bovinehost
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Beth said:
Tell Dan it's for me. He knows I'm worth it.
- Thread starter Beth
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Tell Dan it's for me. He knows I'm worth it.
phatduckk
Well-known member
anyone have sound clips of a silo bass? i was really drunk at open house and dont remember it 
Wow how misleading the title of this thread is. I will be the first to admit that it is a sad world when NorM becomes the voice of reason so here goes:
"It's a sad world."
Trying to get back on target.
Silhouette Bass Guitar.
Just like the ad says "It's a guitar for bass players and a bass for guitar players." From the first time I played one I knew as soon as I could afford one I would have one. I warn you that these things are fun fun fun to play. Who would of thought there would be a bass I could shred on. As a bass player I think, Wow! I can make chords on this thing really easy and they don't sound muddy.
I think Dude is right (In the only post that actually pertained to this thread) when he said he thought of it as a baritone guitar. Mine is tuned E A D G B E one octave below a regular 6 string guitar (and one octave above a bass guitar for those of you who have trouble figuring that out).
Tuned E to E all of the strings are wound. (Not wound and plain like on a regular guitar) I find this add a lot of consistency to how the strings feel under your fingers. Mostly this thing feels good. I like trying other manufactures baritone guitars but to me (IMNSHO) the EB just feels better.
I haven't tried this but I understand that you can get a different set of strings and tune these beasts from A to A (A D G C E A ?) a fifth below a guitar. I haven't tried that cause I don't want to have to do the transposing math to play with other people (like that would ever happen given my lack of social skills) and I am scared I would like it to much.
This ______ (<-- insert what ever you want to call it here)
has 2 split coil humbuckers with a 5 way pickup selector and a 2 way series / parallel knob to give you 10 selections from the pickups. I think my favorite is the single coil near the bridge. That is probably a function of as a guitar player I like to hide mistakes by using way to much chorus delay and reverb. When I run it through a bass amp I give it just a little something something (FX wise) to sweeten it up then the hard part is finding which pickup selection I like the best. (This one , no this one ... no I like this better. Then I remember what Luke said: "Sometimes you just gotta Shut Up and play!") Still with 10 selections that's a lot to choose from. Almost to many. (That's big talk coming from me as my BD SiLO EMGed Piezo guitar has 27 different combinations)
Unique things about MINE:
The neck has little tiny tiny tiny birds eyes on it. Sure it's the luck of the draw and maybe it adds or subtracts something to the sound, stability, feel, look, taste (Thinking of you dude), smell whatever of the guitar. All I know is I like it. Mine is also in pearl purple and I love purple. (I make no further comment on purple) Also I found a set of MM Schallar locking tuners on ebay. (The tuners on the Silhouette Bass Guitar are the standard non locking Schallars) and put those on. I had to drill new pilot holes for the screws and bore out the string hole for the low E string but it is what I wanted to do with mine so I did it.
The scale of the neck is short enough that I don't feel burdened when I switch from a guitar to this. I don't know (care) how I feel when I switch from bass to this other than to say the SiLO bass guitar is still comfortable.
The next time you see Aerosmith in concert, Joe Perry is playing one on "Back In The Saddle"
Things to consider that may not necessarily be in a positive light:
These are unique instruments. Not everybody (aka nobody) plays one. Finding a niche for these things is something that may take work. I think the only reason that is is because nobody's done it yet. So let's read that as here is your chance to be original. That may not be for you. If you are happy doing what everybody else does you just keep on doing what you're doing. That's fine.
The range of these instruments can really clash with a guitar or bass when played together. So I think it is important that a bass guitar (baritone) play something that neither the bass or guitar is playing. This was demonstrated well by Sterling Ball at the open house and the BB All stars show in Indio. (I'm just one lucky SOB)
So to use one of these in a band you will have to arrange / write a whole new instrument line. (Crap more work <--BS more art creation)
Dude? Would you like to try one when I come up Friday?
Phatty? If I do Prelude in C on my SiLO bASS GuiTaR and film it and put it on YouTube will you not get to drunk to watch it?
All, Pics of this thing are on Rod Trussbroken's sight.
"It's a sad world."
Trying to get back on target.
Silhouette Bass Guitar.
Just like the ad says "It's a guitar for bass players and a bass for guitar players." From the first time I played one I knew as soon as I could afford one I would have one. I warn you that these things are fun fun fun to play. Who would of thought there would be a bass I could shred on. As a bass player I think, Wow! I can make chords on this thing really easy and they don't sound muddy.
I think Dude is right (In the only post that actually pertained to this thread) when he said he thought of it as a baritone guitar. Mine is tuned E A D G B E one octave below a regular 6 string guitar (and one octave above a bass guitar for those of you who have trouble figuring that out).
Tuned E to E all of the strings are wound. (Not wound and plain like on a regular guitar) I find this add a lot of consistency to how the strings feel under your fingers. Mostly this thing feels good. I like trying other manufactures baritone guitars but to me (IMNSHO) the EB just feels better.
I haven't tried this but I understand that you can get a different set of strings and tune these beasts from A to A (A D G C E A ?) a fifth below a guitar. I haven't tried that cause I don't want to have to do the transposing math to play with other people (like that would ever happen given my lack of social skills) and I am scared I would like it to much.
This ______ (<-- insert what ever you want to call it here)
has 2 split coil humbuckers with a 5 way pickup selector and a 2 way series / parallel knob to give you 10 selections from the pickups. I think my favorite is the single coil near the bridge. That is probably a function of as a guitar player I like to hide mistakes by using way to much chorus delay and reverb. When I run it through a bass amp I give it just a little something something (FX wise) to sweeten it up then the hard part is finding which pickup selection I like the best. (This one , no this one ... no I like this better. Then I remember what Luke said: "Sometimes you just gotta Shut Up and play!") Still with 10 selections that's a lot to choose from. Almost to many. (That's big talk coming from me as my BD SiLO EMGed Piezo guitar has 27 different combinations)
Unique things about MINE:
The neck has little tiny tiny tiny birds eyes on it. Sure it's the luck of the draw and maybe it adds or subtracts something to the sound, stability, feel, look, taste (Thinking of you dude), smell whatever of the guitar. All I know is I like it. Mine is also in pearl purple and I love purple. (I make no further comment on purple) Also I found a set of MM Schallar locking tuners on ebay. (The tuners on the Silhouette Bass Guitar are the standard non locking Schallars) and put those on. I had to drill new pilot holes for the screws and bore out the string hole for the low E string but it is what I wanted to do with mine so I did it.
The scale of the neck is short enough that I don't feel burdened when I switch from a guitar to this. I don't know (care) how I feel when I switch from bass to this other than to say the SiLO bass guitar is still comfortable.
The next time you see Aerosmith in concert, Joe Perry is playing one on "Back In The Saddle"
Things to consider that may not necessarily be in a positive light:
These are unique instruments. Not everybody (aka nobody) plays one. Finding a niche for these things is something that may take work. I think the only reason that is is because nobody's done it yet. So let's read that as here is your chance to be original. That may not be for you.
If you are happy doing what everybody else does you just keep on doing what you're doing. That's fine.The range of these instruments can really clash with a guitar or bass when played together. So I think it is important that a bass guitar (baritone) play something that neither the bass or guitar is playing. This was demonstrated well by Sterling Ball at the open house and the BB All stars show in Indio. (I'm just one lucky SOB)
So to use one of these in a band you will have to arrange / write a whole new instrument line. (Crap more work <--BS more art creation)
Dude? Would you like to try one when I come up Friday?
Phatty? If I do Prelude in C on my SiLO bASS GuiTaR and film it and put it on YouTube will you not get to drunk to watch it?
All, Pics of this thing are on Rod Trussbroken's sight.
phatduckk
Well-known member
NorM said:
hell ya. ill even make my girlfriend watch it
Steve Dude Barr
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2005
- Messages
- 5,173
Nahh, I've got two of em on order.
help..please
i am the hong kong player in question with the e-e which was converted from an a-a bass (not done by eb).
When i had it in a-a mode and now in e-e mode all the strings are perfect in
tone and clarity except for one. That is the low E on e-e mode. Its sounds
barely acceptable in the open string but when your fretting an A or higher it
just becomes a lifeless donk. This isnt a dead string since all the sets are
like this. Just as a test i put the A string in its place and detuned it. As
expected it was pretty loose but it sounded much better in the tone
department regarding a true twang ..displaying a distinct range of rich harmonics. I also tried putting a true bass guitar string of similar gauge on it which are a lot higher tension but twanged a lot better. This sort of suggests to me that the string spec is not the best it could be. I thought maybe the jerry jones ddario strings with low e 84 might be a good compromise but they have no sets in hk.
So maybe norm could please confer on this (i always thought yours was an A-A from some past posts???)....does your E fretted at the A sound like something you could be proud to include on a session recording when using the eb shortscale bass strings...does the E fretted at the A sound anything like the open A. I am looking for an E that betters the E string on a fender vi....i
would have expected that the silo bass would have rung even better since it
has a fixed bridge and is more or less the same scale length.
To be fair to my bass string combo a lot of other vi type guitars also fall down on the fretted low e string definition ....thats why i ended up buying the eb silhouette....lets face it if they make the guitar and the string too ....well it should be pretty good.
cheers guys...and thanks to beth for raising this matter for me!!
i am the hong kong player in question with the e-e which was converted from an a-a bass (not done by eb).
When i had it in a-a mode and now in e-e mode all the strings are perfect in
tone and clarity except for one. That is the low E on e-e mode. Its sounds
barely acceptable in the open string but when your fretting an A or higher it
just becomes a lifeless donk. This isnt a dead string since all the sets are
like this. Just as a test i put the A string in its place and detuned it. As
expected it was pretty loose but it sounded much better in the tone
department regarding a true twang ..displaying a distinct range of rich harmonics. I also tried putting a true bass guitar string of similar gauge on it which are a lot higher tension but twanged a lot better. This sort of suggests to me that the string spec is not the best it could be. I thought maybe the jerry jones ddario strings with low e 84 might be a good compromise but they have no sets in hk.
So maybe norm could please confer on this (i always thought yours was an A-A from some past posts???)....does your E fretted at the A sound like something you could be proud to include on a session recording when using the eb shortscale bass strings...does the E fretted at the A sound anything like the open A. I am looking for an E that betters the E string on a fender vi....i
would have expected that the silo bass would have rung even better since it
has a fixed bridge and is more or less the same scale length.
To be fair to my bass string combo a lot of other vi type guitars also fall down on the fretted low e string definition ....thats why i ended up buying the eb silhouette....lets face it if they make the guitar and the string too ....well it should be pretty good.
cheers guys...and thanks to beth for raising this matter for me!!
bassmonkeee
Well-known member
Heh...speaking of figuring it out....
Um....if you are tuned one octave below a regular guitar, you are tuned to the exact same octave as a bass guitar. Not one octave above.
NorM said:
Um....if you are tuned one octave below a regular guitar, you are tuned to the exact same octave as a bass guitar. Not one octave above.
<NorM stops to think about it but it hurts his tiny little brain>bassmonkeee said:
Anyway,
Changing a ailo bass from (A to a) to (E to e) may require some nut slot filing to accomodate the larger strings. The low E does seem to live on the hairy edge. As I mentioned I had to bore out the machine head to get it to fit. If the low E doesn't seem tight enough for you them try a thicker string. The websight has them listed as 20W, 30, 42, 54, 74, 90.
See if you can find a 92 or 93.
great to talk about this rare guitar!!
norm....just curious.....how does the low e string sound to your ears ...to me its not anywhere up to par to the point where i will have to ditch the eb low E string and try something else. The guitar seems great and up to spec but i think the E is a low tension affair...really really bad ..not like a true bass string but to use a high tension true bass string would wreck the tuner in time..not to mention it wouldnt fit at either end....after all this is really a baritone guitar with guitar tuners and saddles.
I was thinking 84 low e ddarrio would fit better in the saddle if my experiment with the A was anything to go by.
I also had the same issue as yourself with the low e not fitting the tuner but eb are doing a revised set that tapers earlier now....they sent me a few sets.
norm....just curious.....how does the low e string sound to your ears ...to me its not anywhere up to par to the point where i will have to ditch the eb low E string and try something else. The guitar seems great and up to spec but i think the E is a low tension affair...really really bad ..not like a true bass string but to use a high tension true bass string would wreck the tuner in time..not to mention it wouldnt fit at either end....after all this is really a baritone guitar with guitar tuners and saddles.
I was thinking 84 low e ddarrio would fit better in the saddle if my experiment with the A was anything to go by.
I also had the same issue as yourself with the low e not fitting the tuner but eb are doing a revised set that tapers earlier now....they sent me a few sets.
maddog
Well-known member
well bassmonkeee got my curiosity. Did a search to see the tuning frequency of an open E on a bass. First hit, 41.3Hz. Familiar number. It took 37 hits before I found out that, yes indeed, the guitar is tuned one octave above the bass with open E being 83Hz. Something is very telling in this fact but I'm astute enough not to say what it is...
Yeah me too!maddog said:well bassmonkeee got my curiosity. Did a search to see the tuning frequency of an open E on a bass. First hit, 41.3Hz. Familiar number. It took 37 hits before I found out that, yes indeed, the guitar is tuned one octave above the bass with open E being 83Hz. Something is very telling in this fact but I'm astute enough not to say what it is...
Now that you mention it I think I will pull out the SiLO bass this weekend and give the low E string a careful listen. I do recall that the tension is a little looser than the others but (for me) it wasn't to the point to where I was overly concerned.
Again if the tension is to slack for you then you want a thicker string. Putting a thinner string on there will only make it looser when tuned to pitch. I understand your concerns on the life span of the tuner and there may be some other "adjustments" that you have to make too. That's the beauty of owning your guitars. Once you do something like that then it is truly yours.
Going back and rereading your post I am inspired to try a little thicker string myself.
One thing I think would be useful would be a string size vs frequency vs tension chart. I started doing a little something on this. Maybe more later. D'addiriao has a cool section on their web sight where they give mass / length dimensions for their strings.
So here is what I did:
Shown below art theroitical string tensions for the silo bass guitar. You will notice that the E strings are less that the others. From what I found on the internet is that you want your string tension to increase gradually as you get to bigger strings. Still the High E might could stand to come up a point or two but if it feels right then who cares right? I also included what the tension should be for the next larger string size should you decide to try that. Let's look shall we.
Who cares about units? The basic idea is that these numbers should be pretty close.
size tension
E 20 10.20455651
B 30 10.85557559
G 42 12.80753931
D 54 11.98651244
A 74 12.35603116
E 90 10.54032999
95 11.87802753
100 12.60312805
WOW! Looking at bass strings on the websight the string set for the 6 string bass are thinner than any of the other bass string sets. Still the scale on other EB basses is 34" and the SiLO Bass GuitaR is only 29.625 inches. So it should have thinner strings.
Shown below art theroitical string tensions for the silo bass guitar. You will notice that the E strings are less that the others. From what I found on the internet is that you want your string tension to increase gradually as you get to bigger strings. Still the High E might could stand to come up a point or two but if it feels right then who cares right? I also included what the tension should be for the next larger string size should you decide to try that. Let's look shall we.
Who cares about units? The basic idea is that these numbers should be pretty close.
size tension
E 20 10.20455651
B 30 10.85557559
G 42 12.80753931
D 54 11.98651244
A 74 12.35603116
E 90 10.54032999
95 11.87802753
100 12.60312805
WOW! Looking at bass strings on the websight the string set for the 6 string bass are thinner than any of the other bass string sets. Still the scale on other EB basses is 34" and the SiLO Bass GuitaR is only 29.625 inches. So it should have thinner strings.
hi norm
you know i really didnt notice this problem because i wasnt using the low E except for the odd open or G ect but i needed to start using it further up the scale for some specific tracks and thats when it struck me that this was starting to be a real problem.
so....its not the tension that concerns me so much as the overall sound quality on that string..so does your low E fretted at A (donk) sound at all like the open A ....say like the A fretted at D sounds like the open D.... a little test.
cheers... andrzej!!
ps.....the tension in a string such as a wound bass depends a lot on the inner core diameter... i think the core diameter on the silo E is very thin...in fact the whole guitar feels more like a nylon strung experience which i like....but the E core IMO has been pushed too thin at the expense of tonal clarity.
Thats why a normal bass string at even less than 90 will put a huge extra load on this guitar that it wasnt designed to take...since it has a thicker core. Im gonna have to get hold of the jerry jones bari bass set at some time to a/b with the eb shortscale set.!!
you know i really didnt notice this problem because i wasnt using the low E except for the odd open or G ect but i needed to start using it further up the scale for some specific tracks and thats when it struck me that this was starting to be a real problem.
so....its not the tension that concerns me so much as the overall sound quality on that string..so does your low E fretted at A (donk) sound at all like the open A ....say like the A fretted at D sounds like the open D.... a little test.
cheers... andrzej!!
ps.....the tension in a string such as a wound bass depends a lot on the inner core diameter... i think the core diameter on the silo E is very thin...in fact the whole guitar feels more like a nylon strung experience which i like....but the E core IMO has been pushed too thin at the expense of tonal clarity.
Thats why a normal bass string at even less than 90 will put a huge extra load on this guitar that it wasnt designed to take...since it has a thicker core. Im gonna have to get hold of the jerry jones bari bass set at some time to a/b with the eb shortscale set.!!
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yo norm...just to let you know im really waiting for your response on the test ...as far as i know you are the only one with an e-e tuning... other than an eagles session guy its just you and me.....and a small army of olp guys who seem to favour the jerry jones strings!!
I spent about two hours playing it last night and today. Man what a toy. I tried to video a piece for you (and all) but there is a skill set limitation that kept it from being sucessful. I'll keep trying. I like the strings the way they are just fine but then again (and anyone one this forum who has met me will tell you) I'm wierd.
maddog
Well-known member
NorM said:
I thought you were quite NorMaL myself.
