"Jet Harris's Diamond" -- The Ultimate in Six-String Basses

This 1963 Bass VI has a slab rosewood fretboard. It weighs in at just 8.80 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 9/16 inches and a short bass scale length of 30 inches. Solid alder body, maple neck, and slab rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and clay dot position markers. Single "butterfly" string with metal spacer. Headstock decal with "Fender VI" logo in gold with black trim and "Electric Bass Guitar" and three patent numbers in black below it. Small circular "Offset Contour Body" decal on the ball end of the headstock. Four-bolt neck plate with serial number ("95171") between the top two screws. Three Jaguar-style (white six-polepiece) pickups with serrated chrome surrounds and balanced outputs of 6.79k, 6.42k, and 6.97k. Four-layer (tortoiseshell/white/black/white) plastic pickguard with bevelled edge and fourteen screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) and jack input on lower metal plate adjoining pickguard and four two-way pickup selector switches on metal plate inset into pickguard. Seven-sided black plastic knobs with white markings. Six-saddle bridge with adjustable mute and separate vibrato tailpiece. This is one of the best examples we've ever seen of the earliest "second-generation" Bass VIs. Fender only made a very few of these with the original "slab" Brazilian mahogany fretboard (in mid 1962 they changed to a veneer rosewood fretboard), but with the added fourth "frequency" selector switch. The neck is stamped "6 MAY 62A" and the pots are stamped "304 6309" (CTS March 1963). The tremolo cavity is dated in pencil "3/63." There is some minor "cord marking" on the back of the guitar (where the guitar has sat on the patch cord in its case) and a few small surface marks on the back and edges, but overall this forty-four-year-old "six-string-bass" is most certainly in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Complete with the original tremolo arm. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with red plush lining (9.00).

The Fender Bass Vl was produced in very small numbers, usually to special order. On this very fine example the body and electronics are dated March 1963, but it has the great advantage of having a "slab" Brazilian rosewood fretboard (these were discontinued in mid '62 and replaced by the less favored "veneer" rosewood fretboard). It was quite common for the factory to have "unused" completed parts "lying about," which explains the disparity between the neck date of May 1962 and the body date of March 1963. There is absolutely no question of there ever having been a "marriage" between the neck and the body on this guitar -- this is the first and only neck that has ever been on this body.

"After noting the popularity of the Danelectro 6-string bass (tuned EADGBE, like a guitar, but an octave lower) in the Nashville studios, Leo decided to build his own version. He introduced the Fender Bass VI in 1961. The original version looked vaguely like a Jazz Bass but had a 30" scale length, three pickups, and three sliding switches that allowed seven different pickup combinations. That wasn't enough for Leo, apparently, so a year later he added a fourth switch -- the so-called 'strangle switch' that cut low frequencies. The pickups were also modified and a mute added. The Bass VI was never very popular, but it remained in the catalog until 1975 and was later revived, in a Japanese-made reissue, in 1995" (Jim Roberts, American Basses, p. 55).

"Every musician will readily recognize the potential of the New Fender six-string Bass Guitar inasmuch as it offers an entirely 'new sound' to every playing group. Tuned one octave below the standard guitar, numerous new tone combinations are made possible with three full range pickups. The circuit incorporates three two position switches enabling the player to select the pickups individually or in any combination. In addition, a tone control positioned adjacent to the volume control permits further tone modifications of any selector position. The Bass Guitar is a fine addition to the Fender line and answers the demand for a high-quality six-string bass" (July 1961 Namm Daily advertisement in J.W. Black and Albert Molinaro, The Fender Bass, p. 31).

Jet Harris of The Shadows played a Fender Bass VI. His first solo single was a six-string Fender Bass VI guitar version of the Latin standard "Besame Mucho" (May 1962). The follow up to "Besame Mucho," again featuring the Bass VI, was Elmer Bernstein's "Main Title Theme" from "The Man with the Golden Arm" (No. 17 in September 1962). His other big hits included "Diamonds" (No. 1 in February 1963), "Scarlett O'Hara" (No. 2 in May 1963), and "Applejack" (No. 9 in September 1963).