Squier Bass VI, Black with Tortoise Pickguard

Clean. This is the tidiest instrument in the room and the grade says so.

Finish. Black, with the marks you would expect from careful use and nothing through to wood. Vintage tinted maple neck, gloss, unmarked at the usual contact points.

Frets and board. Playing wear only. Nothing that buzzes.

Hardware and electronics. Three pickups, all working. Bridge, mute and saddles present.

⚠️ Two things a buyer will ask and that we will confirm before you travel: whether the vibrato arm is with it, and what gauge strings are on it. A Bass VI strung with the wrong set plays badly enough that people blame the instrument.

The instrument. Ask about the vibrato arm and a case before you make the trip.

A Bass VI is a six string tuned an octave below a guitar. Not a baritone, not a bass with two extra strings: a guitar player's instrument that occupies bass register, with a short enough scale that chords still work down there.

It is the sound on more records than its obscurity suggests. Jack Bruce used one, the Beatles kept one around, and a generation of soundtrack composers reached for it whenever something had to sound wide and slightly ominous. Played with a pick and a little tremolo it does something nothing else does.

This is a niche instrument. It is also genuinely clean, which is not the usual state of a Bass VI, because the people who buy them tend to use them hard.

Pickup only. We are not shipping instruments yet, so this one is bought here: 215 East Lewis Street, third floor, Livingston, by appointment.

Right for a guitar player who wants low end without learning bass, for anyone writing to picture, and for a studio that wants one instrument nobody else brings.

Not right as a main bass. The string spacing is guitar spacing and a bass player will fight it. Not right if you want something you can pick up and be fluent on in an afternoon.