The Fender Bass VI , originally known as the Fender VI , is a six-string electric bass guitar made by Fender . The instrument is tuned an octave below a standard electric guitar . It is thus similar to the Bajo Sexto , an acoustic guitar from Mexico that is tuned an octave below the standard guitar.
36-733: The Fender VI was released in 1961 and followed the concept of the Danelectro six-string bass released in 1956, having six strings tuned E1 to E3, an octave below the Spanish guitar. The Bass VI was closely related to the Fender Jaguar , with which it shared styling and technical details, notably the Fender floating tremolo . The VI had an offset body similar but not identical to that of the Jazzmaster/Jaguar. It departed from
72-636: A Fender Thinline Telecaster (" Taste in Men "), a Fender Jazzmaster (" Pure Morning "), and a Fender Bass VI (" Slave to the Wage "). For amplification he used a Marshall 6100LM. Through the Meds tour, he used Gretsch Duo Jets (" Infra-Red ", " Because I Want You ", " Song to Say Goodbye ", "One of a Kind", " The Bitter End ", " Running Up that Hill ", " Special K "), Gibson SGs (" Special Needs ", " Every You Every Me ", " Black-Eyed ", " Without You I'm Nothing "),
108-570: A Gibson Les Paul (" For What It's Worth ", "Speak in Tongues", "Julien", " Meds "), a Fender Telecaster Thinline ("Kitty Litter"), and a Fender Toronado (" Battle for the Sun "). His pedalboard consisted of a Boss TU-2 chromatic tuner, Electro Harmonix Holy Grail reverb, MXR Phase 90 phaser, two Electro Harmonix Hot Tubes distortion units, Boss DD-3 delay, MXR Distortion + booster, MG Monovibe chorus/vibrato, Electro Harmonix No. 1 Echo delay and
144-627: A Les Paul style guitar. It was the most enduringly popular of the U-series. A single-pickup version (the U1) and triple-pickup version (the U3) were manufactured and sold alongside the U2. They were originally made from the years 1956 to 1958. It was reissued in the late 1990s, in 2006 in a slightly modified form as the '56 Pro, and again in 2010 as the '56 Single Cutaway. The Danelectro Shorthorn line of guitars are
180-653: A "fascist racist" while performing at the Sonic Park Festival in Stupinigi in July. He has performed, as a guest vocalist and with other artists on Placebo's records, on tracks by: Molko wrote the English lyrics to "Pink Water 3", a song by Indochine from the album Alice & June , released in 2005. Molko was friends with David Bowie ; Bowie sang on Placebo's " Without You I'm Nothing " and on
216-695: A Fender Jaguar ("Drag", " Nancy Boy ", "I Know"), a Fender Thinline Telecaster (" Twenty Years ", " Taste in Men "), and a Gibson Chet Atkins SST (" Meds "). His amplifier was a Fender Twin Reverb. In the Battle for the Sun tour, he still used Gretsch Duo Jets ("Devil in the Details", "Come Undone", "Follow The Cops Back Home"), a Gibson SG (" Bright Lights "), Fender Cyclone (" Ashtray Heart ", " The Never-Ending Why ", "Breathe Underwater", " Teenage Angst "),
252-412: A dual cutaway hollow-bodied design made of Masonite and poplar. The original models were introduced in 1959. The Danelectro Dano Pro is a beginner electric guitar made by Danelectro in 1963 and 1964; it was reissued in 2007 and again in 2012. The original was a 3/4-scale guitar with a single lipstick tube pickup. The reissue features two pickups rather than one. The FAB series of guitar effect pedals
288-473: A group called Ashtray Heart. Along with Hewitt and Olsdal, Molko had a role in the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine , for which Placebo performed the T. Rex song " 20th Century Boy ". He played Malcolm, a singer of the fictional glam rock band, "The Flaming Creatures", who resembled the early Alice Cooper band. During Placebo's live performances Molko has played a number of instruments, including guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, harmonica and saxophone. Molko
324-707: A much larger plant in Neptune City, New Jersey , and employed more than 500 people. Nevertheless, three years later Danelectro closed its plant. In the late 1990s, the Evets Corporation started selling instruments and accessories under the Danelectro name. In 2016, Danelectro introduced new models, including a resonator guitar . Some of the products manufactured by Danelectro include electric and resonator guitars, basses , electric sitars , amplifiers , pickups , and effects units . Danelectro
360-456: A new marketing model for guitars, selling a limited number each year. The Danelectro C was put into production and retailed from 1954 to 1955 until being replaced by the Danelectro U model in 1956. Unlike most of the later Danelectro instruments, the C model was a solid body construction made of poplar and came in a peanut-like body shape. The Danelectro U2 is a dual-pickup hollow-bodied guitar made of Masonite and shaped similar to
396-463: A pedal board. Despite the advantages of the mini effects, FAB effects are more common. The Mini effects are less expensive, but the plastic construction makes them fragile. Brian Molko Brian Molko (born 10 December 1972) is a British-American musician who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist of the band Placebo . He is known for his nasal vocals, feminine / androgynous appearance and aggressive guitar style and tunings. Molko
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#1732802535795432-464: A similar model from 2006 through 2008. In 2013, Fender released a Bass VI model as part of its Pawn Shop series. In line with the series' purpose to reconfigure classic Fender designs, this version of the Bass VI has a Jazzmaster -type humbucking bridge pickup and a Stratocaster -style five-position pickup selector, as opposed to separate switches. There are three available colors: brown sunburst with
468-503: A synthetic bone nut, rosewood fingerboard until 2018, medium jumbo frets, chrome hardware, alnico custom single-coil Jaguar pickups with claw, and continued the trend set by the Squier Vintage Modified Jaguars and Jazzmasters of having a non-locking tremolo plate. It was available in three-color sunburst finish with 4-ply tortoiseshell pickguard, Olympic White with a brown tortoiseshell pickguard, and black with
504-469: A tortoiseshell pickguard, black with a tortoiseshell pickguard, and candy-apple red with a white pickguard and painted headstock. Also in 2013, Squier released a Bass VI as part of the Vintage Modified series. This model was similar to the traditional Bass VI design with four switches (on/off for each pickup and a "strangle" (low-cut filter) switch) and a Jaguar-style control plate. It featured
540-616: A white three-ply pickguard. In 2019, Squier released its Classic Vibe Bass VI, available in three-color sunburst and black, both with tortoiseshell pickguard. It has a slightly wider width at the nut than the Vintage Modified Bass VI (1.685" vs. 1.65"). The nut was upgraded to bone and the Indian laurel fretboard is equipped with narrow, tall frets. The pickup specs were changed to Fender-designed alnico single-coil pickups while retaining classic Jaguar claw shielding rings and
576-412: Is bisexual , a theme that is reflected in some of his earlier lyrics with Placebo. Molko was previously in a relationship with Helena Berg, with whom he has a son, Cody Molko, who was born in 2005. Cody is now an actor, and appeared in the television series The Drowning . Molko has been open about his use of recreational drugs: in a 1997 interview with Kerrang! magazine he admitted that heroin
612-942: Is a budget range of pedals made by the Danelectro company that are manufactured in China. The series was launched in 2005 with the release of the FAB Distortion, FAB Overdrive, and FAB Metal pedals. Currently, eight pedals share the same distinctive injection moulded plastic casing and blue LED light. Each has a mains power DC9 socket or can be powered by a nine-volt battery. They market eight pedals lines: original effects, FAB effects, mini effects, vintage effects, Wasabi effects, Paisley effects, Cool Cat effects, and other miscellaneous effects. All run on nine-volt batteries or power adapters. The original effects featured metal enclosures and FET switching. Cool Cat models were designed with metal enclosures and true-bypass switching. Danelectro began rolling out Cool Cat V2 pedals, featuring extra "under
648-726: Is available in Fiesta Red & Lake Placid Blue. Like other Fenders of the time, the Fender VI had a 7.25-inch fingerboard radius. The Fender VI, along with the Jaguar , the Jazzmaster and the Electric XII , was given a cream/white-bound fretboard with rectangular pearloid block inlays in 1967, followed by a thicker black CBS-style headstock decal and polyester finishes instead of nitrocellulose lacquer in 1968. In 1970, as with
684-652: The American International School of Luxembourg (AISL), before studying drama at Goldsmiths College in London. Although Molko and Placebo co-founder Stefan Olsdal had both attended the American International School of Luxembourg ( AISL ), they had not been friends. When Molko was living in London, he ran into Olsdal at South Kensington tube station and invited him to one of his gigs he played with Steve Hewitt in
720-480: The "20th Century Boy" cover live. Molko uses a variety of guitars. In the Sleeping With Ghosts era, he used Gibson SGs (" The Bitter End ", " Every You Every Me ", "Plasticine", " Black-Eyed ", " Without You I'm Nothing ", " Special K ", "Bulletproof Cupid", "Soulmates/Sleeping With Ghosts", " Special Needs ", " This Picture "), Fender Jaguars ("Allergic", " Nancy Boy ", "Bionic", "Centrefolds"),
756-494: The Bass VI electronics were revised to incorporate some features from the Jaguar, with the adoption of toothed pickups and the addition of a fourth slider switch to provide bass-cut. This remained the setup of the Bass VI throughout its remaining 12 years of continuous production. Electronics mentioned above were all passive electronics. Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal of Placebo play Fender Bass VIs, with Molko saying, "Playing
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#1732802535795792-575: The Fender VI is like playing two instruments in one, it can be treated as a guitar and as a bass." Danelectro Danelectro is a brand of musical instruments and accessories that was founded in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1947. The company is known primarily for its string instruments that employed unique designs and manufacturing processes. The Danelectro company was sold to the Music Corporation of America (MCA) in 1966, moved to
828-555: The Jaguar-type 'low-frequency-attenuating' (high-pass) filter. When the Fender Jaguar was released in 1962, it used the Jazzmaster body with its unusual lead/rhythm electrics and the floating tremolo, but with a short scale-length neck, the Bass VI switch panel and two unique "toothed" pickups. Having only two pickups to control, the Jaguar's third slider switch served as a bass cut (also known as "strangle") switch. In 1963,
864-641: The Silvertone maroon vinyl covering, and the Danelectro light-colored tweed covering. The guitars used concentric stacked tone/volume knobs on the two- pickup models of both series and "lipstick-tube" pickups , which contained the pickup components inside metal tubes that resembled lipstick containers of the era. In 1956, Danelectro introduced the six-string bass guitar . Though the model never became widely popular, it found an enduring niche in Nashville and Los Angeles for "tic-tac" bass lines, where
900-476: The cheapest of the brand's lineup and feature plastic enclosures somewhat larger than the Mini effects series. In 2006, Danelectro sold a carrying case that holds up to five mini effects. When the player is ready to play, the top could be removed and the bottom acts as a pedals board. It was shortly discontinued. Not long after, another carrying case was developed to fit five FAB or Cool Cat pedals as well as serve as
936-512: The concept of the Fender Precision Bass in having six strings, a shorter scale and thinner strings, and a mechanical vibrato arm. The Bass VI never caught on to the extent that the four-string Precision Bass and its derivatives did. The model was discontinued in 1975. From 1995 through 1998, Fender Japan produced a vintage reissue featuring the 1963 model's Jaguar-style pickups and electronics. The Fender Custom Shop reissued
972-459: The electric instrument doubled the line played by an upright acoustic bass. In 1966, Danelectro was sold to the Music Corporation of America . A year later, in 1967, they introduced the Coral line, known for its hollow-bodies and electric sitars . In 1969, Danelectro closed down, burdened by MCA's attempt to market their guitars to small guitar shops rather than large department stores. In
1008-556: The hardware was switched to nickel. The logo was also changed, from black to gold with black outline. Most of the other remaining features are similar to the Vintage Modified model. In 2023, Fender released a Bass VI model under the Vintera II series. Unlike the Pawn Shop version, the Vintera II 60s Bass VI is built to resemble the traditional 60s Bass VI with Alder body, Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard. The Vintera II 60s Bass VI
1044-471: The hood" features. Mini effects pedals are smaller, compact pedals with effects resembling those of the original effects and the FAB effects. Vintage effects include the large, rectangular Spring King and Reel Echo effect pedals. The discontinued Paisley series featured paisley-patterned drive effects in original style enclosures. The Wasabi series features large, futuristic-looking metal enclosures. FAB effects are
1080-449: The late 1990s, importer The Evets Corporation purchased the Danelectro brand name, marketing recreations of old Silvertone and Danelectro guitars and newly designed effects pedals and small amplifiers made in China. After initially selling well, guitar sales slowed and Danelectro stopped selling guitars after 2001 (2004 on the official site ) to concentrate on effects pedals. In 2006 (2005 on official site ), new owners of Evets decided on
1116-615: The other Fender basses in production at the time (excluding the Precision Bass ), the Bass VI was also offered with a black-bound Maple neck with black rectangular block inlays. The original-issue Bass VI had three Jaguar-style single coil pickups (with the Magnetic Field Accumulators used on the Jaguar guitar-pickups), controlled by a panel of four slider switches (rather than the conventional three-position switch): three individual pickup on/off switches, plus
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1152-491: The recording and release of Meds . Molko is bilingual, and speaks fluent French and English. In December 2012 Molko received an Honorary Fellowship from Goldsmiths College, University of London. In March 2021, Molko was featured in the Marc Jacobs "Heaven" collection with a campaign shot taken by Harley Weir. In August 2023, Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni sued Molko for defamation after he called her
1188-567: The town of Sandweiler , in Luxembourg. Although Molko was brought up in a strict household that disapproved of artistic expression (his father wanted him to become a banker), he rebelled by assuming an androgynous image, wearing nail polish , lipstick, and eyeliner, and listening to punk music . He initially attended the European School of Luxembourg (ESL), but left because he was bullied. He completed his secondary education at
1224-474: Was "probably the only drug on this planet I haven't tried". However, he later admitted to using heroin as well. Pharmaceutical drugs are also referenced, as evidenced by the band's name as well as the album Meds and its title track. Molko admitted in 2003 that many of his initial excesses were due to his mental health issues; he was officially diagnosed with major depressive disorder in his late twenties. He claimed in 2016 that he gave up drugs completely after
1260-684: Was born in Brussels , Belgium, to an American father of French and Italian heritage and a Scottish mother. He had an older brother named Stuart who died in August 2022 after a short illness. Molko's family moved frequently during his childhood due to his father's career as a banker; the family lived in Dundee in Scotland, Liberia, Lebanon, the village of Longeau in Belgium, before eventually settling in
1296-530: Was founded by Nathan Daniel [ fr ] in 1947. Throughout the late 1940s, the company produced amplifiers for Sears, Roebuck and Company and Montgomery Ward , branded Silvertone and Airline respectively. Later, Danelectro added hollow-bodied guitars, constructed of Masonite and poplar to save costs and increase production speed, intending to produce no-frills guitars of reasonably good tone at low cost. These instruments were branded either as Danelectro or (for Sears) Silvertone, distinguished by
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