I read recently that Robert's legendary Fender VI was wired incorrectly at the factory, giving it it's distinctive sound. This was not known, of course, until a guitar tech looked at it many years later. I have a Fender VI and can do a pretty decent emulation of Robert's tone with a treble boost and chorus, but it's always close but no cigar. Now I know why!
His VI has had all the wiring modified & extra toggle switches. One cuts the low frequencies out & one switches the phase of the middle pick up
I read recently that Robert's legendary Fender VI was wired incorrectly at the factory, giving it it's distinctive sound. This was not known, of course, until a guitar tech looked at it many years later. I have a Fender VI and can do a pretty decent emulation of Robert's tone with a treble boost and chorus, but it's always close but no cigar. Now I know why!
Most likely, the phasing of the middle pickup. But who knows. Also, I think they mention on this same interview, that he brought 5 or 6 Bass VI's to the recording, and they used the one that sounded best, so he might have recorded previously with the others too.
From Reeves Gabrels' facebook:
"The electronics of this Fender VI have been modified with an additional tone control, so it has three knobs (volume, tone, tone) instead of the standard two (volume, tone).
Two small toggle switches were also added. One is a bass cut, which removes the lowest frequency tones from all six strings. The other changes the phase of the middle pickup, resulting in a more nasal sound when used in combination with one or both of the other pickups."
Didn't know where to add this, it contains a couple of music clips, and, ultimately, influenced me to stick A Forest on at 3;47am ..... with headphones!
