I've wanted a Bass VI for almost 30 years but I never got around to buying one while Fender still made them. These days it's either Custom Shop, Squier or finding one used. I haven't seen one used in my area for years so I decided to give this Squier a chance. Paing a fortune for Custom Shop seems a bit excessive for such a niche instrument.
First of all:
I had done some research so I knew the stock strings would be junk but I could never have imagined how utterly useless they were! They might just as well have delivered the bass without strings. The tension was so low that the E-string couldn't even produce a steady tone. Let alone get rid of the rattle and buzz. It sounded absolutely horrible, felt even worse and kept sliding off the side of the fingerboard half the time. It's almost unbelievable that Fender has kept selling these basses with these strings for YEARS, if not DECADES. It's almost like they want to upset their customers. I don't think I've ever played a new instrument as utterly useless as this one.
And while on the subject of upsetting customers: I totally understand why they use the protective plastic on the pickguard but surely there must be a way to apply in that doesn't require the buyer to un-install the entire bridge to remove it? And why the protective plastic on the base plate for the "tremolo" system? Protective plastic on metal hardware shouldn't be necessary. The control panel plates did NOT have this plastic. It was a much thicker type than the one they use on pickguards and frustratingly difficult to remove.
I did manage to remove all of it eventually and luckily I knew about the junk strings so I had a set of LaBellas ready to install. It wouldn't have been possible to rate this bass with the stock strings. It would have been a 0 star rating because they made the whole instrument unplayable.
Except for these frustrations I'm actually quite happy with this bass. You never know what you're gonna get with Cort-manufactured Squires but this was one of the nice ones.
Fit and finish were flawless. The tort pickguard actually looks nice. I've seen some horrible ones on Cort-Squiers but this one looked like real Fender tort.
Black and tort looks much better than I had expected. It's a really nice, dark tort that sits well with black. The neck has a nice vintage tint so overall the bass looks really nice. It doesn't look cheap at all.
The binding on the neck had a pretty weird color though. I guess they must have been aiming for a kinda vintage yellowed but someone seems to have put a little bit of green into the mix. It looks like something halfway between cream, yellow and mint. At least it's unique... I've never seen anything quite like it!
The pearloid inlays look very nice. It's amazing how Fender can put block inlays on a cheap instrument like this one and at the same time charge almost as much as this entire bass for block inlays as an extra option for custom shop instruments...
The setup was very poor with the stock strings. The neck had no relief whatsoever. It actually had a bit of backbow so all the strings were practically glued to the fretboard and completely unplayable. I didn't attempt much setup until I had installed the LaBellas. I figured they would be so much higher tension that the neck might be close to ok with them. It was and only needed less than half a turn of the truss rod to be perfect.
The bridge saddles were set reasonably well from the factory. I will probably tweak them a bit once I get used to this type of bass but for now the setup is fine. The intonation had to be adjusted of course but more about that later.
The fretwork is ok but not great. Even with perfect setup it will need some fret leveling to be reasonably buzz free with fingerstyle playing. I will probably use this bass mainly for muted picking and for this the fretwork is more than sufficient.
The pots feel ok but the switches feel a bit cheap. I don't think they will fail but switches often seem to be a weak point on cheap instruments and these ones just don't feel like quality switches.
The tuners feel pretty bad. They've got that "gravel" feel and feel very cheap.
The bridge works as it should but offers a very limited range for intonation. 100% perfect intonation on the E-string on these basses will only be available in your dreams. Still, it sounds fine for what it is. Especially with palm muted picking where perfect intonation is usually less of a concern.
The tremolo system works fine but don't expect the bass to stay in tune if you go nuts with it.
The pickups are better than I had expected. I have never played a real Fender Bass VI so I can't really compare but the sound was fatter and more robust than I had imagined. I could easily have used this bass with fingerstyle for many genres. It's kinda cool to have three pickups on a bass. That's a first for me!
My only complaints about the sound is that with muted picking I can hear rattle from the tremolo springs through the pickup. I have no idea if this was the case on real Fender Bass VIs. It's not loud enough to be heard in a full mix but very noticeable when the bass is playing alone. It's just part of the quirky charm of this instrument I guess.
Accessories? Apart from the usual hex wrenches there's nothing (as expected in this price range). At least the hex wrenches were the right size, something that isn't always the case with Squier or even expensive USA Fenders these days.
This isn't a mindblowingly great instrument by any stretch of the imagination but it's great fun and not nearly as bad as I had feared. It's a bit of a niche instrument so unless you specifically want a Bass VI style instrument you shouldn't even consider one. But if you're looking for this type of bass I can absolutely recommend this one. It offers a lot of fun for for the price and the quality is actually quite decent.
