Some years ago Fender released a 6-string bass guitar, the Fender Bass VI, tuned an octave below a standard guitar. It wasn’t widely adopted, but a few bands (e.g., Cream) used one on an album or two. Recently when i started thinking about getting a 6-string bass that i could play pretty much like a regular guitar, i became very interested when i learned about bass VI instruments. The Fender Bass VI was no longer in production, and the originals were priced out of sight. However, there are several new bass VI instruments; after doing some research, i chose the Schecter Hellcat VI for my new bass.
I am enjoying playing it, and the quality of the sound is excellent — enough so that i sold Ibaneezer, my Ibanez acoustic bass. With Aspiration, i am still playing most songs on the three heaviest strings, as i did with my previous 4-string basses, but i am becoming more and more comfortable forming chords and thumbing alternating bass strings as i would on a guitar. I have also begun to do some simplified finger patterns, both on Aspiration songs and songs from my personal repertoire. The deep sound on the latter is fascinating.
Well, i thought this would be a keeper, but i’m really not a bass player, and since i recently bought a cheap bass ukulele that sounds very good with the all-acoustic jam band Aspiration, i sold it. Never satisfied with my collection as a whole, i guess.