The Logic Off Topic list

>Dennis Gunn wrote:
>
>>The Fender Six string baritone has been around for years.  That guy
>>who used to play in the Lovin Spoonful and went on to a solo career
>>tears one up.
>
>Hi Dennis,
>Thanks for the heads-up on that one. I'll check out if Fender have decided
>to continue the line, or make some kind of a substitute.
>
>>   Lately I have been looking for a used one of those.
>Good idea.
>
>>   I played one a little it was
>>really cool.
>That's kind of what I was hoping. I just kind of want to be able to play
>some more lead line licks, little chords, stuff like that, but down there
>in an 'oomphy register'.

Think "twin peaks".  I guess that is what the theme was played on.


>  >   Not exactly like a modern six string though because
>>they are designed to have the low string be a an E rather than a low
>>B like on the modern ones.  Have the bottom four strings of a 5
>>string bass set on my Fender Jazz bass.  Unfortunately it does not
>>really handle the low B as well as a "real" 5 string bass.
>
>Question, though. This intrigues me. Did you at times find that you wished
>you could go lower and growly like 'a real bass'; and ... when you were
>playing higher, did you wish that you could 'cut through a bit more' like a
>'real guitar'. What I'm saying is, was it instinctive to play? Did you find
>it real easy to fall into 'the way' of the baritone, its range, its
>possibilities and such like, or did you find yourself going through a more
>or less extended kind of period of readjustment to what you could do. How
>long did it take before you kind of weren't conscious any more of the fact
>that you had a very different kind of an animal in your hands? Does that
>make sense? Just curious?


I think you are misunderstanding.  Like you I am interested in 
getting a baritone but do not currently have one.  In the low B 
reference I was talking about the bass I normally use which is a 
Fender Jazz bass on which I have the bottom for strings of a 5 string 
*bass* set.  This means the lowest string is the the B *below* that 
of a regular bass.  It's somewhere around 27.5hz (I think) which is 
quite low indeed.  It's a pretty thick heavy string though and it 
just seems to be too much metal flopping around for the little ol' 
Jazz Bass neck to be confortable with.  My NS10s don't exactly jump 
for joy when they see it coming either. The low B of a well made 5 
string through a nice 1000 watt bass amp is truly a wonderous thunder.

OTOH I hear Flea strings his bass basically the same way I do and his 
solid funky low B was one the reasons I strung my bass that way in 
the first place.  I had always assumed he was playing a 5 string till 
I read otherwise in an inverview

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