About
For the uninitiated, this is a Schecter Hellcat-VI. It looks like a pretty conventional offset guitar somewhat akin to a Fender Jazzmaster. However, this is Schecter’s take on Fender’s ‘Bass-VI’. This format of instrument is not actually a guitar, but rather a 6 string bass in a guitar-like size. The scale length is 30″ (literally right in between bass and guitar) and takes custom-wound strings. I bought this because I don’t have a standard bass guitar and I find the size of a bass to be a little limiting for some of the stuff I like to play.
When it arrived, I noticed it had some some of that textbook hum that comes from poor grounding and insulation, so I insulated the crap out of it with some copper tape. This started a slippery slope for exploring the various upgrade possibilities this instrument could hold. Over time I found the bridge to be a little uncomfortable, so I upgraded it to a Mastery M1 Bridge. These were intended replacements for Jazzmasters and Jaguars, however it wasn’t exactly a plug-and-play solution for the Hellcat. I had to make various fastener adjustments and fabricate some fittings to get the bridge to sit just right. But once it did, it felt great to play.
A while later I discovered that Fender makes a mute for Jazzmasters/Jaguars as well. It is essentially a spring-loaded plate that sits under the bridge and pushes some foam against the bottom of the strings. Somewhat like a constant palm mute, but with evenly distributed pressure across all 6 strings. This really interested me and I was massively curious about how this would sound in a bass application. I got hands on one of the mute kits, and had to modify it pretty heavily in order to get it to fit on the Hellcat. That being said, it was a huge success and really opens up a lot of interesting sounds I never would have really expected.
I’m not sure if there is much else I’d want to add to this one. It plays great and has a massive amount of capability when it comes to ‘sound diversity’. I’m not sure why you don’t see more of these guitar-sized basses floating around. They’re wicked fun.
Process Documentation
