Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI - 3-Tone Sunburst Reviews

First, I feel like it would be appropriate to tell you a bit about the Bass VI style of bass guitar. If you're considering a Squier, this is likely your first Bass VI, as they get significantly more expensive when you go to Ibanez, Schecter, or Fender. This is a perfectly acceptable Bass VI, and a great one to decide if you like the style before dropping $+ on any other Bass VI.

Some stubbornly insist that this is not a bass, but a baritone guitar. It is, in fact, a bass... albeit short scale and very unique. But, if you wanted to play this as the only bass in a band, you could do it, though in my experience, that's not typically how it's used.

If you aren't familiar with this style of bass, when you think of a 6 string bass, you're thinking of one with a low B string with much wider string spacing. That's a somewhat newer design. The low string on this is the E string (same as a standard 4 string), and they go higher from there. The tuning is the same as a regular guitar, just an octave lower. When you see credits for playing a 6 string bass separate from the regular bass, it's probably talking about something like this.

You've probably heard this type of bass in a lot of music without realizing it, particularly if you are, like myself, a fan of the Cure. While you can use this as the sole bass in music, it is usually used to add a more middle voice in the music. Kind of filling in the space between bass and lead guitar, often doing its own countermelody. I've also heard of metal bands that don't use regular guitars, but just bass and Bass VI's. If you are picking this up as a bassist, you'll have some learning to do to adapt your playing style to take full advantage of this instrument.

On to reviewing this particular Bass VI. I wasn't sure what I would be getting myself into with this. I'd never bought a Squier before, and I'd seen some very mixed reviews on their Bass VI. But... I'm honestly glad I got it. I like its feel, and I like its sound. Very playable, and seems to be reasonably good quality. If you've never played one before, it feels much like a regular electric guitar... just a bit bigger. To give a basis for comparison, regular guitars generally have around a 25" inch scale, this one has a 30" scale, standard scale for a bass is 34".

The sound is great, and having the old fashioned single coil inactive pickups, it's very dynamic. Some things that are likely worth upgrading at some point: the strings, and the bridge.

The particular one I got was a demo model, saving me something like $, which is a good deal. At a casual glance, I don't see anything wrong with it; things I likely would not have noticed if Sweetwater wasn't upfront about it. And I would guess that in most local guitar shops, every guitar you see is a demo model... just that they don't give a discount for that fact.

Really unique instrument. Perfect way for a guitar player to play bass. Sounds and plays great.

I had to wait from December until May for mine to arrive, but it was absolutely worth it. Thanks to Ben and Sweetwater for making this happen!! This is an amazing guitar and they have an incredible history. I knew about them decades ago but they were exceedingly rare and difficult to find. I think Japan made a version in the 90's and then they brought it back in limited quantities in the 2010's. Now they have the Squier version and it is excellent. The bridge is a little bit wider so there's no intonation issues with the low E string. The fit and finish is excellent - really perfect on my example. The wood has some wonderful grain on mine - though obviously, each one is different. The bound neck is well finished too.
Since I am a guitar player and not a bass player, this felt very comfortable and familiar. It's easy to play fast with the "short" scale, which is longer than a guitar scale but shorter than a traditional bass. It's very comfortable to play both standing and sitting.
These are so unique that they are a thing unto themselves. Maybe the Danelectro is comparable but these are still in a class of their own. I've read that people like to make changes (of course) but the pickups are fine and the bridge is fine. If I were to change anything, I'd probably change the tuners. This is really fun to play and when you show it to your friends they immediately know what it is. You can play it with your bass player and it works as a complementary instrument.

This Bass has a great tone versatility, from great low end tone to a sharp nasal feel, its confortable and its a really elegant piece. Im really happy with my purchase and shout out to the top notch service from the sweetwater team.

This thing's a beast So many possibilities when playing this instrument Great tone great quality Looks beautiful love it

Strings only slip off the bridge saddles if really aggressive. Put it back in place and carry on. Stays in tune. Easily intonated just lift and slide the string over. The stringsvv it came with were ok, but as others relate it benefits from slightly larger gauge strings so I put some Stringjoys on it. No buzzing. Easy 30" scale brought me back to slapping de bass after 30 years of guitar. This addiction is a feature not a bug. Already added a Wattplower MKii. At this price the Squire is a steal. Get one now.

Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI - 3-Tone Sunburst is a fantastic instrument at a bargain price. The tones are outstanding, looks beautiful, and is a truly unique instrument. I love mine.

I've been playing bass for 36 years, and guitar for 35. How it's taken me this long to buy a Bass VI is beyond me. The possibilities with this instrument are endless. Do you play it like a guitar, a bass, or both? What kind of sound do you punch in, using the 4 switches and three pickups? As a musical tool, this is a glorious machine.
Better yet is the build quality. Squier consistently provides very well made guitars and basses at excellent price points, and this Bass VI is no exception. Everything is solid, the bridge and trem are outstanding, the switching is flawless. And the neck ... oh my goodness. It isn't slim, but it isn't fat. The vintage gloss is beautiful, and somehow not sticky. The frets are perfect.
Just buy it.

I was looking to try something different after playing guitar and mandolin for years and this seemed it would be a easier transition. Although I very much enjoy playing this thing, I still want to get a four string eventually. You can do a lot of different things with this one though. The problem I personally have is I try to play it like a guitar most of the time. Again this is my own personal issue. This instrument is phenomenal out of the box. I did change the strings to La Bellas and installed a true Fender bridge and tailpiece. I tried these things because Initially I couldn't get the intonation of the low E correct. This fixed that issue. Now this thing plays like a dream. I just wish there were more pickup options because I'd love to get more of a growl from the bridge pickup but it holds its own as is. Over all very happy with this purchase. Oh and I can't forget to mention Jason was on spot with this whole process. Thank you sir! If you're looking for something different and interested in the bass, this is definitely a fun one to play. No regrets with this one!

I've been playing electric guitar for 50 years, and building my own guitars from raw materials for many years. I just bought one of these on a whim. I'm really having fun with it! Overall, I'm quite impressed with what you get for the price, but it did take a fair amount of setup work to get it playing well - even after Sweetwater's 55-point inspection (which is not intended as a setup).

I am writing this because I thought it might be helpful to others to know what I did and did not have to do to get this thing set up to my liking:

1. Changed strings to LaBella VI flatwounds - expensive but worth it. The ones it comes with are really bad, especially the low E, which is an .085 and needs to be at least a .095, as many have noted. The flats sound great with these pickups.
2. I didn't have to do anything to the nut, although someday I might make a better one out of bone.
3. The bridge kinda flops around on these (I think by design?!?). I don't like that, so I bought a little brass bushing at the hardware store (5/16" OD, 1/4" ID) that fits perfectly on one leg and keeps the bridge stable - actually, I bought 2 of them, but could only use one because the mounting holes in the body are slightly too far apart, LOL. It works great with only the one. The saddles work fine as- is.
4. I shimmed the neck to angle it back very slightly, using 1 piece of 200 grit sandpaper about 1/3 - 1/2 the length of the neck cavity. This allows for better action up high, and a greater break angle over the bridge, again improving stability.
5. Then did all the usual stuff, adjusting the truss rod, setting the pickup and bridge heights, polishing the frets (they didn't need any other work, which was a pleasant surprise).

At this point, it's a great playing and sounding instrument, well worth the money and time I've put into it. I will probably end up replacing the tuners, pots, capacitors, jack and tailpiece at some point, but only because I can - none of that needs to be done.

I prefer playing it through a guitar amp, not a bass amp, because it really takes advantage of the wider tonal pallet.

I wouldn't even think about buying one of these from anybody other than Sweetwater, whose level of care and customer service blows everybody else away!

I like having a variety of guitars, and when I saw the Bass VI at such a good deal, I bought it. I was not disappointed. I'd heard people praising the Squier Classic Vibe series for a while now, and now I know the praise is justified. I can not find any flaws with the guitar. Sure, not all the parts are as high quality as some more expensive models, and the body is multi piece (but still happens to look cool in this case), but this instrument sounds and plays great. The tuning has been pretty stable. Very happy with my purchase.

The looks and workmanship is top notch. My Bass VI had the Jazzmaster bridge , which I replaced with the Mustang bridge for stability. They all come with that now.
Fender is still shipping these basses with wimpy strings. They are way too lite - especially the low E string. Hard to believe that Fender would continue this sore spot, but a heavier set will only set you back $30 or so...
Are you listening Fender?
Buy one of these -They are wonderful fun.

It's... incredibly useful tool. Witchita lineman, countless Beatles tracks, quite a resume. Out of the box it's quirky. But I've made no changes yet. For a guitar player like me I find each guitar has something to say. And this dude tuned same as a guitar doesn't sway my opinion. If you just want a new sound, it's reason enough to spend... That's me.

First of all, I am a bass player. While I can play guitar, it's just not my favorite...but bass is! Over the years, I've thought about playing a Bass VI, but had not done anything about it. Then, the pandemic hit and I was stuck at home, not playing live with others for almost a year. Saved up some money and bought a Squier Bass VI from Sweetwater.

I am excited to play again...even at home by myself! Because the scale is a 30" (like a short scale bass), it was super comfortable playing the Bass VI. The reason I'm giving this a 4.5 rating instead of 5.0 is because of the low E string. Comes with a .084 E string which flops around and is impossible to keep in tune. I purchased a set of nickel-plated Fender Bass VI Super 250's which made all the difference! Be sure to get the 24's set (.024-.100 gauge) because they come with a .100 E string, which is so much better than the standard .084 E string. Trust me, it makes all the difference!

There are a lot of different sounds you can get from it. Watch some YouTube videos to see what others are doing, then create your own sound. For me, I usually play with the neck and middle pickups on, bridge and bass strangle off. Even though I am mostly a finger player on bass, I play the Bass VI with a Dunlop Tortex Flow 1.35 mm pick. And, if I want to get a lower bass sound out of it, I run my Bass VI through an octaver pedel. Sounds really cool to have the two tones coming out of your amp together.

If you have been thinking about it but not sure if you need one...you need one! Just be sure to replace the low E with a .100 string and put some excitement back in your life! And, get it from Sweetwater...

I have owned this instrument for a while,and for me was a bit of a "sleeper" which I did not play very often, partially because I am not crazy about the aesthetics of the shape.I did a series of modifications that improved the function and aesthetics that upgraded it from a low line instrument to one that is suitable for performing.

I only recently realized this guitar's true potential when I replaced the bass strings with baritone strings and realized that this one has the best tone of all my guitars which include hot rails, P-90s Passive humbuckers, active humbuckers, mini active Humbucker and Piezo Pick-ups. The tone is warm round, strong, clear, masculine and has enough bite when wanted. The only real problems is that the tremolo is extremely limited with heavy strings and that you must buy long scale strings to fit the neck length. I haven't had the time to take it apart and see whether I could make some adjustments to improve the functionality of the tremolo, but the one thing I can say for sure is that this guitar turned out to be an excellent addition to the sonic spectrum of my instruments and will not be gathering dust.

I've been looking at Bass VI's for a long time,when the Squier model went on sale I finally pulled the trigger!
Fit and finish is great, as I've come to expect from Squier!As others have said had to adjust action to get buzz to acceptable level. Will probably go to heavier strings to help!
Overall bass is fun to play and really gets creative juices flowing. Easier to chord than I expected, but is really better with limited string chords and single notes.Sweetwater was great to deal with as always, and I would reccomend them and the Bass VI to all!

My first impression was that the pickups are weak. My second impression is that the 1st and second string tension was throwing everything off. The former was fixed with a preamp. The latter took a bit longer to remedy. I searched the web for answers. I'd kept seeing forum posts suggesting that the issue is with the bottom four strings / not the top two , that they were too loose in standard tuning. I tried many variations of tuning only to arrive at the simplicity of dropping everything down to D. This seems to have smoothed everything out and I'm very happy with the result. This Bass is perfect for muted picking because the strings are so close together. I'm surprised more reggae bassist don't use a Bass VI. This guitar is a good value for the price.

This instrument is a fun hybrid between a guitar and a bass. You can easily play it either way depending on which one you want to use, but I will say that nature of this instrument should be seen as a drawback in most cases. It's not super practical, so you will very rarely play this if you're a working musician in any capacity. It will step on a guitarist's or bassist's toes if you're not meticulous in how you play, and the pickups can get very muddy very easily. On a higher note, The push-in trem bar is a nice plus compared to my squier strat's screw in bar. However, I must mention that the bridge on this instrument is quite a problem. It's very cheap to the point that it suddenly began to rattle for seemingly no reason. It didn't do that when I first got it nor did anything happen to destabilize the bridge saddles. I just grabbed it one day and the bridge saddles for the two E strings were sliding away from the rest of them as I played and would vibrate against the others with a gap, causing an audible, and quite annoying, rattle. The only other instrument this has happened on was an affinity series Squier J-Bass V, so it's definitely a quality probably that you should prepare yourself to deal with on low end basses but shouldn't have been a problem on this more than 2x more expensive instrument. That being said, I don't regret this purchase one bit. I'm still glad to have this in my collection despite its flaws.

There will be some setup required on this instrument due to the heavy strings and the tremolo system.
I am using my Bass VI for some time now and I am pleased with my efforts to make this instrument do what it can do.
The bottom string and the set that it comes strung with tunes to an E A D G B E very well. I have had to work with the height of the 6th String to stop rattling. This is common for this guitar and there are some fixes other guitarists have posted on various websites. The Quality and the Price is spot on target. Actually, this is a real bargain by 2022 Gear markets.

If you want your fretted notes on the Low E not to be 20 cents sharp, then you will have to hunt down an aftermarket bridge if you want to play in tune. Fender uses the same bridge they use on mustangs, which are not engineered for bass strings. It needs to be wider to accomodate the fat saddles. I had to remove the spring on the low E saddle so I could move it all the way back. I also had to lower the nut slot because it was cut too high. Even after all of that, I can not play fretted notes on the low E. This is a common problem on these new classic vibe Bass VI. The low E also touches the rear tailpiece screw, because again, this hardware is designed for a 6 string guitar, not a bass. So for now, this just hangs on the wall as art until I can find an affordable solution.