re: MB Musicians: Opinion on Short Scale Basses

Yeah I have two Bass VI's. One is the Eastwood TB64 copy. It's an awesome instrument, and it's among the best instruments I've ever played. The natural sustain out of that instrument is amazing. I also have a Burns Barracuda that I converted to a baritone guitar. Those two instruments are the ones I use the most in my own work, and the ones that my friends always want to borrow for their own recordings. I've played a couple of Fender Bass VI's, as well as the Squier version, and from what I remember, it was a little difficult to make chords on the Fender version. It's a lot easier on these two versions. I would highly recommend the Eastwood. Schecter also makes a couple of Bass VI's that come highly recommended, especially the UltraCure VI, though that instrument is especially difficult to find.

Bass VI's are so versatile it's crazy. You sacrifice low-end a little bit for a lot of beautiful mid-range and high-end sounds, but you can still get some growl. The Burns Barracuda is a special instrument. The one I have has a maple neck and is just amazingly playable. I've tuned mine to A with a set of 13s and it gets an amazing range of sounds.

Suffice it to say, I'm pretty obsessed with Bass VI's. But I have a lot of amazing bass guitars. The Rickenbacker 4003 has a wonderful growl, my Peavey T-40 can emulate lots of different basses due to its pickup configuration, I have this old Ibanez 34-inch scale hollowbody with new Bartolini pickups that has the most amazing low-end, and these two Bass VI's. I'm always on the lookout for more Bass VI's, though I think my next bass will be primarily for slapping.