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I have owned a number of 6 string basses- I saw Duane Eddy live in the early 80's and he played his old Dan-o on a few numbers and it knocked me out- I had to have one. Listen to "Because They're Young" sometime... his first 6 string bass hit.
As they were hard to come by at the time, I actually converted an unused (standard scale) telecaster to 6 string bass- with fairly good results- My guitar tech at the time (Gary Brawer in SF -He's great) found some bass string gauges that got to the correct pitch without putting too much tension on the neck. He unwound some of the outer wrappings on the strings where they connected to the tuners and soldered them so they wouldn't unravel, and they fit into a standard kluson slotted tuner. It had a cool sound but the strings were a bit loose- you had to be careful not to bend strings ....I used it on several recordings and live.
Since then I have owned a few different models- including a vintage Fender Bass VI, but to me the Dan-o sounds the best. I currently own a re-issue Danelectro from about 5 years ago, - the single cutaway two pickup model, with concentric volume and tone controls- just like Duane Eddy's. It KILLS! They're out oof production now but can be found- Jerry Jones makes a nice one (for the price).
Also- as I understand it, tic- tac bass refers to a Nashville technique whre the 6 string bass bass player (using a pick) would double note for note with the standup bass. This gives the sharp attacks and higs from the electric, with the deep thud of the acoustic bass. Listen to Pasty Cline records and other 'Nashville Sound" era recordings of the late 50's thru the 60's and you will hear it...
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