Bass VI

How a '60s oddball bass became modern metal's Very Big Guitar

Introduced in 1961, the Fender Bass VI departed from Fender’s earlier four-string Precision Bass with six strings tuned E A D G B E, one octave below standard guitar tuning. A shorter scale length, a vibrato bar, and Jaguar-style electronics—features we might expect from a guitar, but not a bass—further distanced it from other bass guitars of the period.

Generally regarded as a hybrid novelty that straddled the line between bass and guitar, the Bass VI has seen enduring (if sporadic) use in popular music—Bass VI heads will be quick to tell you Cocteau Twins were particularly fond of it.

Let’s take a moment to look at scale length, the maximum vibrating length of an instrument’s strings. Typically, the instrument’s bridge and nut “stop” the string at either end of its vibrating length, and the distance between them is the scale length.

Let’s look at the scale length of some familiar instruments. The Fender Stratocaster has a scale length of 25.5 inches, while the Gibson Les Paul is a bit shorter at 24.75 inches. Bass guitars have much longer scale lengths; the Fender Jazz and Precision basses both sit at 34 inches. At 30 inches, our Fender Bass VI sits right between conventional guitar and bass models.

All else being equal, a longer scale length allows us to maintain acceptable string tension, tuning stability, and intonation at lower tunings. It’s important to understand the impact of scale length as we talk about the Bass VI and other baritone guitars, because their defining feature is their longer scale length.

Bass guitars have much longer scale lengths than guitars because they are tuned an entire octave lower! The Bass VI, also tuned an octave lower than a standard guitar, uses lighter strings than a typical bass; the comparatively lower string tension allows for a shorter scale length than a typical bass would require.

Instruments with longer scale lengths necessarily are physically larger, and have wider spacing between the frets. I know I’m not alone in finding Les Paul-style guitars more comfortable to play than the slightly longer Fender designs, for this reason.

In the late 1980s, metal guitarists experimented more substantially with downtuning. Some began to use baritone guitars, because the longer scale length gave them better tuning stability and intonation in very low tunings. Most baritone guitars have a scale length between 27 and 29 inches, and are factory-tuned B E A D F♯ B, a fourth below standard tuning. This is not quite as large or low as our Bass VI, but the adoption of baritone guitars was the event horizon for a gravitational trajectory toward ever longer scale lengths to support ever-lower tunings.

As this trend accelerates in contemporary heavy music, Bass VI-style instruments with scale lengths around 30 inches have come to be regarded more as very long-scale baritone guitars than as bass guitars or as a hybrid novelty. They are just very big guitars. In metal ensembles that make use of these instruments, it’s common to include them alongside a dedicated bassist, with the Bass VI completely assuming the guitar role.

That said, it’s not uncommon to see the Bass VI used in a bass role alongside more conventionally-tuned guitars. Sergio Vega made extensive use of one for bass parts on Deftones’ Gore (2016). He used its extended high register and guitar-like tone to incorporate biting distortion, chords, and arpeggios that may not have come across as well on a typical bass guitar.

In the past couple years, there has been an explosion of interest in Bass VI-style, long-scale baritone guitars. This can be near-singularly attributed to the breakout success of UK metalgaze act Loathe. Guitarists Connor Sweeney and Erik Bickerstaffe can be seen here performing a track off 2020’s I Let It In and It Took Everything with their Bass VI-style baritone guitars.

In a future post, we’ll look at how I’ve set up my own Bass VI-style guitar. We’ll also look at recording these instruments, and how we can fit their deep, powerful sound into a typical rock or metal mix.