Fender Custom Shop Bass VI Journeyman Relic Aged

The Bass VI was introduced in 1961 as a six-string bass (the 1961 Fender catalog referred to it simply as the “New six-string Bass Guitar”) and it occupies its own special ground somewhere between a guitar and a bass.

But, unlike a baritone guitar, which is often tuned a perfect fifth (ADGCEA), a diminished fifth (B♭E♭A♭D♭FB♭) or a perfect fourth (BEADF♯B) lower than a guitar, the Bass VI was emphatically offered as a bass and was tuned EADGBE like a guitar, but an octave lower and strung with heavy-gauge wound strings.

The first master of the instrument was Jet Harris, former bassist with surf group the Shadows, who went on to record two hits in 1962 using the Bass VI-“Besame Mucho” and the “Main Title Theme” from The Man with the Golden Arm.

Jack Bruce regularly used one during Cream's early years and John Lennon and George Harrison both used one on multiple Beatles songs. Joe Perry of Aerosmith using a Bass VI to lay down the swaggering riff that powers “Back in the Saddle” in 1976, but the rumble of the Bass VI was quit for most of the 1970s.

The Bass VI found a new voice in the 1980s thanks to Robert Smith of the Cure and Steve Kilbey of the Church. Smith especially put the Bass VI through its paces and his intriguing work with the curious instrument figures prominently on classics like 1989's Disintegration.

THE PLAYERS WHO USED BASS VI GUITARS

• Jet Harris (the Shadows)

• Rick Danko (the Band)

• Jack Bruce (Cream)

• John Entwistle (the Who)

• John Lennon (the Beatles)

• George Harrison (the Beatles)

• Eric Haydock (the Hollies)

• Robert Smith (the Cure)

• Robin Guthrie, Simon Raymonde (the Cocteau Twins)

• Steve Kilbey (the Church)

• Peter Holmstrom (the Dandy Warhols)

• John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

• Brian Molko, Stefan Olsdal (Placebo)

• Sergio Vega (Deftones)

• Wes Montgomery

• Doug McCombs (Tortoise)

• Dan Auerbach (the Black Keys)

Features:

• Solidbody Electric Bass
• Alder Body
• Rosewood Fretboard
• Quartersawn Maple Neck
• 30" Scale Length
• 7.25" Fretboard Radius
• Narrow Tall Frets
• 1.650" Nut Width
• Custom Shop Vintage Jaguar Pickups
• Vintage Nickel Tuning Machines
• Bone Nut
• Nickel Hardware
• 9 lbs, 7 oz.
• .840" Neck Thickness at 1st Fret
• .940" Neck Thickness at 12th Fret
• Case: Hard Case
• Condition: New