bajo sexto tele vs. bass vi a string comparison?

[dain]

hey guys, i've got a friend who just picked up a CS bajo sexto tele and has it tuned E to E like a bass vi.  i was playing around with it and although it doesn't even come close to my bass vi in the looks department it played really nice.  the strings were bendable and thin, unlike my labella flats, and it seemed way more open to chords.  my question is this:  is the difference ALL about the strings?  or is it largely based on the teleness of the design (bridge, scale length, thinner neck, etc...)

i'm guessing he still had the factory strings on it, and while i hate to give up my labella flats i really did appreciate the ease of playablitiy that thing had.  anyone used both the bajo AND the bass VI?

[bulrich]

Dain,
Woah who is your friend?! Bajo's are super hard to come by. I actually have one on the way after years of looking from a dude in Irvine, CA.
A lot of things make the Tele Bajo different in sound than the VI. The through the body strings, tele bridge, maple neck and pups seem to have a huge difference on clarity. The VI's seem to have more of a bassy boom.
Hopefully I can give a better comparison when I get mine.

[dain]

yea, the bajo definitely felt like a guitar, whereas my VI really feels like a bass.  the string gauge was a big difference though, the labellas are HUGE and tight the strings he had were lighter.  i guess i should just try it out.  although it kills me to take off strings that i paid 60 bucks for!

IMHO while the bajo was fun to play and damn useful i'm sure, it's really hard for me to differentiate the build quality of the custom shop from the 500$ to 1000$ reissue fenders.  this guy BTW is my boss and he's pure hollywood music industry, just bought a sweet 65 sunburst jazzmaster for his business partner for HIS BIRTHDAY!!  and he's definetly the custom shop's target demographic.  he owns at least 8 or 9 of the custom shop reissues, and actively searches out the 80s  fullerton ones, as investment opportunities.  and while they are great guitars and probably awesome "investments" i just don't get it.  they feel almost identical to "the real thing" but with 10 percent of the personality.  although i guess a real 50s tele would probably not be as good an investment at this point "buy low, sell high?" 

anyway, if by any chance you're reading this, Lang, i love you man, you're still my hero, and i'm sure when all my vintage fenders have neck warpage and the trussrods break you'll be trading your "reliced" esquire for a ferrari or something so take it with a grain of salt! 

[bulrich]

The gauge will make such a huge difference. I once put the Bajo Sexto A tuning set on a 63 VI and the sound was pretty incredible. Very much a lead instrument, strong and up front.

I recently asked the CS if they could make a Bajo Sexto and they quoted me $8500! Simply a 30" scale neck! Not even sure if they modded the Tele body bridge position on the Bajo. Funny thing is Fred Stuart who made the originals while working at the Fender Custom Shop now does his own custom guitars and could make a Bajo for 2800 minus the Fender logo of course. It's certainly a weird market thing.

I prefer to dig up the old ones myself.

[bulrich]

Just received my Bajo Sexto Tele and I can say there is a lot more than string gauge going on here!
Through the body strings, the Tele bridge is sooo resonant acts like a speaker. The gauge on the E-E set is more like 22-72 much lighter than the VI. I'll try and put heavier VI strings on mine but imagine they won't fit with that Bridge.