So I have this guitar. Or is it a baritone? Or is it a 6 string bass? The latter two terms I’ve always thought were interchangeable, but it seems this is not the case. I’d been using what D’Addario called “guitar/bass” strings (XL156), made for things like this one and Fender’s Bass VI. They’re like guitar strings, but an octave lower. Fun? Yes, but the two lowest strings sound like pure butt.
It was then that I had the idea of trying baritone strings, which are halfway between the guitar’s and bass’s range. I have tried many sets (OK, just two: D’Addario XL157, Ernie Ball 2839), and all of them are too short for my Teisco’s unfeasibly long neck. Hence, the literal anger/rage concoction that is my current emotional state.
After yet more research, I discovered that it was I who was ignorant, and not the rest of the world. Guitars have a neck scale of around 25 inches. I previously thought baritones and basses could be anywhere from 27 to 30 inches. Turns out baritones are around 30 inches, and basses can be anywhere from 32 to 36 inches. Guess what scale my “guitar/bass” thing has? Hint: the same one as a bass.
NOTES, FROM THE NEAR FUTURE
Robert Smith used a Bass VI extensively while recording Faith and Disintegration, aka the Best Cure Albums EVAR.
I’ve had this thing for almost exactly ten years. I saw it in a shop in Seattle. The pickup switches used to be the kind you found on Wurlitzer organs, but I kept knocking into them, so I had them replaced with toggle switches.
After years of no information at all, I eventually found out this was made by Teisco, in the 60s. This guitar, a TB-64, is a later model and cousin of mine.
NOTES, FROM THE VERY DISTANT FUTURE
1) The “sounds like butt” problem ended up being due to my “apartment rock” setup: a Pod and headphones. Earlier in the distant summer of 2010 I played this through my amp(s), and it was GLORIOUS.
2) Thanks to dumb luck, a Japanese website, and a sweet forum, I finally have some decent info on this thing. In Japan, it was known as a TB-64. Those were rebranded as “Del Rey” in the US. They were also sometimes rebranded as “Rhythm Beat”. This is what I have, and the one I NEVER see pictures of on inter-net. Later models went from the oval pickups to the square ones.
3) I recently got rid of the toggle switches, because they were either turning the pickups off or gashing my fingers when I strummed too hard. Now they’re just always on, as they should be.
4) I added/updated a few links up above in the main part of this post. Because I am from the future and that’s how we roll in our time.
