanese version was many, many moons ago, and I wasn't nearly the player/connoisseur that I am today, so it wouldn't be an accurate assessment anyway.

I know there are some electronic and cosmetic differences between those and the Pawn VI, but honestly, I can say those differences don't matter much to me.

The most noticeable difference (to me) is the switching (Pawn VI has a five way selector reminiscent of a Strat, the original has the multiple slider switches a la Jaguar/Jazzmaster/Mustang). To me, that's advantage Pawn Shop Series--the slider switches of the J/J/M are an irritant, and one of the seven reasons I didn't like the 1964 Mustang I had years ago. Yes, the five-way switch is a little less flexible, but the addition of a simple push/pull potentiometer modification would make it possible to turn the bridge pup on with the neck or both neck+middle, and the five-way is much easier to switch pups on the fly.

The other major difference is the bridge pickup. I prefer the look of the original, but I honestly can't say which is better sonically--I would have to A/B the two. 

What I can say is that switching from neck or middle to the Pawn VI's bridge pup had a nice little bit of *oomph* that would be useful in a performance scenario (especially if I were to take a solo with the Bass VI). The bridge pickup also added a bit of humbucking grit, which sounded great.

I played it through a Vox AC15 and a Fender Princeton Reverb RI...the Vox performed better (the bigger speaker probably helped), but both sounded good at medium (not gig-worthy) volumes. Several people stopped to listen and/or watch, and commented that it sounded "cool" but they were glad it wasn't THEIR amp I was using, lol. 

It made a few songs that I previously recorded with either my early '70's Ampeg Big Stud bass or my drummer's Ibanez low-end Sound Gear bass really easy to play, and made it possible to play a particular bassline/solo I had written into a song several years ago (but never recorded because I'm not a good enough bassist to make a 4-string do what I wanted it to do).

I also ran it through a GK bass head into a Hartke 2x10 cab...of course, this was the best sound, bass-wise, but would be an unreasonable investment for me (as a rare bassist)...

...anyway, I want to use it more as a funky rhythm line maker (a la Jimmie Vaughan's rhythm guitar lines on Stevie's "Live Alive" and "Couldn't Stand The Weather" albums), so buying and setting up a rig made solely for bass wouldn't be practical anyway.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

The word which caught my eye was 'oomph'. I was curous as to whether this gear had the sonic whack to drive and carry a grove along with a drum kit. As far as utility is concerned, the vintage Fender Bassman was adopted by guitarists as a blueman's amp but should be expected to serve as a bass amp. In that regard one could then kill the proverbially two birds with one stone. My VG Strat's baritone voice offers a throaty supplement to a player's options. I wonder if this Bass VI's is full and deeper than the VG's or a baritone guitar such as the Baja Tele or the Musicman Baritone guitar Bonamassa uses.

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"Another day in paradise!"

This is purely subjective (in the ear of the bass-holder), but the lower four strings of the Pawn VI, played through a good bass rig, would be as adequate as any lighter-duty short-scale bass guitar...an original Bass VI was Jack Bruce's weapon of choice on many of his early recordings, and nothing was lacking in that case.

It seems to be lower than a baritone and not quite as low as a standard long-scale bass...comparable to the old Music Master basses of yore, perhaps?

The Bass VI would not compete with a Gibson Thunderbird, Music Man Sabre, Fender Jazz or some other similar long-scale earthquaker, any more than a Beagle could compete with a Rottweiler in a dog fight...the Bass VI is best used as a finesse, lower register instrument rather than a rumble monster (in my humble opinion).


The Bassman idea is very attractive to me; I know they're better guitar amps than bass amps, but they were designed (and can handle) the demands of the lower frequencies being generated. 

I don't know if the modern '59RI Bassman would be adequate for this use--surely somebody (Arjay?) would know that.

I had a '72 Bassman Ten (silverface, master volume) that my friends and I used as a:
Harp amp (awesome)
Guitar amp (excellent)
Bass amp (good, and loud enough to be heard/felt, especially on the "Deep" channel)
Keyboard amp (passable)
Makeshift PA (we were drunk)

It passed muster for all those uses...I did miss the vibrato circuit of my other amps (and rarely use much reverb, then or now, so it didn't matter), but nowadays there are excellent tremolo/vibrato/whatever pedals out there to be had, so that wouldn't be an issue. The fact that they're silverface/mastervolume makes them a bit more affordable, too. Even with the lower wattages, it could be heard over most drummers. Either way, my days in an impossibly loud band are behind me, and if the drummer doesn't know how to scale back I'm not gonna play with him/her.

My one concern is the weight--those suckers were HEAVY! Having a separate head & speaker cab made might be a good investment for the health of my back...

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Some questions yet to be answered then. The '57RI has some weight to it but not equivalent to lugging around a head and cabinet. My brother-in-law had one of those too. When he finally 'de-Hendrixed' himself, he swapped it, and his TS-9 out for a Heritage carved top, some other gear. and a Fender Deluxe. Went totally jazz.

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"Another day in paradise!"