Silhouette Bass Guitar ponderings

[GWDavis28]

I need to start visiting here more often. This is one of the few times I've gone south of the stickies, as well.

I'm on my 2nd Silo Bass & my 5th Fender Bass VI--to my fingers & ears, they are quite different beasts. I tune them both E to E & use the EB set for my Silo Bass; I've never had any problem with a flabby E like some here have noted. I am currently using a set of LaBella flats, guaged for a Fender VI, on my Fender VI. As I recall the EB set for the Silo Bass E to E tuning are not the same guage as the Fender VI uses.

I got my current Silo used & when I got it, it was strung up for an A to A baritone tuning. I don't know what kind of strings they were & how the bass was otherwise set up, but I could not play it in that tuning--the pickups seemed to be as low as they could go & the strings still kept "bottoming out" on the pickups. As soon as I installed the E to E set, it played & sounded great with no further tweaking required.

Fred, let's see some pictures of it??

Glenn |B)

 

[Fred E.]

Fred, let's see some pictures of it??

Glenn |B)

Soitainly--

Here's the (sparkle black)Silo solo:

Here's the terrible bass vi threesome (Fender Jaguar bass vi aka Baritone Special; Silo; & mid-'62 Bass VI) all tuned E to E:

 

[GWDavis28]

Fred, ah thanx man, a Black Sparkle Silo Bass, very tasty!!

Glenn |B)

 

[BryanBuss]

has anyone tired plugging on of these into a guitar amp, using it as a baritone guitar with distortion and everything?

I wouldn't think it would be a problem, since john petrucci uses it in a few songs. But he also tunes to A-A. Do you think it would still sound fine with a guitar rig when tuned to E-E

 

[Big Poppa]

no most of these are owned by guiatists...they have been used on Van Halen records, Aerosmith Motley Crue etc

 

[Fred E.]

BP, I've been meaning to ask/confirm this for some time. Maybe 4 or 5 years ago I was talking with a guitar store owner who had seen you play a Silo bass 6 at a trade show or event & this dealer had been blown away by your playing--he said you were covering several parts at the same time on the Silo. Although I have not spent enough time with my Silo, his observations were enough to make it mandatory that I score one (I'm actually on my second). Just a comment, apparently you really made an impression on one of your audience.

I play my Silo (always tuned E to E with appropriate guaged stock EB Silo string set) through a bass amp & eq set pretty much as with my regular basses-- with maybe a bit more on the high midrange end. I do most of my chords using "A" or "D"...and "C" (if my fingers can reach them) chord forms. I also like using "C7" chord forms & the Hendrixey "E9 (with a perverted sodomized 13th--think "Purple Haze"). I find that all of the above chord forms are really effective on the Silo Bass.

Oh yeah....lest you think I'm a musician who knows what he is doing--almost always done in the safety & shelter of my home studio.

But I do love my 6 string bass guitars!

 

[Strangeglow]

Mine was tuned E-E by the previous owner. I just bought the appropriate strings to move it back up. to A-A. I love this thing.

 

[SteveB]

Fred E.

I've seen BP weilding a Silo Bass on a few occasions. From that experience, I'd guess that there's nothing BP can't play on that gitfiddle, or anything else with strings.

 

[Fred E.]

Mine was tuned E-E by the previous owner. I just bought the appropriate strings to move it back up. to A-A. I love this thing.

Funny, my current one was tuned A to A by the previous owner--I could not get it set up to play like I wanted it to--once I slapped on a set of EB Silo E to E strings it was great.

 

[Strangeglow]

What sorts of things do you play on it, or are you using it as a bass? I've toyed with the idea of tuning it B-C and using is like a piccolo version of my 6-string.

jw

 

[BryanBuss]

when I get mine, it will be in E-E.

I was even thinking that instead of having two guitarists in a band, have one lead, and then one baritone guitarist (E-E) and then of course a bassist.

And it would be really cool if the baritone guitarist would switch off doing what the bass does on clean, and then what the guitar does with distortion or whatever else it would call for. even something completely different.

 

[Strangeglow]

E-E would pretty much mean two bassists in the band. I always like to spread the frequencies around

 

[Big Poppa]

maybe freqs but it is real easy to stay out of the way.
Fred E I may have impressed him....I like to play around with that inst as I am first a sloppy bass player and then close behind a repetitive guitarist. PERFECT! I play a wacky combo between rockabilly and be bop solo stuff. Dave La rue just started crackng up at the namm show this year because i was blowing off steam and ripping it up ...not alot of work for a 6 strings rocka be bop player. I will keep my day job

 

[Strangeglow]

True enough, but as soon as the Silo and the bass are in the same octave the mud will start to pile up. Not insurmountable, but something to consider.

jw

 

[Fred E.]

What sorts of things do you play on it, or are you using it as a bass? I've toyed with the idea of tuning it B-C and using is like a piccolo version of my 6-string.

I play it primarily like a bass & although I like to use guitar chords (primarily on the high 4 strings)--I more use them in context with my bass part (e.g. instead of riding the 1 or playing a double stop, I'll throw in a chord).

I've had a similar thought about doing a piccolo 6 string bass tuning, although it hadn't occurred to me to do so on a short scale bass 6--I had envisioned doing so on a 34" scale.

When I first got into playing again in the early 80s, after an almost 10 year hiatus, I experimented with running a '60 Telecaster through a Mutron Octave Divider with the guitar side of the signal completely rolled off. It worked surprisingly well.

 

[Fred E.]

maybe freqs but it is real easy to stay out of the way.
Fred E I may have impressed him....I like to play around with that inst as I am first a sloppy bass player and then close behind a repetitive guitarist

Interesting, I'm first a repetitive bass player & then way far behind a sloppy guitar player (extremely sloppy). On guitar I never repeat anything, every line is filled with new & unanticipated mistakes & other fluffs.