Watching all this content from you on Bass VI, realized how I miss mine and actually bought it back. There's some strange magic going with this guitar for me, ultra versatile instrument.
YES, I love being able to track bass and guitar with the same instrument. I have the older Ibanez SRC6 and an Agile Intrepid Pro 630 currently. I love these instruments♡
Love that you demonstrated a 6 string instrument for low tuning. Playing a 7 or more string instrument is another level of technique. The neck is Fat therfore having to modify how you hold the instrument. I work with heavy equipment and I'll always be happy playing a 6 string. My hands go through enough. Keep shredding everyone. 🎉Metal forever.
Definitely agree. I have smaller hands too so it makes it difficult when I play my 7 or 8 string. I somewhat miss the high string sound but then I just use a pitch shifter to do that haha
Thanks so much. Been loving the humor in your comments so keep them coming haha. Also if you have any video topics you're interested in, lmk! A lot of the videos on my channel are subscriber requested
Let's be real most people who are playing these genres of music are not using all 7, 8 or 9 strings on their guitars lmao. A baritone is the perfect guitar.
Agreed. Every guitar is the perfect guitar as long as you write great music with it. That comment was directed specifically to those commenting in my other videos about how they wish it could go lower. The whole video really is for those who want 9 string tuning but with clarity. Especially on a budget Totally agree with you though, thanks for checking it out
Eh thanks so much my man! It’s a very interesting instrument and it tbh sounds strange when you play it like a bass with your fingers. From what I’ve noticed at least. I’d say give it a try at your local music store
Been using my Hapas with P90's and Evertune for a while and although I need to be careful about the noise at times, it's the best thing ever for low tuned stuff and clarity across the strings for sure! Great vid btw, I had one of these for a bit and couldn't make it sound that good, sounds like this new version is much better.
Interesting. So you’re noticing the P90s to be noisey as well? Thanks so much! Yeah I tried one like 5 years ago and I remember thinking it was cool but not amazing. I always wasn’t nearly as good at processing and mixing then so maybe that’s why How long is the Hapas neck?
@@BrendonKPadjasek They're still single coil pickups so they are a bit noisier than humbuckers sometimes but nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of gating. Apparently making the p90's noiseless would make them lose a lot of that characteristic "bite" so I chose to go with the normal ones. The Hapas was just a huge upgrade over the other Jackson I have. I never tried an 8 string with a neck that just feels so right to me and I can put really light strings on thanks to the 28" scale and the ET 🖤
@CrisRYMER that’s good to hear. I figure since I’m not planning to do clean guitars, I’m okay with the noise of the single coil as it doesn’t seem to affect me when recording heavy guitars. Which Jackson did you have?
@@BrendonKPadjasek Amazing, I just ordered the Harley Benton Bass VI as I heard some great demos of it, also with stock strings and pups at C#. But thanks for explaining the whole concept, never would've thought to explore this. I was thinking about 9s, but it's such a waste to not use the upper strings. And so hard to keep everything tight/focused. Also thanks for the ML Drums recommendation too. Just bought all of their stuff today and it's so good.
@@BrendonKPadjasek I have a Banshee Elite 7, which I kinda like (not 100% sold on the fishmans though). A 2228-A which I've had forever and is basically a tank. And an Evil Twin SLS MS8 which...I'm on the fence about. None of them can go where I wanna go though. My HB should arrive Thursday or Friday. It's gonna be a long week.
Everything that Brendon say it's true, I tried all of these guitars, the biggest difference is scale 30 instead of 27 baritone, sound is totally different on 30. Two best options in my case are Subzero (and change pickup-also you can put active one and battery under plastic) if you want more "normal" sound of 30 with humbucker or this Squier to sound more like Loathe but to change also sing coil pickup with some better one. You just need to know that Brendon is professional and the sound that he get form this Squier is unreal and honestly a little bit hard to get but is not impossible 😁😂 Love your videos bro, Struc/tures all the way❤
Eh thanks so much for the kind words! I’m thinking of switching the single coils out (at least the bridge) for other single coils. Do you have any suggestions? I’m really happy to hear that a lot of people dig the Subzero as I haven’t heard of them until now
@@BrendonKPadjasek bareknuckle makes a 20k single coil they also have a demo of how the pickups sound on the site Id get one but Im not ready to take my strat apart again
Also just to throw another super budget bass VI option out there, the gear4music Seattle “baritone” is 30 inches and comes strung up with bass VI strings tuned low E-E, and is a super solid mod platform
@evansigler3085 no problem at all. I personally prefer this over a drop pedal but I’m also super okay with not having the high octave of a guitar. Or pitch it up for leads in my DAW. So if that also doesn’t matter to you, I strongly suggest the Bass VI. It’s holding tune really well and sounds so heavy. Especially with the whammy
@@BrendonKPadjasek Humbucker, the 2014 Jake Bowen from Periphery signature pick-up! I got a pre-made 2 humbuckers pickguard for Bass VI from Obscura MFG. I also got a Seymour Duncan Phatcat humbucker-size P90 at the neck position! 👌🏼
I love your content! I’ve been trying to find someone that uses Ableton Live and is making modern metal. I’m relatively new to playing guitar. My love for low tunings and heavy music is really growing. Thanks for what you do. Mad respect of your skillz.
Thank you so much! I’ve been too busy with work but I’ve been meaning to film these 3 Ableton related videos I have in my notepad. Stay tuned for those
it's so sick that you're embracing the whammy bar with this! i get that evertune and such is amazing, but honestly using the whammy bar is even more sick
Thank you! Yeah honestly it's been a dream of mine for a while to have a whammy on a low tuned instrument. I'm so used to recording without an everbridge that I don't feel like I'm missing out. to me, whammy > everbridge. For being such a cheap guitar I highly highly recommend it. Especially if you don't have tiny hands like me haha, but I'm still able to play it no problem
@kingnary9th688 that’s awesome. Did you have to do any upgrades or was it sweet out of box? Also and info, good or bad, let me know so others looking into more affordable options have some more info on the Subzero Bass VI
@@BrendonKPadjasek i got lucky with the QC, so did my friend who bought the same. all i did was some truss rod stuff and intonation. the pickups are PAF style, so they're fairly low output gibson style pickups, pretty much the opposite of these, but i still very much enjoy them! you could probably put some brighter pickups in, but i really quite like the controllable high end. i actually know from a guy i talked with that the wires are already made so you could easily install a split coil. i might do that one day! i would wholeheartedly recommend it at least! i personally think it's the best looking of the 30'' bass VI-type guitars, but also a great playing instrument with some slight setup. only downside may be that the tuning pegs are tiny and very closely spaced, haha
It does look quite nice, but no whammy right? I can’t believe how affordable the HB one is. I’m stoked to hear the quality (aside from plastic parts to cut down costs) is up there. My biggest fear is that the nut will break when bending behind the nut, as usually does with more budget nuts
This video just popped up in my feed because I've been researching this particular subject for a minute now and I have to comment that the Bass VI is not the best guitar of its kind for this style. It's actually probably the worst between the single coil pickups and the tremolo bridge. I was looking at the Schecter Hellcat, which fixes the bridge issue I have with the Squier, but that's also a thousand bucks I didn't want to spend on this experiment, especially when it still has single coils. So I went with the Gretsch G5260 Baritone I already owned and converted it into a Bass VI with a $12 set of bass guitar strings from Ernie Ball. The Gretsch baritone has a 30 inch scale, same as the Squier Bass VI, so all it takes is a thicker set of strings. No further adjustments needed unless you want to go thicker than 95 on the bottom. Then you might be doing a little filing. But with a hardtail bridge and mini humbuckers, the Gretsch sounds leaps and bounds better than the Squier! The only modification I might make is upgrading to TV Jones Power'Tron pickups because these Electromatics have a lower output than most humbuckers, but I'm always driving my preamp hard at the source anyway so it doesn't really matter. Just means I don't have to turn the output down as much after I reach saturation. But yeah if you want a Bass VI that actually stays in tune and has serviceable pickups for metal, look into getting a Gretsch baritone and converting it. Plays better, sounds better, even looks better!
I have definitely heard a few people mention it. And this video was meant for Bass VI guitars in general. I’ve personally been having a lot of luck with this guitar myself, but I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the Gretsch as well
@@BrendonKPadjasek The problem with deciding the worst or best is that there's only so many options for this type of instrument, right? You're either buying a Fender/Squier Bass VI or a copycat of one from Harley Benton or Schecter. If none of those tickle your pickle, you have to look for 30 inch baritone guitars to covert like I did. So yeah let me rephrase because you're right. I should've used a phrase like "least optimal" based on specs, which is entirely personal preference. Truth be told, you can make any of these instruments work if you take the time to set them up properly. Now that I'm digging this Gretsch as a bass, I'm probably going to buy a Squier too just because it has the tremolo! I love playing these things like they're guitars. Give me all the effects! As long as I have another track with a properly intonated bass guitar laying down the rhythm, I can come in over top with the Squier whammy bar madness for leads and atmosphere. These things are also built for ambient guitar stuff! After 25 years of playing, I'm in love all over again!
@deep.wellbeing absolutely! I was finding myself quite bored of writing music after also a few decades of playing guitar and having a new instrument like this where I don’t have to stretch and make uncomfortable moves to play chords (like on an 8 string) brings me a lot of motivation. I definitely want to try one of those Gretsch as well. The hard part is now that I have the Squier, with the tremolo, I don’t really want to go on without a tremolo ahahah. I’m hooked
I bought one of these ages ago as a guitar-curious bassist I fucking hated it lol Then, last year, I swapped the strings out for baritone guitar strings, and I loved it! I keep it in B standard, or occasionally put it in drop A. I don't play super heavy music, but there were a few Coheed and Cambria songs I wanted to learn that I needed a baritone guitar for, and I'd heard of people doing it. Ended up writing one of my favorite riffs with it as well, though I have yet to turn it into a full song
Yeah I can see why it would suck as a bassist especially since the string spacing is like a guitar. I can’t play it with my fingers like I would with one of my basses but I bought it expecting to use it as a guitar. Glad you found a use for it cause it rips in its own way. Thanks for checking the video out!
Hahaha thanks Mac! I’m glad that I’m seeing a few people interested in grabbing this guitar. I bought it with my own money out of interest in getting better results for low tuning. There seems to be so many options that I’m now seeing in the comments for Bass VI. Not many, or any others with a whammy which still puts this one at the top of my list Plus the single coil stock pickups are insane
Awe thanks so much! I think not many guitar channels have had to record bands with strange guitars and make them work. I’ve been doing this all my life so I figure out the quirks of each instrument
Damn, the meshuggah spasm tuning :D, it sounds damn clear. I will get my baritone to guitar master to see if we can fit 20-90 set might update later on that, haha
Please do give an update so people deciding between a baritone and Bass VI can make the right choice for their needs Yeah it’s insane how clear the notes are. Even in double drop b Thanks for checking it out. Which baritone do you have?
I will! I own a Harley Benton jazzmaster black baritone 30". I would say its nice, for the price ofc :D. Tuners made of plastic or something. Overall its a nice guitar, it needs some tuning, as i've said ill bring it to a guitar master to set 20-90 strings. I dont think bridge needs adjustements, i think its only nut and cheap plastic tuners :-)
I'm 2 months late but at 9:16 SubZero is a brand that for example the guitarist of Silent Planet uses and as you can hear on their recent album it sounds great
Brendon! Wonderful video my guy! Subbed! I have the Harley Benton Guitarbass VS as my personal guitar. Its my favorite guitar that I own. Can i get the patch you used for the tone? Ill share one of mine! Thanks in advance! Also, what are your thoughts on upgrading the bridge pickup to a hot rail? Ive done it on mine and it lost some of its bwang and bounce, but masssssively improved its noiseness, and increased its gain.
Thanks so much Nick! I could definitely share the guitar patch. Which amp sim are you using? I've thought about it for sure, but I've got my eye on the Impulse by Bareknuckle. The humbucker that is. Trying to get a second Bass Vi to experiment with
Same here! I personally love Ibanez guitars too so I know I’d be addicted to it. If it had a whammy bar I’d 100% get it. But it’s like double the price and no whammy so it’s hard to jump on it
Great video! Longtime fan here. Y'all actually played in my hometown of Cookeville, TN YEARS ago. I play one of these along with the Squier Carbonita Tele Baritone in this band. Our first album we put out last year didn't feature the VI but the next one def will several times. -aaron
The only downside i see to this is the 24th fret missing so i cant do some Erra type tapping stuff, Also there's something incredibly cool about having such a vintage looking instrument and playing the most brutal modern chuggy metal stuff, i think Loathe really created that vibe. ALSO I'm really fucking stocked to see your name on the new Northlane EP, Your contribution on Alien is one of many parts of why this album is so unique and I'm just glad to see you doing some stuff with them once again. cheers !
I also wish it had 24 but it’s nice because every guitar I have has 24 frets. Nice to be a bit limited but I 100% hear you. Thanks so much! Yeah as always they’ve written a masterpiece
Yeah it’s super gnarly! Similar specs with the 30” neck but you can easily put the heavy Bass Vi strings on it without have to file the hardware down. Pickups sound awesome to me but I’ve heard good things about the P90s as well
@3:27 it is logical to have a whammy bar set on a 7 and 8 string. They are rarely made but if you happen to find a good one. You just have to know what your doing. I have an agile interceptor 828 with a whammy bar. Its still a bit different with a little more tension. I also have the 2nd insert hole option for inserting my whammy bar on the A or E (standard) string as well. My tuning. EAEDGBE
I’ve definitely seen them on both but my experience with 8 string whammy’s have been good on expensive ones and terrible on affordable ones How is the agile?
I also would love to, but I think I'm leaning towards a Bare Knuckle Impulse Humbucker in the bridge. After talking to Josh, Humbucker seems to be the way to go for how low I'm tuning these
@@BrendonKPadjasek Oh I didn’t even think about that! I bought a bass vi last week after watching your videos on them so i’m excited to hear what all you do to it!
@dalilavey9040 I’m very stoked to hear that. You’re probably for 5th or 6th person who has told me that. Maybe I should reach out to Fender and let them know that although they claim it’s “a bass and not a guitar” that it’s actually a guitar for people like us haha. And with a few tweaks it could be even better
@dalilavey9040 @BrendonKPadjasek I have a Subzero Rogue VI, 30" that I fully customized as soon as I got it. Put a single Lundgren M6 on the bridge with just a volume knob. Absolutely love it, although I'm still trying to figure out the best setup. There's something about the relationship between the correct pickup height and the string gauge that I am still trying to master. The M6 are hot, and I mean really hot, too the point that at max volume they only stop adding distortion to the signal if the pickup is 1cm away. I've used 100 and am now using 074 for the low E1 string but I'm not exactly sure how my DI signal should sound like. I guess that's a good topic for a video, should it be crystal clean? It's it ok or even desirable to have a DI track already distorted? (I'm connected to the hi-z input and my interface gain is at 0). So yeah, I love what I have but I feel like it should sound better, and I know that's all because of my lack of knowledge about the world of recording high output low tuned guitars with my computer. Would appreciate some help. Keep up with the videos man, you're an inspiration and a great teacher.
@@joaoleite9035 I definitely feel that. I was toying around with my pickup height to dial it in. There's a few good videos on youtube about pickup height but that would be a good idea to cover for tunings this low. Which interface are you using? Thanks so much for the kinds words. I got more coming up
yeah dude you werent kidding lmao ... got it last week ... it sounds not as good solo but damn that thing is monsterous sounding in a mix squier should get you an affiliate link xD
Haha I should hit them up. I’d love to eventually work with them in making like 2 small changes to make this an out of the box, affordable metal monster. Maybe in a couple months I’ll make a community post seeing how many people bought it based on my reviews and see if they’re interested in creating a new market for the brand. I believe fenders owns Jackson so even if Jackson was interested in making one I’d be stoked Could be wrong about that though haha. Thanks for watching and I’m stoked you enjoy the guitar
@@BrendonKPadjasek hahaha hell yeah ! That would be sick ... Theres def a few issues with it from a modern POV. Then again its fun that a recreation from 1961 does some of the Most disqusting Sounds in 2024 😂
@Lamarro dude absolutely. It’s insane how capable this guitar is. Contemplating trying a weird hybrid tuning where the top 3 are low and the high 3 are higher than they should be. Maybe go a 5th higher from the g onward
@@BrendonKPadjaseki def want to test it with a duncan hotrail in the bridge soon ill let you know if its worth it lol ^^ but yeah def a very itneresseting piece of gear. i also subbed to your channel cant wait what you come up with with that tuning
Hey thanks for checking it out. It’s a 30” neck. Yeah I didn’t really treat it as a review and go over the specs, I just wanted to show how cool it is and how heavy it can go haha
@@BrendonKPadjasek no, it’s a solid body. They have a version with TOM hard bridge and with special Gretsch tremolo (I think something comparable with Bass Vl). I like the fact you may choose, which you prefer. Cause I’m not really whammy bar guy. Loathe used once TOM version in a play through video. I own the same and for the price of 500 really happy with it! Few couple of things, someone may not like about it: 1) Low output pickups 2)Spacing for humbuckers is bit smaller than standard
@@kangazkorva5674 thats really sick to have the option. The Squier is also Low Output with the pickups. I didn't realize how much I love having a whammy until this guitar Thanks for the info! Always good to see more options in the Bas VI style instrument
Which kind of leads? If you'd seen any of my playthroughs I'm using it for leads on metal stuff no problem. Sometimes pitching it up an octave with Josh Middleton Amp sim
Thanks so much for checking it out! I use the Will Putney Tonality plugin for most of my heavy tones. Amp 6 for these videos I also like the Josh Middleton. I love STL for getting clarity out of distorted, low tuning guitars
@@BrendonKPadjasek Ill have to try stl out soon! Hope this channel blows up man, love your work w structures and northlane! Would love to see a bass tone tutorial sometime.
@red240red2 they’re definitely worth checking out. I think they all have either a 10 or 14 day trial so you can try them out for yourself, and get hooked haha Thanks so much for the ongoing support! Hopefully it does, I just have to keep at it. And good idea! Maybe I’ll gear towards that in the future
Its sounds heavy as hell..but have you been to a rammstein concert? Drop D, drop C sometimes and drop B occasionally... du Hast E standard.. sonne drop D.. heavy as hell... foo fighters everlong drop D... I guess its all in the eq, mixing and mojo :)
does the whammy bar fucks up the tuning? in terms of tuning stabilty and so on. The squier is so sick, i have the Aria Jet B Tone, decent build quality but only 21 frets
I noticed that if I tune it, then pull the whammy down, then tune it again after, it stays in tune really well after riffing on it for a while. Surprisingly much better than my strat tbh Especially in the C# tuning. But the drop B held up also surprisingly well. It wasn’t perfect, but if I was playing a whole song through, like in the play through, I’d check tuning after and it was good enough to me. And I used it multiple times in the play through. They somehow nailed it imo. Maybe I’ll go in depth on that on another video
they're great, I strongly enjoy mine and suggest trying one out for yourself! I believe they are 24-90 or 24-100 gauge thanks for watching. How low do you plan on tuning?
Love the review. Few questions: 1- How’s the intonation on the lower strings’ saddles? I hear it’s an issue 2- How well does it stay in tune with the whammy? 3- How are you compensating for low output of the pickups? Do you notice yourself picking harder than usual?
I will give my 2 cents and I will also be notified of Brendon's answer. Personnaly I had to shim my neck to correct the angle and have a better action. I have no issue with intonation. Single coil + low output are better at that low tuning. With humbucker, we generally have to lower the gain and the bass.
Thanks for watching! 1) I don’t notice it to be amazing in standard tuning, but once you drop to a lower tuning it handled a lot better. Still not perfect but significantly better 2) if I tune it, go hard on the whammy, then tune it again, it stays really well 3) I’m only using it on amp sims at the moment so I just turn the input on the amp louder. Or raise the DI volume Are you using it on an amp?
@@BrendonKPadjasek I don’t have it (yet… hehe), but I do have the Squier Cabronita 27” bari, and I swapped out the original P90-sized single coils to actual P90s from Bare Knuckle (Warpigs, or as they fondly call them ’Pig90s haha) and noticed a huge difference in the way I play and the way it sounds through the amp. I’ll use your trick more frequently to adjust the input signal when using plugins for sure
@ZL1LoVeR that’s good to know. I have bareknuckle in most of my guitars, and Duncan’s in my 8 string. I was thinking of switching out for some sort of bare knuckle on this guitar. Maybe Josh’s Impulse single coils We’ll see. How do you like the baritone?
@@BrendonKPadjasek The Cabronita is amazing and I love it for being at an accessible price point with the build quality it has, as well as how easy it is to play coming from standard scale… honestly I’ve become a baritone aficionado… I got five total as short as 26.5” scale and as long as 28.625” - two I built and finished myself using kits/parts (a Jazzmaster from PGK and a Tele from Warmoth)… will also build from scratch my own design in the very near future. (The other two are Schecter 7 strings… sorry 😂 I love those as well)
Damn I didnt realize something like this existed. Seems like the best of both worlds in terms of tuning low and having a standard neck width. My go to guitar is an 8 string legator and Ive always wanted a 9 string and a 6 string but this is like both at the same time lol When you use it to track bass are you tracking the guitar and bass parts separately still to avoid phase issues? It'd be insane if we could just track guitar and bass at the same time but I think thats wishful lol
Yeah my go to for heavy stuff is usually my 8 string Ibanez and it does the trick but having something that’s even longer that can let me go even “heavier” with clarity is amazing. And it’s a fender related product and I love the way they play 0 phase issues because they’re different takes. That would be nice, and I often do that with demos, but now I can just record only the top string after I do the guitars (especially since I loop the part and do take lanes in Ableton. Such a blessing Maybe I’ll try doing bass on the middle pick up next time to compare
I have a love hate relationship with evertunes since I do A LOT of bending and the way everytunes work is that they have a "bend cuttoff". So a lot of time you'll start a bend and then, depending on where your cutoff is, it won't start until later in the bend. Making tracking bass quite annoying
@theshillpill6937 no problem. That’s just my 2 cents. Obviously, every tune is very sick and cool for tracking. I guess I would just keep the threshold as low as possible for bends but that defeats the purpose I guess haha. Maybe just track everything but the bends and then track the bends at the end of a session
I can do a comparison, but, from trying to pitch things down in the past, and having decent results, nothing beats doing it for real. I never found that those dissonant 1,0 heavy chords sounded right. BUT I may do a video on that if enough people wanted to hear that Great suggestion! Thanks for checking this one out
@@BrendonKPadjasek these days my I'm using your favorite brand a schecter hellraiser special 7 haha , trying to get my carvin 7 string sorted , its 20 + years old and the pickups went bad
@metalheadblues haha it’s funny because my first 7 string was the Hellraiser, then I got the Carvin 727 (for less money) and that’s when I started to realize schecter/ Ltd price to performance was off
On 5:52 you mentioned double Drop E. Does it mean that if you play Drop E1 on baritone it requires bass line in E1 (Which is standard for bass), or you meant E1 on baritone and E0 on bass? Because I believe when you were with Northlane you played a hella low tuned Dingwall with bridge cables to play 1 octave lower than guitar on "Vultures", for example, but i just not sure that E0 is even audible
For most of the northlane stuff I played in the same octave as guitar. The lowest bass went to drop F and then with songs like Talking Heads, went to drop C# on guitar (pitch shifter) I matched the octave of the guitar , instead of being an octave lower. Vultures I believe was also drop F but I can’t remember haha On structures None Of The Above, Fortune Fades was in double drop D, and I had a nightmare recording the bass for that one. It was doable, and Zack made it sound sick, but I wouldn’t suggest it haha
@@BrendonKPadjasek Thank you so much! I just saw Alex's playthrough for "Rot" and it was in bass Drop F, which is in my opinion absolutely mad thing to do. I thought you followed this tendency too, but i'm glad that's not really. Fortune Fades sounds sick as fuck, but i can't even imagine what kind of technological issues you're trying to solve every time you going lower than Drop E
@EvilGrishka yeah I definitely had it in drop F as well and that was fine. Even structures None of the Above was a semitone lower in E and that was fine (with a very thick top sting) But yeah I’ll never go D again if I can avoid it haha.
There's noise if I play on clean channels or if I hold a note out for super long. Also if my bass guitar channel has some noise but I'm mostly using it for low end so it doesn't show up. Are you having issues with noise on yours?
@distortionto1066 oh yeah I definitely get that with my strat. I feel like since the tubing is so low it handles just fine with the noise or it’s different noise
How do you get your vsts to sound so good.. ive never managed it.. ive tried a lot but all sound bad in one way or another. I use the tonex pedal now but even the tonex software vst without the pedal sounds bad..
Thank you! Honestly I’ve been mixing for so many years that it’s just putting in those reps. I have a few guitar mixing videos as well as which amp sims I use now. As well as that hour long one
What strings would you wana use for such a long scale? This is probably the one thing that keeps me from getting one. Not knowing what strings to put on it.
I’m using the Fender set which is .024-.100 and it’s handling drop C super well. I’m trying drop A# and it holds tune okay. Will report back later. Hoping to do a song in drop A# octave down
I feel like the majority of the issues are coming from playing in standard tuning. When I drop the tuning even to half step down (drop C#) the stability seems much better. I was mentioning in a different comment, but if I tune it, then go hard on the whammy for a minute, then retune it, it seems to hold up quite well. It’s not perfect but it’s quite good
Hmm, to be honest I haven't tried for sure. I can definitely say this guitar is amazing and I can see which corners they had to cut to make it this affordable. I can't possibly imagine them stripping more features to reach half the price like HB. So I'm skeptical. I think for it's price, its probably great, but great for it's price and great are pretty different haha. I personally have no real issues with this guitar. Check out my 2 month review to see all the quirks and work arounds, as well as string gauges
I personally have small hands and the only thing I can’t do on it is those 1-5 feet stretches. But you can just replace that with 6-0 I find it very comfortable other than that. It doesn’t feel like a bass or a guitar. It feels like what a multi scale 27” would feel like in the low register
It's a shame you don't like Schecter. I'm not a fan of floating bridges, but Schecter is my second favorite feeling guitar I've played. My favorite is Jackson (my main guitar is a Jackson juggernaut et6) and Schecter is damn close. My next guitar (and first seven string) is going to be a sunset 7 extreme. Fantastic features for the price.
Yeah I do agree. My first 7 string was a schecter and had a tempest for a short amount of time, both expensive instruments and they played like toys. Jackson is one of my favourites for metal. And Ibanez. I feel like Ibanez’s cheaper guitars have better value, but someone else mentioned that schecter has got a lot better over the years. What year is your schecter ?
@@BrendonKPadjasekmodern schecters are amazing man. They’ve done away with a lot of the things that made them less desirable in the past like the super chunky necks and the tacky aesthetics. I also find their QC to be very consistent and on par with LTD. Aaron from Intervals new sig RIPS, definitely check one out if you can 👍🏻
@@BrendonKPadjasek not many of them actually have gloss finishes now, so I can’t really say. The ones I’ve played recently all had either a natural wenge neck which felt amazing like on Aaron’s sig, or a nice satin finish. I’ve been eyeing John from Monuments new signature as well
You had mentioned using 90 gauge strings. What brand do you use? I normally go with Ernie Balls but I don’t know if 105 will be too much for that drop C1 and below
I actually made a mistake and didn't realize until later, but I made a community post about my string gauges for this guitar. At the point of the video I was using the.024-.084 for drop C and had great results. Right now I have .024-.100 ( the fender specific strings) for Drop A0 and it's working pretty well. I realistically should go to 105 but I already bought 6 packs lmao so I won't try that for a while
I haven't tried the Ernie Balls but I love D'Addario strings and they've always been good for me. But Ernie's are also sick and having a .090 is probably a better option. I wouldn't go below B with the .090
Why are we using guitars when its bass tuning.... chords and string bends a lot easier on a guitar over the thicker strings and any guitar can be modded to work and hold in a tuning of preferance, huge pros and cons to using this type of guitar
I’ve been trying to get super low tunings out of guitars for over a decade and I haven’t had as much luck with the clarity as I do with this one. But you’re right. Pros and cons for this guitar
Have you tried other string gauges? I've currently got my barritone in double drop C and the high E has a .74. While the tension is around where i like it, the middle G and C tend to sound like they're muted or being played through a tube. Would tha tbe a tone issue or a setup issue?
I haven't yet. Still have the stock strings on, but with my experience with other guitars, thicker strings for lower tuning always yield great results. I'd likely go .80/.84 on that E string. I'd need to know more information though, what guage strings are on the problem strings?
@@BrendonKPadjasek I use a similar set to Buster Odholm without mixing different sets, which is the Ernie Ball 6 string Baritone set. I believe it's a 72-14. I have a very similar gauge setup on my 8 string but the sound is quite different on the highs, but my 8 has Fishmans in it and the baritone has P90s
This video randomly showed up in my feed and it took me a minute to realize I saw you when you were doing vocals for Structures almost a decade ago in Fort Collins, CO. ruclips.net/video/VzHaXnw9xz0/видео.html
I had one a couple years ago but sold it. Didn't like the neck feel and the floating bridge made keeping it in tune really hard, even with labella strings and the flipped bridge trick that people on forums recommended. I got a danelectro baritone which I like a lot more and don't go lower than E, so I don't really run into the tuner problem you mentioned. I also have that Ibanez Multiscale bass vi you talked about on my wishlist though haha. Played it a bit at GC and liked the feel a lot more than the squier vi. How have you found the tuning stability with yours? I was having trouble with E and you're down at C#.
That’s good to know. Finding the right guitar is like finding the right pair of shoes Ibanez and fender seem to always be the most comfortable for my hands and playing style. I’m finding it holds tune really well. I think a lot of people have issues in standard tuning, which I agree was a bit shaky, but it seems to handle lower tunings much better. Still a bit off between 0 and 1 but i haven’t played a guitar that’s perfect on both How’s the Danelectro for holding tune?
@@BrendonKPadjasek My Danelectro has no issue holding tune. I double check it every time I play and have no issues while I'm playing. It only goes out of tune if I don't play for a few days. I also really like that it has 24 frets and the lipstick pickups have a nice mid scoop that makes dialing tones much easier.
If you dont use the right strings on any guitar then chords will always sound like shit. Daddario nyxls are bright and durable enough for pretty much any tuning and any sound
I also use C#1 tuning on 28/30” scale for 9 string. You said you use .090? the strandberg custom light set has a .084. They used to taper these for 28-26.25” scale to accommodate their headless bridge saddles. But i think after a hardware update they dont taper anymore. They’re the brightest nickel wound strings and have a higher breaking point. Ive tuned up to a G4 with a swapped .007 single string. Even though they cost $30, would you be open to trying that set? As you probably know already. Theres perhaps a pro to using 6 string over all vs 9 string being: less pickup winding, less mass, less weight, easier fingering like you said lol
@@BrendonKPadjasek i love the video i just dont agree with saying anything will sound like shit on 9 strings. Maybe out of the box with stock pickups yes chords especially will sound ass. But you can upgrade the strings and pickups and adjust your tone. For the money yes you get the win with the fender bass VI. I love the squire version, and also flipped it to left handed!
As a shitty guitarist and terrible mixer, I'd argue that you can achieve this with the right mixing ability and drop pedals. I can barely make guitar tones after years because I'm a simpleton, but I feel like I hear the arguments for various guitars a lot, when really some people are just excellent at mixing and could make some pos guitar sound like magic. I will say, I have been tempted to get a Harley Benton rip off of this guitar, but have resisted thus far.
I don’t disagree with that at all. But buying a pitch drop pedal and a guitar would likely be more expensive than buying this one Just cuts out the difficulty of dialing in a proper tone with a pitch drop pedal because that’s another loophole to work around
@@BrendonKPadjasek Oh yeah for sure - I can barely get a decent tone let alone a tone then dropping the tuning with pedals, but there's tons of dudes out there who can! I also sadly agree that Schecter have dropped the ball in the last few years - got 3 of them over the years and the Pro C-7 is not up to scratch when you go back 10 years and look at the quality comparatively.
@plaguebearermetal yeah man it’s unfortunate because the guitars look bad ass (most of them) but when you play it you’re like “do they even play the guitars before they leave the factory?”
I was happily able to do drop C with the .024-.084 but right now I have the .024-.100 for Drop A. The 4th string is pretty tight as an A, so I'd be weary of using it for Drop C as a guitar
@@BrendonKPadjasek Thanks. I'll go for .100 and will try various tunings. For now with stock ones it is ok for D but below it's a mess. I just find out you did a newer video about this. I am watching it. This guitar is such a hidden gem for extreme metal !
Singlecoil noise is a bummer indeed. It would definitely be interesting to see you install a set of noiseless singlecoils (of some sort) on this guitar. My first thought was a set of Strat pickups, but I actually don't know how they would fit - seeing as how the Bass VI pickups are more similar to Jaguar pickups than Strat pickups. Please do it and show us how it's done! 😀
I definitely agree. But just found some odd tricks that work for the noise, depending on if you’re on clean. If you’re on distortion, rhythm tone then yeah we’re kind of doomed to the noise. I’m thinking of switching out the bridge for a Bare Knuckle Impulse after talking to Josh about it
@@BrendonKPadjasek Aah! What odd tricks? Tell us more! 😀 Also, do you mean a Single coil or a Humbucker BK Impulse? (Because, as I understand it, BK single coils are not noise-cancelling...)
@@griiseknoen Sorry, I should have specified, I meant the Humbucker. Probably going to go with HSS and keep the original other pickups. I've noticed if you have say the mid and bridge pickup, or mid and neck pickup selected, the noise cancels out. Like on a normal 5 way switch. I've been able to use it for clean this way. Otherwise the noise is audible through the clean guitar if held out
Has the term "double drop" changed? It has always been used in my circles to drop the high E string to the same note as your low E and D string in a normal drop tuning. Ex: double drop D would be DADGBD
I’ve been experimenting with tuning so all over the place. I got 6 packs of the fender .024-.100 in the description of the other videos. So I’ll likely be between drop B and G
@@BrendonKPadjasek that’s insane man. I’ve been looking into getting a baritone or something similar to this, for HLB and vildhjarta influenced songs, you’re very helpful and I appreciate that man!
@yuhboybugs3275 yeah it’s very insane haha. I definitely would go thicker than .100 for the G because I had quite a difficult time with tracking those guitars. But it worked pretty well for A
They’re just the stock string the guitar came with. I’m assuming 24-84 or 20-90 Haha that’s amazing. I’m definitely digging the hell out of this guitar
thats sick mate. ordered this last night after watching your videos since ive been on the hunt for a 30" for a while. got a set of 84s as a spare, but damn if the 100s are gnarlier I might just have to cop a set. Do you have any 8 string/9 string sets you'd say would work with this very nicely (obv just the bottom 6 strings of either set)
@devan7316 that’s a great question! I unfortunately haven’t begun the hunt for strings. I’m personally going to try the sets Bass VI sets and see how it goes. The Ernie Ball or D’addario set
Everything here is exactly why I got mine. I've had it for about two years now, and I've had nothing but loads of fun. Particularly a massive fan of using the Neural DSP SLO with this guitar. So much fun. +1 subscriber for finally finding someone who goes in depth with it!
Ehh thanks for subscribing! Yeah I e been having so much fun with this guitar and seeing what it’s good at and what it’s not but yeah. Super cool. I haven’t tried the SLO yet but I’ve been really enjoying it with the Otto Audio 11 11 as the amp was made for low tuning
@@BrendonKPadjasek I’ve been meanting to try the Otto for a while! But I ended up finding a solid sale for the SLO 😂 Looking forward to seeing more of your content with it!
I kept the bridge, but flipped it around 180 degrees so that I can get the string to sit further back. I wanted to make the most of it without spending extra money Pretty happy with how it sounds and plays
@@BrendonKPadjasekI meant 3. I made a typo. Imagine how powerful the sound is gonna be from 3 humbuckers at once. Just would need to put them deep into the wood so the sheer amount of strong magnets didn't kill the sustain. But that's only gonna make the sound even better when there are strong pickups in the wood as opposed to weak ones by the strings :)
@@BrendonKPadjasekalso, another idea. Imagine wiring it in the way that the toggles for the bass cut and stuff that you didn't like anyway does split coils or switching between serial and parallel wiring and stuff like that instead. Would need to probably get some custom electronics there besides just replacing pickups for that but just think about it how awesome that could be.
@@BrendonKPadjasek Wow, first of all, thank you very much for your support, really! I use an Esp Ltd M10 Guitar, Scale: Rosewood 25.5″ in Drop C and Drop B tuning. I thought about getting 0.11 dunlop Jim Root Signature strings, what do you think?
The expression part is very interesting, I would definately try it. also I'm kinda nervous about having humbuckers in mine now. single coils bring a lot of clarity. but my humbuckers still pick up a lot of fret noise and stuff like that so I have to be careful with gauges and tunings
Yeah that was my exact concern with upgrading to humbuckers. My homie Adrien pointed out that single coils pick up low tuning better, which I didn’t realize until now. It’s insane how clear it is, even in drop B where I definitely should have used a thicker string. Which humbuckers do you have in right now ?
people in USA like to call it fret buzz as well. longer scale along with thinner gauges increases the fret buzz. i hope that's a more clear sentence@@SxSxG666
Very curious as to why you don't like Schecters? In recent years they've stepped up their quality by an insane amount. I have a MKIII KM7 and it's legit the best guitar I've ever owned. It's spec'd perfectly in my opinion.
That’s good to know. The last time I used a schecter I was recording a band that had one and it felt terrible and sounded worse. When I was testing out 8 strings it was the most expensive and also the muddiest, and really difficult to reach the 24th fret. How new is your guitar? If the quality has gone up that’s very good to know, as I always found them wayyy too expensive for the quality you get. If you can, comment the things you like and don’t like about it so others can make the right buying choice
Maybe I’ll rent the one you have and try it out to change my years of disliking the brand. Always happy to see when a company changes their products for the good Thanks for the info!
@@BrendonKPadjasek yeah I have one and replaced the pickups as they sounded aweful. muddy af, no clean tone, but I still got it and it sounds good with the gibson 57 classic gold plus whatever their called. Plus I got the new super shredder with the sustainiac and its wails dude and is super fun to play.
@r.l.erdody7726 yes. I’ve owned 2 and tried a few others and I have never been a fan. The first 7 string I had was a hellraiser Which schecter do you have?
People don't talk about the Bass VI being a bass and a guitar, because it's not. It's a short-scale bass where the fundamental frequncy is the highlight. It's a long scale guitar where the harmonics are brought up over a 25.5" or shorter scale. That blend sounds way different in a mix.
I definitely wanna try one of those danelectros. But for me I definitely think the Squier is the way to go. Stoked on how it sounds for heavy music and the tremolo arm is so sick
Sick vid bud! I’d like to know your opinions on mega baritones vs pitch shifting, as Buster Odeholm is probably the best example of pitch shifting mastery!
Oh yeah he’s definitely a master of that. I haven’t had great experience with the 1,0 style dissonant heavy chords but everything else seems to work well. For me, those heavy chords are essential in my music so I’d stick with something like this Thanks for watching! Buster is very sick
Personally I think it's more about the string gauge. I have a better sound with 0.074 tuned to E, then pitch shift down to C#, rather than a 0.090 tuned to C#. Also I prefer the feel of a .0.074" rather than a 0.090".
Thanks for mentioning it! I’ll put it in the description for the options. Theres so many options in the bass vi range. I’d love to get my hands on all of them and compare I use STL tonality for guitar and Neural DSP for bass. Both the parallax and the darkglass ultra What are you using?
@@BrendonKPadjasek I use the mixwave Spiritbox plugin. I should try the STL Stuff. I also have the Neural DSP Rabea mainly for the fuzz, the octaver and the synth. But it's more for the 6 string range.
@didtoknan8128 yeah definitely. I love Neural for the effects, but not as much for actual amp tones. I’ve heard great things about the Spirit Box mix wave amp. Try out the STL trials and lmk what you think. I love them. May do some more presets for them in the future
Let me know what you think of the Squier Bass VI. Which tuning would you like to hear with this guitar?
Drop 9
Watching all this content from you on Bass VI, realized how I miss mine and actually bought it back. There's some strange magic going with this guitar for me, ultra versatile instrument.
hahah thats awesome to hear. I LOVE it. i just started using the neck and middle pickup for cleans and love that as well
This is so sick, dude! I've been wanting a bass vi for a bit, and I think you're just selling it even more to me unintentionally 😂
Haha I think it would be sick for the stuff you’re making. Especially since there isn’t very much super high notes stuff
I love it. Mad cheap too
YES, I love being able to track bass and guitar with the same instrument. I have the older Ibanez SRC6 and an Agile Intrepid Pro 630 currently. I love these instruments♡
There’s nothing quite like having that flexibility. How do you like the Ibanez?
Love that you demonstrated a 6 string instrument for low tuning. Playing a 7 or more string instrument is another level of technique. The neck is Fat therfore having to modify how you hold the instrument. I work with heavy equipment and I'll always be happy playing a 6 string. My hands go through enough. Keep shredding everyone. 🎉Metal forever.
Definitely agree. I have smaller hands too so it makes it difficult when I play my 7 or 8 string. I somewhat miss the high string sound but then I just use a pitch shifter to do that haha
Canadian : check
Baritone/bass VI user : check
Heavy AF music : check
Subscribed : check!
Thanks so much. Been loving the humor in your comments so keep them coming haha. Also if you have any video topics you're interested in, lmk!
A lot of the videos on my channel are subscriber requested
Let's be real most people who are playing these genres of music are not using all 7, 8 or 9 strings on their guitars lmao. A baritone is the perfect guitar.
Agreed. Every guitar is the perfect guitar as long as you write great music with it.
That comment was directed specifically to those commenting in my other videos about how they wish it could go lower. The whole video really is for those who want 9 string tuning but with clarity. Especially on a budget
Totally agree with you though, thanks for checking it out
6 string with whammy
@Vildnatur + octave lower than guitar. Can’t go wrong
Thanks for watching
M80M is the perfect guitar
@SpiritofPoison I haven’t tried that one but my friend has the RG8 and it’s amazing. I can’t imagine what that one feels like
Great review! Simple but thorough. I’m a bassist but I’ve never seen this before. Love it!
Eh thanks so much my man! It’s a very interesting instrument and it tbh sounds strange when you play it like a bass with your fingers. From what I’ve noticed at least. I’d say give it a try at your local music store
Been using my Hapas with P90's and Evertune for a while and although I need to be careful about the noise at times, it's the best thing ever for low tuned stuff and clarity across the strings for sure! Great vid btw, I had one of these for a bit and couldn't make it sound that good, sounds like this new version is much better.
Interesting. So you’re noticing the P90s to be noisey as well?
Thanks so much! Yeah I tried one like 5 years ago and I remember thinking it was cool but not amazing. I always wasn’t nearly as good at processing and mixing then so maybe that’s why
How long is the Hapas neck?
@@BrendonKPadjasek They're still single coil pickups so they are a bit noisier than humbuckers sometimes but nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of gating. Apparently making the p90's noiseless would make them lose a lot of that characteristic "bite" so I chose to go with the normal ones.
The Hapas was just a huge upgrade over the other Jackson I have. I never tried an 8 string with a neck that just feels so right to me and I can put really light strings on thanks to the 28" scale and the ET 🖤
@CrisRYMER that’s good to hear. I figure since I’m not planning to do clean guitars, I’m okay with the noise of the single coil as it doesn’t seem to affect me when recording heavy guitars.
Which Jackson did you have?
@@BrendonKPadjasek DKA8 but I have a friend currently making a new neck for it and I'll be putting a Floyd Rose too. Should be fun!
@CrisRYMER damn! That would be gnarly. Let me know how you like it once you received it with the upgrades
I fucking need this immediately. Loving your channel man. I’m hitting a real wall with modern heavy mixing. Gonna binge your vids tomorrow.
Also can I ask what gauge strings you have for this tuning?
hahaha Yeah I feel like its been my favourite guitar since I bought it. Haven't gone back to my others
@@PaulOrtiz These string were the stock .024-.084
@@BrendonKPadjasek Amazing, I just ordered the Harley Benton Bass VI as I heard some great demos of it, also with stock strings and pups at C#. But thanks for explaining the whole concept, never would've thought to explore this. I was thinking about 9s, but it's such a waste to not use the upper strings. And so hard to keep everything tight/focused. Also thanks for the ML Drums recommendation too. Just bought all of their stuff today and it's so good.
@@BrendonKPadjasek I have a Banshee Elite 7, which I kinda like (not 100% sold on the fishmans though). A 2228-A which I've had forever and is basically a tank. And an Evil Twin SLS MS8 which...I'm on the fence about. None of them can go where I wanna go though. My HB should arrive Thursday or Friday. It's gonna be a long week.
Everything that Brendon say it's true, I tried all of these guitars, the biggest difference is scale 30 instead of 27 baritone, sound is totally different on 30. Two best options in my case are Subzero (and change pickup-also you can put active one and battery under plastic) if you want more "normal" sound of 30 with humbucker or this Squier to sound more like Loathe but to change also sing coil pickup with some better one. You just need to know that Brendon is professional and the sound that he get form this Squier is unreal and honestly a little bit hard to get but is not impossible 😁😂 Love your videos bro, Struc/tures all the way❤
Eh thanks so much for the kind words!
I’m thinking of switching the single coils out (at least the bridge) for other single coils. Do you have any suggestions?
I’m really happy to hear that a lot of people dig the Subzero as I haven’t heard of them until now
@@BrendonKPadjasek bareknuckle makes a 20k single coil they also have a demo of how the pickups sound on the site Id get one but Im not ready to take my strat apart again
Also just to throw another super budget bass VI option out there, the gear4music Seattle “baritone” is 30 inches and comes strung up with bass VI strings tuned low E-E, and is a super solid mod platform
Man that looks REALLY tempting...
I was debating on whether or not to get a Drop pedal or get a bass 6 and this is a good option for me, thanks
@evansigler3085 no problem at all. I personally prefer this over a drop pedal but I’m also super okay with not having the high octave of a guitar. Or pitch it up for leads in my DAW.
So if that also doesn’t matter to you, I strongly suggest the Bass VI. It’s holding tune really well and sounds so heavy. Especially with the whammy
@evansigler3085 thanks for watching !
@@Burythelie you’re welcome lol it’s a solid guitar, that and the Harley Benton JA baritone are probably the 2 cheapest 30 inchers out there
Stay away from Gear4Music! They scam the shit out of people. They almost got me and I know a few people who have been scammed
2:15 LAAAAAAWD
Hahaha thanks boss
I modded mine with a Dimarzio Titan at bridge position, totally kick-ass. 💣
That’s good to know. Is that a humbucker or single coil?
@@BrendonKPadjasek Humbucker, the 2014 Jake Bowen from Periphery signature pick-up! I got a pre-made 2 humbuckers pickguard for Bass VI from Obscura MFG. I also got a Seymour Duncan Phatcat humbucker-size P90 at the neck position! 👌🏼
I ordered a Bass VI already. Waiting for my phone call from sweetwater lol
Hahaha hell yeah. I still am in love with this guitar
I love your content! I’ve been trying to find someone that uses Ableton Live and is making modern metal. I’m relatively new to playing guitar. My love for low tunings and heavy music is really growing. Thanks for what you do. Mad respect of your skillz.
Thank you so much! I’ve been too busy with work but I’ve been meaning to film these 3 Ableton related videos I have in my notepad. Stay tuned for those
it's so sick that you're embracing the whammy bar with this! i get that evertune and such is amazing, but honestly using the whammy bar is even more sick
Thank you! Yeah honestly it's been a dream of mine for a while to have a whammy on a low tuned instrument. I'm so used to recording without an everbridge that I don't feel like I'm missing out.
to me, whammy > everbridge.
For being such a cheap guitar I highly highly recommend it. Especially if you don't have tiny hands like me haha, but I'm still able to play it no problem
@@BrendonKPadjasek hell yeah! i actually have the SubZero one you hadn't heard of. one of my favourite instruments i own, it's soo much fun to play
@kingnary9th688 that’s awesome. Did you have to do any upgrades or was it sweet out of box?
Also and info, good or bad, let me know so others looking into more affordable options have some more info on the Subzero Bass VI
@@BrendonKPadjasek i got lucky with the QC, so did my friend who bought the same. all i did was some truss rod stuff and intonation. the pickups are PAF style, so they're fairly low output gibson style pickups, pretty much the opposite of these, but i still very much enjoy them! you could probably put some brighter pickups in, but i really quite like the controllable high end. i actually know from a guy i talked with that the wires are already made so you could easily install a split coil. i might do that one day!
i would wholeheartedly recommend it at least! i personally think it's the best looking of the 30'' bass VI-type guitars, but also a great playing instrument with some slight setup. only downside may be that the tuning pegs are tiny and very closely spaced, haha
It does look quite nice, but no whammy right?
I can’t believe how affordable the HB one is. I’m stoked to hear the quality (aside from plastic parts to cut down costs) is up there. My biggest fear is that the nut will break when bending behind the nut, as usually does with more budget nuts
Thank you! Great video!
No problem my man. Thanks for watching
Brendan, you are fucking amazing and the reason I do music at all. Thank you.
I really do appreciate that. Thank you so much and thanks for watching !
It is not a coincidence that the iconic Structures sound is played at 4:20. 👌🦖🤘
Hahaha holy I didn’t even realize that. Great attention to detail there haha that’s amazing
This video just popped up in my feed because I've been researching this particular subject for a minute now and I have to comment that the Bass VI is not the best guitar of its kind for this style. It's actually probably the worst between the single coil pickups and the tremolo bridge. I was looking at the Schecter Hellcat, which fixes the bridge issue I have with the Squier, but that's also a thousand bucks I didn't want to spend on this experiment, especially when it still has single coils. So I went with the Gretsch G5260 Baritone I already owned and converted it into a Bass VI with a $12 set of bass guitar strings from Ernie Ball. The Gretsch baritone has a 30 inch scale, same as the Squier Bass VI, so all it takes is a thicker set of strings. No further adjustments needed unless you want to go thicker than 95 on the bottom. Then you might be doing a little filing. But with a hardtail bridge and mini humbuckers, the Gretsch sounds leaps and bounds better than the Squier! The only modification I might make is upgrading to TV Jones Power'Tron pickups because these Electromatics have a lower output than most humbuckers, but I'm always driving my preamp hard at the source anyway so it doesn't really matter. Just means I don't have to turn the output down as much after I reach saturation. But yeah if you want a Bass VI that actually stays in tune and has serviceable pickups for metal, look into getting a Gretsch baritone and converting it. Plays better, sounds better, even looks better!
I have definitely heard a few people mention it. And this video was meant for Bass VI guitars in general. I’ve personally been having a lot of luck with this guitar myself, but I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the Gretsch as well
But it’s absolutely not “probably the worst”
@@BrendonKPadjasek The problem with deciding the worst or best is that there's only so many options for this type of instrument, right? You're either buying a Fender/Squier Bass VI or a copycat of one from Harley Benton or Schecter. If none of those tickle your pickle, you have to look for 30 inch baritone guitars to covert like I did. So yeah let me rephrase because you're right. I should've used a phrase like "least optimal" based on specs, which is entirely personal preference. Truth be told, you can make any of these instruments work if you take the time to set them up properly. Now that I'm digging this Gretsch as a bass, I'm probably going to buy a Squier too just because it has the tremolo! I love playing these things like they're guitars. Give me all the effects! As long as I have another track with a properly intonated bass guitar laying down the rhythm, I can come in over top with the Squier whammy bar madness for leads and atmosphere. These things are also built for ambient guitar stuff! After 25 years of playing, I'm in love all over again!
@deep.wellbeing absolutely! I was finding myself quite bored of writing music after also a few decades of playing guitar and having a new instrument like this where I don’t have to stretch and make uncomfortable moves to play chords (like on an 8 string) brings me a lot of motivation. I definitely want to try one of those Gretsch as well. The hard part is now that I have the Squier, with the tremolo, I don’t really want to go on without a tremolo ahahah. I’m hooked
Didn’t know you had a RUclips channel Brandon! Instant subscribe!
Thanks for subscribing Jonathan! I appreciate the viewership. If there’s any mixing or songwriting videos you’d like to see lmk!
would love to see this upgraded
Same haha. Once I have enough spending money I will
I bought one of these ages ago as a guitar-curious bassist
I fucking hated it lol
Then, last year, I swapped the strings out for baritone guitar strings, and I loved it!
I keep it in B standard, or occasionally put it in drop A. I don't play super heavy music, but there were a few Coheed and Cambria songs I wanted to learn that I needed a baritone guitar for, and I'd heard of people doing it.
Ended up writing one of my favorite riffs with it as well, though I have yet to turn it into a full song
Yeah I can see why it would suck as a bassist especially since the string spacing is like a guitar. I can’t play it with my fingers like I would with one of my basses but I bought it expecting to use it as a guitar.
Glad you found a use for it cause it rips in its own way. Thanks for checking the video out!
yeah this or something like it is definitely going to be the next guitar i get lmao, great vid
Hahaha thanks Mac! I’m glad that I’m seeing a few people interested in grabbing this guitar. I bought it with my own money out of interest in getting better results for low tuning.
There seems to be so many options that I’m now seeing in the comments for Bass VI. Not many, or any others with a whammy which still puts this one at the top of my list
Plus the single coil stock pickups are insane
Thank you for making a great guitar video! Every other RUclipsr fuckin suck!! You’re awesome!!! Subscribed !!!
Awe thanks so much! I think not many guitar channels have had to record bands with strange guitars and make them work.
I’ve been doing this all my life so I figure out the quirks of each instrument
Damn, the meshuggah spasm tuning :D, it sounds damn clear. I will get my baritone to guitar master to see if we can fit 20-90 set might update later on that, haha
Please do give an update so people deciding between a baritone and Bass VI can make the right choice for their needs
Yeah it’s insane how clear the notes are. Even in double drop b
Thanks for checking it out. Which baritone do you have?
I will! I own a Harley Benton jazzmaster black baritone 30". I would say its nice, for the price ofc :D. Tuners made of plastic or something. Overall its a nice guitar, it needs some tuning, as i've said ill bring it to a guitar master to set 20-90 strings. I dont think bridge needs adjustements, i think its only nut and cheap plastic tuners :-)
@beanpastekabana very good to know. Does it feel comfortable to play on the neck?
@@BrendonKPadjasek yes! This is extremely cheap, but neck feels quite nice! Its comfortable to play
@beanpastekabana that’s all I look for in a guitar. The rest can be replaced. As long as it’s comfortable for my fretting hand, I’m stoked
I'm 2 months late but at 9:16 SubZero is a brand that for example the guitarist of Silent Planet uses and as you can hear on their recent album it sounds great
Oh I didn’t know Mitch had one. That’s sick. I love that band
I can't find any source of Mitch playing a SubZero guitar. Do you have any links?
@SBTones I haven’t either
My dream guitar is one where all six strings are wound
hahah you're in luck my friend
Brendon! Wonderful video my guy! Subbed!
I have the Harley Benton Guitarbass VS as my personal guitar. Its my favorite guitar that I own.
Can i get the patch you used for the tone? Ill share one of mine! Thanks in advance!
Also, what are your thoughts on upgrading the bridge pickup to a hot rail? Ive done it on mine and it lost some of its bwang and bounce, but masssssively improved its noiseness, and increased its gain.
Thanks so much Nick! I could definitely share the guitar patch. Which amp sim are you using?
I've thought about it for sure, but I've got my eye on the Impulse by Bareknuckle. The humbucker that is. Trying to get a second Bass Vi to experiment with
BP THE GOAT
Hahaha thanks my man!
I have one of these and I love it.
Im also temped to test out Ibanez's new Bass VI styled guitar, since i like multiscale a lot
Same here! I personally love Ibanez guitars too so I know I’d be addicted to it. If it had a whammy bar I’d 100% get it. But it’s like double the price and no whammy so it’s hard to jump on it
Great video! Longtime fan here. Y'all actually played in my hometown of Cookeville, TN YEARS ago. I play one of these along with the Squier Carbonita Tele Baritone in this band. Our first album we put out last year didn't feature the VI but the next one def will several times.
-aaron
Oh that’s awesome. Thanks for joining Aaron! I love this guitar
The only downside i see to this is the 24th fret missing so i cant do some Erra type tapping stuff, Also there's something incredibly cool about having such a vintage looking instrument and playing the most brutal modern chuggy metal stuff, i think Loathe really created that vibe. ALSO I'm really fucking stocked to see your name on the new Northlane EP, Your contribution on Alien is one of many parts of why this album is so unique and I'm just glad to see you doing some stuff with them once again. cheers !
I also wish it had 24 but it’s nice because every guitar I have has 24 frets. Nice to be a bit limited but I 100% hear you.
Thanks so much! Yeah as always they’ve written a masterpiece
@@BrendonKPadjasek yeah that's actually very true, forces you out of your comfort zone and probably will make you write riffs differently
@louistremblay1218 it definitely has so far. I feel like I rely wayy too much on having that 24th fret otherwise
this thing is cool as shit i had no idea they had a model past baritone!
Yeah it’s super gnarly! Similar specs with the 30” neck but you can easily put the heavy Bass Vi strings on it without have to file the hardware down. Pickups sound awesome to me but I’ve heard good things about the P90s as well
im planning on having a nine string cause i kinda mathrock as well
Which one are you thinking of getting?
I am beginner and I thought that for metal need double humbucker. This guitar sounds insane
Honestly, I've been playing guitar for like 20 years now and I thought the same haha. Thanks for checking it out. this thing RIPS
@3:27 it is logical to have a whammy bar set on a 7 and 8 string. They are rarely made but if you happen to find a good one. You just have to know what your doing. I have an agile interceptor 828 with a whammy bar. Its still a bit different with a little more tension. I also have the 2nd insert hole option for inserting my whammy bar on the A or E (standard) string as well. My tuning. EAEDGBE
I’ve definitely seen them on both but my experience with 8 string whammy’s have been good on expensive ones and terrible on affordable ones
How is the agile?
Peppers used Bass VI?
Okay... I looked. It was with Klinghoffer while Flea played piano...
I want a Bass VI though.
I had a feeling something was up. It said Frusciante on the fender website which is odd
Bass VI is ridiculous. I love it
A lundgren m series pickup on the bridge is something I would like to see
I also would love to, but I think I'm leaning towards a Bare Knuckle Impulse Humbucker in the bridge. After talking to Josh, Humbucker seems to be the way to go for how low I'm tuning these
@@BrendonKPadjasek Oh I didn’t even think about that!
I bought a bass vi last week after watching your videos on them so i’m excited to hear what all you do to it!
@dalilavey9040 I’m very stoked to hear that. You’re probably for 5th or 6th person who has told me that. Maybe I should reach out to Fender and let them know that although they claim it’s “a bass and not a guitar” that it’s actually a guitar for people like us haha. And with a few tweaks it could be even better
@dalilavey9040 @BrendonKPadjasek
I have a Subzero Rogue VI, 30" that I fully customized as soon as I got it.
Put a single Lundgren M6 on the bridge with just a volume knob.
Absolutely love it, although I'm still trying to figure out the best setup.
There's something about the relationship between the correct pickup height and the string gauge that I am still trying to master. The M6 are hot, and I mean really hot, too the point that at max volume they only stop adding distortion to the signal if the pickup is 1cm away.
I've used 100 and am now using 074 for the low E1 string but I'm not exactly sure how my DI signal should sound like.
I guess that's a good topic for a video, should it be crystal clean? It's it ok or even desirable to have a DI track already distorted? (I'm connected to the hi-z input and my interface gain is at 0).
So yeah, I love what I have but I feel like it should sound better, and I know that's all because of my lack of knowledge about the world of recording high output low tuned guitars with my computer.
Would appreciate some help.
Keep up with the videos man, you're an inspiration and a great teacher.
@@joaoleite9035 I definitely feel that. I was toying around with my pickup height to dial it in. There's a few good videos on youtube about pickup height but that would be a good idea to cover for tunings this low.
Which interface are you using? Thanks so much for the kinds words. I got more coming up
yeah dude you werent kidding lmao ... got it last week ... it sounds not as good solo but damn that thing is monsterous sounding in a mix squier should get you an affiliate link xD
Haha I should hit them up. I’d love to eventually work with them in making like 2 small changes to make this an out of the box, affordable metal monster. Maybe in a couple months I’ll make a community post seeing how many people bought it based on my reviews and see if they’re interested in creating a new market for the brand. I
believe fenders owns Jackson so even if Jackson was interested in making one I’d be stoked
Could be wrong about that though haha. Thanks for watching and I’m stoked you enjoy the guitar
@@BrendonKPadjasek hahaha hell yeah ! That would be sick ... Theres def a few issues with it from a modern POV. Then again its fun that a recreation from 1961 does some of the Most disqusting Sounds in 2024 😂
@Lamarro dude absolutely. It’s insane how capable this guitar is. Contemplating trying a weird hybrid tuning where the top 3 are low and the high 3 are higher than they should be. Maybe go a 5th higher from the g onward
@@BrendonKPadjaseki def want to test it with a duncan hotrail in the bridge soon ill let you know if its worth it lol ^^ but yeah def a very itneresseting piece of gear. i also subbed to your channel cant wait what you come up with with that tuning
hey nice review! maybe i missed it in the vid but what is the scale on this thing?
Hey thanks for checking it out. It’s a 30” neck. Yeah I didn’t really treat it as a review and go over the specs, I just wanted to show how cool it is and how heavy it can go haha
Gretch baritone 30inch scale is another great option!
I’ve heard of that one. Is that the semi hollow? And does it have a whammy/ Trem arm?
@@BrendonKPadjasek no, it’s a solid body. They have a version with TOM hard bridge and with special Gretsch tremolo (I think something comparable with Bass Vl). I like the fact you may choose, which you prefer. Cause I’m not really whammy bar guy. Loathe used once TOM version in a play through video. I own the same and for the price of 500 really happy with it!
Few couple of things, someone may not like about it:
1) Low output pickups
2)Spacing for humbuckers is bit smaller than standard
@@kangazkorva5674 thats really sick to have the option. The Squier is also Low Output with the pickups. I didn't realize how much I love having a whammy until this guitar
Thanks for the info! Always good to see more options in the Bas VI style instrument
But can the single coil pickups handle leads of distortion at hight volumes?
Which kind of leads? If you'd seen any of my playthroughs I'm using it for leads on metal stuff no problem. Sometimes pitching it up an octave with Josh Middleton Amp sim
Sounds amazing what vst or amp did u use! Sick channel man.
Thanks so much for checking it out!
I use the Will Putney Tonality plugin for most of my heavy tones. Amp 6 for these videos
I also like the Josh Middleton. I love STL for getting clarity out of distorted, low tuning guitars
@@BrendonKPadjasek
Ill have to try stl out soon!
Hope this channel blows up man, love your work w structures and northlane!
Would love to see a bass tone tutorial sometime.
@red240red2 they’re definitely worth checking out. I think they all have either a 10 or 14 day trial so you can try them out for yourself, and get hooked haha
Thanks so much for the ongoing support! Hopefully it does, I just have to keep at it. And good idea! Maybe I’ll gear towards that in the future
Its sounds heavy as hell..but have you been to a rammstein concert? Drop D, drop C sometimes and drop B occasionally... du Hast E standard.. sonne drop D.. heavy as hell... foo fighters everlong drop D... I guess its all in the eq, mixing and mojo :)
All in the mojo and whatever the artist is going for I guess. E standard can be heavy as hell. A different kind of heavy
@BrendonKPadjasek its amazing which effect you are going for...all can be heavy and moody.. excellent
@repoman5581 haha thank you so much I appreciate that
does the whammy bar fucks up the tuning? in terms of tuning stabilty and so on.
The squier is so sick, i have the Aria Jet B Tone, decent build quality but only 21 frets
I noticed that if I tune it, then pull the whammy down, then tune it again after, it stays in tune really well after riffing on it for a while. Surprisingly much better than my strat tbh
Especially in the C# tuning. But the drop B held up also surprisingly well. It wasn’t perfect, but if I was playing a whole song through, like in the play through, I’d check tuning after and it was good enough to me. And I used it multiple times in the play through. They somehow nailed it imo.
Maybe I’ll go in depth on that on another video
I'd love to have one of these. What strings do you use?
they're great, I strongly enjoy mine and suggest trying one out for yourself! I believe they are 24-90 or 24-100 gauge
thanks for watching.
How low do you plan on tuning?
@@BrendonKPadjasek drop c. Maybe drop b
@DarkSydeSean1 I just ordered some new strings 24-100. I’ll let you know if those work for drop b
So which set is better for beggining experiments?: Daddario 24-84 or EB 20-90?
If you’re planning to experiment with lower tunings I’d say 20-90. Especially since the guitar comes with 24-84 loaded on it
Love the review. Few questions:
1- How’s the intonation on the lower strings’ saddles? I hear it’s an issue
2- How well does it stay in tune with the whammy?
3- How are you compensating for low output of the pickups? Do you notice yourself picking harder than usual?
I will give my 2 cents and I will also be notified of Brendon's answer. Personnaly I had to shim my neck to correct the angle and have a better action. I have no issue with intonation.
Single coil + low output are better at that low tuning. With humbucker, we generally have to lower the gain and the bass.
Thanks for watching!
1) I don’t notice it to be amazing in standard tuning, but once you drop to a lower tuning it handled a lot better. Still not perfect but significantly better
2) if I tune it, go hard on the whammy, then tune it again, it stays really well
3) I’m only using it on amp sims at the moment so I just turn the input on the amp louder. Or raise the DI volume
Are you using it on an amp?
@@BrendonKPadjasek I don’t have it (yet… hehe), but I do have the Squier Cabronita 27” bari, and I swapped out the original P90-sized single coils to actual P90s from Bare Knuckle (Warpigs, or as they fondly call them ’Pig90s haha) and noticed a huge difference in the way I play and the way it sounds through the amp. I’ll use your trick more frequently to adjust the input signal when using plugins for sure
@ZL1LoVeR that’s good to know. I have bareknuckle in most of my guitars, and Duncan’s in my 8 string. I was thinking of switching out for some sort of bare knuckle on this guitar. Maybe Josh’s Impulse single coils
We’ll see. How do you like the baritone?
@@BrendonKPadjasek The Cabronita is amazing and I love it for being at an accessible price point with the build quality it has, as well as how easy it is to play coming from standard scale… honestly I’ve become a baritone aficionado… I got five total as short as 26.5” scale and as long as 28.625” - two I built and finished myself using kits/parts (a Jazzmaster from PGK and a Tele from Warmoth)… will also build from scratch my own design in the very near future. (The other two are Schecter 7 strings… sorry 😂 I love those as well)
Damn I didnt realize something like this existed. Seems like the best of both worlds in terms of tuning low and having a standard neck width. My go to guitar is an 8 string legator and Ive always wanted a 9 string and a 6 string but this is like both at the same time lol
When you use it to track bass are you tracking the guitar and bass parts separately still to avoid phase issues?
It'd be insane if we could just track guitar and bass at the same time but I think thats wishful lol
Yeah my go to for heavy stuff is usually my 8 string Ibanez and it does the trick but having something that’s even longer that can let me go even “heavier” with clarity is amazing. And it’s a fender related product and I love the way they play
0 phase issues because they’re different takes. That would be nice, and I often do that with demos, but now I can just record only the top string after I do the guitars (especially since I loop the part and do take lanes in Ableton.
Such a blessing
Maybe I’ll try doing bass on the middle pick up next time to compare
I really wanna play more around the drop F# to drop e but I still want a baritone, does anyone have any suggestions, maybe a midrange to budget option
I mean you could definitely put guitar strings on this and treat it like a baritone. Though it would be 30” instead of 27”
What about 29” with evertune? Where you can tune low and use thinner strings
I have a love hate relationship with evertunes since I do A LOT of bending and the way everytunes work is that they have a "bend cuttoff". So a lot of time you'll start a bend and then, depending on where your cutoff is, it won't start until later in the bend. Making tracking bass quite annoying
@@BrendonKPadjasek thanks for replying so fast!
@theshillpill6937 no problem. That’s just my 2 cents. Obviously, every tune is very sick and cool for tracking. I guess I would just keep the threshold as low as possible for bends but that defeats the purpose I guess haha. Maybe just track everything but the bends and then track the bends at the end of a session
What about the Ibanez SRC6?
I haven’t had a chance to try one but I did mention it in the video as an option. No tremolo arm though
How much writing did you do with northlane
Nothing instrumentally. Jon is a beast
Wonder how this would compare to a pitch shifted 7 string. That's what I'd use for if i wanna get 9 string double drop tuning.
I can do a comparison, but, from trying to pitch things down in the past, and having decent results, nothing beats doing it for real. I never found that those dissonant 1,0 heavy chords sounded right. BUT I may do a video on that if enough people wanted to hear that
Great suggestion! Thanks for checking this one out
@@BrendonKPadjasek for sure buddy!
which 7 string are you on? @@metalheadblues
@@BrendonKPadjasek these days my I'm using your favorite brand a schecter hellraiser special 7 haha , trying to get my carvin 7 string sorted , its 20 + years old and the pickups went bad
@metalheadblues haha it’s funny because my first 7 string was the Hellraiser, then I got the Carvin 727 (for less money) and that’s when I started to realize schecter/ Ltd price to performance was off
What strings are you using though? Brand and gauges?
For this video I was using .024-.084 and I believe the d’addario ones. Right now I have .024-.100 for drop A0
New Structures tuned that low?
Hahah I guess we’ll see
What string gauge set do you recommend?
What tuning are you going after? I actually just posted a community post of which gauges for each tuning I’ve been having luck with
what strings do you use for double drop B?
I had the .024-.084 but I would suggest .024-.090
or .024-.100 (that’s what I’m using for double drop a)
On 5:52 you mentioned double Drop E. Does it mean that if you play Drop E1 on baritone it requires bass line in E1 (Which is standard for bass), or you meant E1 on baritone and E0 on bass? Because I believe when you were with Northlane you played a hella low tuned Dingwall with bridge cables to play 1 octave lower than guitar on "Vultures", for example, but i just not sure that E0 is even audible
For most of the northlane stuff I played in the same octave as guitar. The lowest bass went to drop F and then with songs like Talking Heads, went to drop C# on guitar (pitch shifter) I matched the octave of the guitar , instead of being an octave lower.
Vultures I believe was also drop F but I can’t remember haha
On structures None Of The Above, Fortune Fades was in double drop D, and I had a nightmare recording the bass for that one. It was doable, and Zack made it sound sick, but I wouldn’t suggest it haha
@@BrendonKPadjasek Thank you so much! I just saw Alex's playthrough for "Rot" and it was in bass Drop F, which is in my opinion absolutely mad thing to do. I thought you followed this tendency too, but i'm glad that's not really.
Fortune Fades sounds sick as fuck, but i can't even imagine what kind of technological issues you're trying to solve every time you going lower than Drop E
@EvilGrishka yeah I definitely had it in drop F as well and that was fine. Even structures None of the Above was a semitone lower in E and that was fine (with a very thick top sting)
But yeah I’ll never go D again if I can avoid it haha.
For that price, are the fret edges smooth? Did it require a setup? Any changes to the bridge springs to get down to C#?
I have a whole video dedicated to what I did to it. Check it out if you’d like. I did all the adjustments myself
how come you have no noise for the single coils
There's noise if I play on clean channels or if I hold a note out for super long. Also if my bass guitar channel has some noise but I'm mostly using it for low end so it doesn't show up.
Are you having issues with noise on yours?
@@BrendonKPadjasek no I don't have too much experience with single coils but whenever I had them and used lots of distortion there's so much noise lol
@distortionto1066 oh yeah I definitely get that with my strat. I feel like since the tubing is so low it handles just fine with the noise or it’s different noise
How do you get your vsts to sound so good.. ive never managed it.. ive tried a lot but all sound bad in one way or another. I use the tonex pedal now but even the tonex software vst without the pedal sounds bad..
Thank you! Honestly I’ve been mixing for so many years that it’s just putting in those reps. I have a few guitar mixing videos as well as which amp sims I use now. As well as that hour long one
What strings would you wana use for such a long scale? This is probably the one thing that keeps me from getting one. Not knowing what strings to put on it.
I’m using the Fender set which is .024-.100 and it’s handling drop C super well. I’m trying drop A# and it holds tune okay. Will report back later. Hoping to do a song in drop A# octave down
@@BrendonKPadjasek Ill look them up, thx!
@TangenteStaub80 No problem! I’m having luck with those for low tuning
How do you find the tuning stability from using the trem a lot? I’ve heard it can be pretty bad
I feel like the majority of the issues are coming from playing in standard tuning. When I drop the tuning even to half step down (drop C#) the stability seems much better. I was mentioning in a different comment, but if I tune it, then go hard on the whammy for a minute, then retune it, it seems to hold up quite well. It’s not perfect but it’s quite good
Do you think the HB JA baritone guitar could do the same...and what gauge strings are you using. Thanks
Hmm, to be honest I haven't tried for sure. I can definitely say this guitar is amazing and I can see which corners they had to cut to make it this affordable. I can't possibly imagine them stripping more features to reach half the price like HB. So I'm skeptical. I think for it's price, its probably great, but great for it's price and great are pretty different haha. I personally have no real issues with this guitar. Check out my 2 month review to see all the quirks and work arounds, as well as string gauges
@@BrendonKPadjasek thanks...I just found a video of exactly what I was thinking and it seems to do well
ruclips.net/video/CPMpZdNQwSM/видео.htmlsi=gmm6Tq1yQ_wM8KAQ
@@repoman5581 oh that's awesome. With the HB?
@BrendonKPadjasek I've posted the link here twice, but it keeps getting deleted for some reason.... guitar youtube politics I guess???
How does it actually feel to play though? Does the long scale feel more like a guitar or a bass?
I personally have small hands and the only thing I can’t do on it is those 1-5 feet stretches. But you can just replace that with 6-0
I find it very comfortable other than that. It doesn’t feel like a bass or a guitar. It feels like what a multi scale 27” would feel like in the low register
It's a shame you don't like Schecter. I'm not a fan of floating bridges, but Schecter is my second favorite feeling guitar I've played. My favorite is Jackson (my main guitar is a Jackson juggernaut et6) and Schecter is damn close. My next guitar (and first seven string) is going to be a sunset 7 extreme. Fantastic features for the price.
Yeah I do agree. My first 7 string was a schecter and had a tempest for a short amount of time, both expensive instruments and they played like toys.
Jackson is one of my favourites for metal. And Ibanez. I feel like Ibanez’s cheaper guitars have better value, but someone else mentioned that schecter has got a lot better over the years. What year is your schecter ?
@@BrendonKPadjasekmodern schecters are amazing man. They’ve done away with a lot of the things that made them less desirable in the past like the super chunky necks and the tacky aesthetics. I also find their QC to be very consistent and on par with LTD. Aaron from Intervals new sig RIPS, definitely check one out if you can 👍🏻
@ilikeheavymuzic135 that’s good to know. I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on a schecter to do away with my negative experiences with the brand
@ilikeheavymuzic135 I also found the gloss on the necks to be super sticky. Is that fixed now as well ?
@@BrendonKPadjasek not many of them actually have gloss finishes now, so I can’t really say. The ones I’ve played recently all had either a natural wenge neck which felt amazing like on Aaron’s sig, or a nice satin finish. I’ve been eyeing John from Monuments new signature as well
Of course theres something called Thall...
Thall Goodman
You had mentioned using 90 gauge strings. What brand do you use? I normally go with Ernie Balls but I don’t know if 105 will be too much for that drop C1 and below
I actually made a mistake and didn't realize until later, but I made a community post about my string gauges for this guitar. At the point of the video I was using the.024-.084 for drop C and had great results. Right now I have .024-.100 ( the fender specific strings) for Drop A0 and it's working pretty well. I realistically should go to 105 but I already bought 6 packs lmao so I won't try that for a while
I haven't tried the Ernie Balls but I love D'Addario strings and they've always been good for me. But Ernie's are also sick and having a .090 is probably a better option. I wouldn't go below B with the .090
Why are we using guitars when its bass tuning.... chords and string bends a lot easier on a guitar over the thicker strings and any guitar can be modded to work and hold in a tuning of preferance, huge pros and cons to using this type of guitar
I’ve been trying to get super low tunings out of guitars for over a decade and I haven’t had as much luck with the clarity as I do with this one. But you’re right. Pros and cons for this guitar
Guitar Limbo
Agreed
Have you tried other string gauges? I've currently got my barritone in double drop C and the high E has a .74. While the tension is around where i like it, the middle G and C tend to sound like they're muted or being played through a tube. Would tha tbe a tone issue or a setup issue?
I haven't yet. Still have the stock strings on, but with my experience with other guitars, thicker strings for lower tuning always yield great results.
I'd likely go .80/.84 on that E string.
I'd need to know more information though, what guage strings are on the problem strings?
@@BrendonKPadjasek I use a similar set to Buster Odholm without mixing different sets, which is the Ernie Ball 6 string Baritone set. I believe it's a 72-14. I have a very similar gauge setup on my 8 string but the sound is quite different on the highs, but my 8 has Fishmans in it and the baritone has P90s
@leopardboy18 interesting. On structures guitars I always use a .80 for the E because I find it too floppy otherwise. On a 27” neck at least
This video randomly showed up in my feed and it took me a minute to realize I saw you when you were doing vocals for Structures almost a decade ago in Fort Collins, CO. ruclips.net/video/VzHaXnw9xz0/видео.html
Hahaha that’s insane! Definitely me. And I still do vocals/ guitar in structures
I had one a couple years ago but sold it. Didn't like the neck feel and the floating bridge made keeping it in tune really hard, even with labella strings and the flipped bridge trick that people on forums recommended. I got a danelectro baritone which I like a lot more and don't go lower than E, so I don't really run into the tuner problem you mentioned. I also have that Ibanez Multiscale bass vi you talked about on my wishlist though haha. Played it a bit at GC and liked the feel a lot more than the squier vi.
How have you found the tuning stability with yours? I was having trouble with E and you're down at C#.
That’s good to know. Finding the right guitar is like finding the right pair of shoes
Ibanez and fender seem to always be the most comfortable for my hands and playing style. I’m finding it holds tune really well. I think a lot of people have issues in standard tuning, which I agree was a bit shaky, but it seems to handle lower tunings much better. Still a bit off between 0 and 1 but i haven’t played a guitar that’s perfect on both
How’s the Danelectro for holding tune?
@@BrendonKPadjasek My Danelectro has no issue holding tune. I double check it every time I play and have no issues while I'm playing. It only goes out of tune if I don't play for a few days. I also really like that it has 24 frets and the lipstick pickups have a nice mid scoop that makes dialing tones much easier.
@justinpatrickdias1614 oh I didn’t know it had 24 frets. That’s a huge bonus! Danelectro has always made such unique instruments
If you dont use the right strings on any guitar then chords will always sound like shit.
Daddario nyxls are bright and durable enough for pretty much any tuning and any sound
Anything will sound terrible without the right string gauges. String brand helps with getting good tone as well, but gauges will set how audible it is
I also use C#1 tuning on 28/30” scale for 9 string. You said you use .090? the strandberg custom light set has a .084. They used to taper these for 28-26.25” scale to accommodate their headless bridge saddles. But i think after a hardware update they dont taper anymore. They’re the brightest nickel wound strings and have a higher breaking point. Ive tuned up to a G4 with a swapped .007 single string. Even though they cost $30, would you be open to trying that set?
As you probably know already. Theres perhaps a pro to using 6 string over all vs 9 string being: less pickup winding, less mass, less weight, easier fingering like you said lol
@@BrendonKPadjasek i love the video i just dont agree with saying anything will sound like shit on 9 strings. Maybe out of the box with stock pickups yes chords especially will sound ass. But you can upgrade the strings and pickups and adjust your tone.
For the money yes you get the win with the fender bass VI. I love the squire version, and also flipped it to left handed!
Overall lighter string and pick gauges and brighter strings work for me on 9 string.
@summit101xxx9 interesting. What then you would you say would be the main reason there is no clarity on most 9 strings between 0 and the other notes ?
👎
As a shitty guitarist and terrible mixer, I'd argue that you can achieve this with the right mixing ability and drop pedals. I can barely make guitar tones after years because I'm a simpleton, but I feel like I hear the arguments for various guitars a lot, when really some people are just excellent at mixing and could make some pos guitar sound like magic. I will say, I have been tempted to get a Harley Benton rip off of this guitar, but have resisted thus far.
I don’t disagree with that at all. But buying a pitch drop pedal and a guitar would likely be more expensive than buying this one
Just cuts out the difficulty of dialing in a proper tone with a pitch drop pedal because that’s another loophole to work around
@@BrendonKPadjasek Oh yeah for sure - I can barely get a decent tone let alone a tone then dropping the tuning with pedals, but there's tons of dudes out there who can! I also sadly agree that Schecter have dropped the ball in the last few years - got 3 of them over the years and the Pro C-7 is not up to scratch when you go back 10 years and look at the quality comparatively.
@plaguebearermetal yeah man it’s unfortunate because the guitars look bad ass (most of them) but when you play it you’re like “do they even play the guitars before they leave the factory?”
What is the strings gauge on your bass VI ?
I have the stock ones, and I am about to go for .100 fender ones to hope being able to go for C tuning.
I was happily able to do drop C with the .024-.084 but right now I have the .024-.100 for Drop A. The 4th string is pretty tight as an A, so I'd be weary of using it for Drop C as a guitar
@@BrendonKPadjasek Thanks. I'll go for .100 and will try various tunings. For now with stock ones it is ok for D but below it's a mess.
I just find out you did a newer video about this. I am watching it.
This guitar is such a hidden gem for extreme metal !
Double drop E? I don’t think you can even tune that low. Only with a pitch shifter.
This is in bass registers so it would be an octave lower than a guitar
Which is what a lot of people refer to as double drop
need amp for bass or for guitar for this beautiful guitar bass ? 😍
I use the Otto Audio II II II II for guitar and the Parallax or Dark Glass Neural DSP plugin
@@BrendonKPadjasek ty about amp plug in ;D
@FabioCoradduzza no problem! I absolutely love it
I tried looking around on your channel, but couldn't find any info about what strings/gauges you're using? Curious to hear your input on that. Thanks!
It’s in a community post. Not a video or short!
@@BrendonKPadjasek dude, you are a legend, thank you!
@jsmallsawe no problem at all. Thanks so much!
Singlecoil noise is a bummer indeed. It would definitely be interesting to see you install a set of noiseless singlecoils (of some sort) on this guitar. My first thought was a set of Strat pickups, but I actually don't know how they would fit - seeing as how the Bass VI pickups are more similar to Jaguar pickups than Strat pickups. Please do it and show us how it's done! 😀
I definitely agree. But just found some odd tricks that work for the noise, depending on if you’re on clean. If you’re on distortion, rhythm tone then yeah we’re kind of doomed to the noise. I’m thinking of switching out the bridge for a Bare Knuckle Impulse after talking to Josh about it
@@BrendonKPadjasek Aah! What odd tricks? Tell us more! 😀
Also, do you mean a Single coil or a Humbucker BK Impulse? (Because, as I understand it, BK single coils are not noise-cancelling...)
@@griiseknoen Sorry, I should have specified, I meant the Humbucker. Probably going to go with HSS and keep the original other pickups.
I've noticed if you have say the mid and bridge pickup, or mid and neck pickup selected, the noise cancels out. Like on a normal 5 way switch. I've been able to use it for clean this way. Otherwise the noise is audible through the clean guitar if held out
Has the term "double drop" changed? It has always been used in my circles to drop the high E string to the same note as your low E and D string in a normal drop tuning. Ex: double drop D would be DADGBD
Interesting! I’ve heard it used both ways so I’m not exactly sure which is the true “double drop”. Yours makes more sense I think
@@BrendonKPadjasekthat confusion is exactly why I started naming the note + the octave. so drop D1, drop C#1, drop B0, drop A0 and whatnot.
@ripit.3457 yeah that makes total sense. I may adopt that !
string guage high to low? i remember you saying the top is .100 and the 5th being .80 but what do you run on this thing? and main tuning for it?
I’ve been experimenting with tuning so all over the place. I got 6 packs of the fender .024-.100 in the description of the other videos. So I’ll likely be between drop B and G
@@BrendonKPadjasek that’s insane man. I’ve been looking into getting a baritone or something similar to this, for HLB and vildhjarta influenced songs, you’re very helpful and I appreciate that man!
@yuhboybugs3275 yeah it’s very insane haha. I definitely would go thicker than .100 for the G because I had quite a difficult time with tracking those guitars. But it worked pretty well for A
what a joke
Thank you
what strings are you using there? ordering one right now...
They’re just the stock string the guitar came with. I’m assuming 24-84 or 20-90
Haha that’s amazing. I’m definitely digging the hell out of this guitar
Or 24-100. Just saw those bow. That’s the fender brand strings so I imagine it comes stock with those
thats sick mate. ordered this last night after watching your videos since ive been on the hunt for a 30" for a while. got a set of 84s as a spare, but damn if the 100s are gnarlier I might just have to cop a set. Do you have any 8 string/9 string sets you'd say would work with this very nicely (obv just the bottom 6 strings of either set)
@devan7316 that’s a great question! I unfortunately haven’t begun the hunt for strings. I’m personally going to try the sets Bass VI sets and see how it goes. The Ernie Ball or D’addario set
Everything here is exactly why I got mine. I've had it for about two years now, and I've had nothing but loads of fun. Particularly a massive fan of using the Neural DSP SLO with this guitar. So much fun. +1 subscriber for finally finding someone who goes in depth with it!
Ehh thanks for subscribing! Yeah I e been having so much fun with this guitar and seeing what it’s good at and what it’s not but yeah. Super cool. I haven’t tried the SLO yet but I’ve been really enjoying it with the Otto Audio 11 11 as the amp was made for low tuning
@@BrendonKPadjasek I’ve been meanting to try the Otto for a while! But I ended up finding a solid sale for the SLO 😂
Looking forward to seeing more of your content with it!
@LeviJules can’t go wrong with a solid sale. Luckily all these companies have 14 day trials so you can see if it’s right for you
@LeviJules and thank you! I definitely have more planned !
what about the bridge itself? I heard a lot of people replace the bridge almost immediately when buying this guitar specifically
I kept the bridge, but flipped it around 180 degrees so that I can get the string to sit further back. I wanted to make the most of it without spending extra money
Pretty happy with how it sounds and plays
Imagine having 3 single coil sized high output humbuckers in this
I can’t tell you the amount of time I’ve given to thinking of that exact concept lmao
Thanks for checking it out
@@BrendonKPadjasekI meant 3. I made a typo.
Imagine how powerful the sound is gonna be from 3 humbuckers at once.
Just would need to put them deep into the wood so the sheer amount of strong magnets didn't kill the sustain. But that's only gonna make the sound even better when there are strong pickups in the wood as opposed to weak ones by the strings :)
@@BrendonKPadjasekalso, another idea. Imagine wiring it in the way that the toggles for the bass cut and stuff that you didn't like anyway does split coils or switching between serial and parallel wiring and stuff like that instead. Would need to probably get some custom electronics there besides just replacing pickups for that but just think about it how awesome that could be.
@Sylkis89 these are great ideas. Do you have a teching background? I wish I could do that stuff myself
@Sylkis89 you’re a genius
What string do you use?
In this video the stock .024-.084 gauge but now I use the .024-.100
@@BrendonKPadjasek Nice! I play guitar and I have a metalcore band similar to Dying Wish, as I Lay Dyngs... I have no idea what strings to buy :(
@leandrotavares8867 oh which guitar are you using , which tuning and what’s the scale length ?
@@BrendonKPadjasek Wow, first of all, thank you very much for your support, really! I use an Esp Ltd M10 Guitar, Scale: Rosewood 25.5″ in Drop C and Drop B tuning. I thought about getting 0.11 dunlop Jim Root Signature strings, what do you think?
@@BrendonKPadjasek Or i think D'Adario 11 - 56 to playng Drop C and B
this is exactly what i was looking for! what string gage for DUB drop C?
Thanks for checking it out! I posted all the strings and tunings I’ve tried so far in my community section. .024-.084 for dub drop c
@@BrendonKPadjasek oh snap thank you I didn’t see that !
@@FMwin900 No worries! I plan on doing more Double Drop A examples soon as well
@@BrendonKPadjasek dude seriously you can tune the bass 6 that low ? I had no idea 🤷♀️ I got into the low tuned stuff because loathe and Darko.
@@FMwin900 Yeah, it's insanely capable for being such an affordable guitar.
The expression part is very interesting, I would definately try it. also I'm kinda nervous about having humbuckers in mine now. single coils bring a lot of clarity. but my humbuckers still pick up a lot of fret noise and stuff like that so I have to be careful with gauges and tunings
Yeah that was my exact concern with upgrading to humbuckers. My homie Adrien pointed out that single coils pick up low tuning better, which I didn’t realize until now. It’s insane how clear it is, even in drop B where I definitely should have used a thicker string.
Which humbuckers do you have in right now ?
custom widerange pickups, they have a different strtucture to a regular humbucker. every pole is a magnet, just as on a single coil@@BrendonKPadjasek
@6oundStudio interesting. Do they mud up a lot?
What the hell ist fret noise? I've been playing guitar for almost 30 years and never came accross something like that.
people in USA like to call it fret buzz as well. longer scale along with thinner gauges increases the fret buzz. i hope that's a more clear sentence@@SxSxG666
Very curious as to why you don't like Schecters? In recent years they've stepped up their quality by an insane amount. I have a MKIII KM7 and it's legit the best guitar I've ever owned. It's spec'd perfectly in my opinion.
That’s good to know. The last time I used a schecter I was recording a band that had one and it felt terrible and sounded worse. When I was testing out 8 strings it was the most expensive and also the muddiest, and really difficult to reach the 24th fret.
How new is your guitar?
If the quality has gone up that’s very good to know, as I always found them wayyy too expensive for the quality you get.
If you can, comment the things you like and don’t like about it so others can make the right buying choice
Maybe I’ll rent the one you have and try it out to change my years of disliking the brand. Always happy to see when a company changes their products for the good
Thanks for the info!
@@BrendonKPadjasek yeah I have one and replaced the pickups as they sounded aweful. muddy af, no clean tone, but I still got it and it sounds good with the gibson 57 classic gold plus whatever their called. Plus I got the new super shredder with the sustainiac and its wails dude and is super fun to play.
@r.l.erdody7726 yes. I’ve owned 2 and tried a few others and I have never been a fan. The first 7 string I had was a hellraiser
Which schecter do you have?
@@BrendonKPadjasek I got a lady luck c1 and a sun valley super shredder
People don't talk about the Bass VI being a bass and a guitar, because it's not. It's a short-scale bass where the fundamental frequncy is the highlight. It's a long scale guitar where the harmonics are brought up over a 25.5" or shorter scale. That blend sounds way different in a mix.
Whatever it is, it’s an amazing instrument
@@BrendonKPadjasek - most definitely and lots of fun to boot
@Crispy_Music_2024 super fun. That tremolo arm also makes it extra fun
Wish I knew about this guitar before getting my danelectro baritone, I still love using it but this guitar is much more useful
I definitely wanna try one of those danelectros. But for me I definitely think the Squier is the way to go. Stoked on how it sounds for heavy music and the tremolo arm is so sick
@@BrendonKPadjasek Im honestly planning on trading in the one I have now for the Squier instead.
LOW TUNINGS SOUND HEAVIER YESSS
I’m with you on that one. Thanks for checking it out !
Sick vid bud! I’d like to know your opinions on mega baritones vs pitch shifting, as Buster Odeholm is probably the best example of pitch shifting mastery!
Oh yeah he’s definitely a master of that. I haven’t had great experience with the 1,0 style dissonant heavy chords but everything else seems to work well. For me, those heavy chords are essential in my music so I’d stick with something like this
Thanks for watching! Buster is very sick
Personally I think it's more about the string gauge. I have a better sound with 0.074 tuned to E, then pitch shift down to C#, rather than a 0.090 tuned to C#. Also I prefer the feel of a .0.074" rather than a 0.090".
You also could have mentionned the Gretsch G5260 and the Harley Benton JA-Baritone.
What plugin do you use ?
Thanks for mentioning it! I’ll put it in the description for the options. Theres so many options in the bass vi range. I’d love to get my hands on all of them and compare
I use STL tonality for guitar and Neural DSP for bass. Both the parallax and the darkglass ultra
What are you using?
@@BrendonKPadjasek I use the mixwave Spiritbox plugin. I should try the STL Stuff. I also have the Neural DSP Rabea mainly for the fuzz, the octaver and the synth. But it's more for the 6 string range.
@didtoknan8128 yeah definitely. I love Neural for the effects, but not as much for actual amp tones. I’ve heard great things about the Spirit Box mix wave amp.
Try out the STL trials and lmk what you think. I love them. May do some more presets for them in the future