Cheap Trick bassist

[Kink Rimson]

How did he get that amazing tone on Surrender?

[Mon Rominee]

12 string bass.

[bassbully43]

Good ol' Tom Petersson...played various 12 string basses most were i think customs. He has a sig- 12er out now i saw it in Bass Player. Tom is a nice guy great player and always looked cool on stage holding that 12er

[Mon Rominee]

Hos first 12's were custom Chandlers, right?

www.12stringbass.com

[iamthebassman]

In '77 or '78 Tom asked Hamer to make him a 12-string bass, they thought it a bad idea and made him a 10-string, the 10-string worked out well so they went ahead with the 12. It had a qaud pickup with on-board mixer. This first 12-string bass ever is what is heard on "Surrender". Here's mine:

[bassteban]

I so prefer the shape of your bass(as opposed to the Chapparal). Just like Tom's.

[bassbully43]

Soooo cool ...i would hate to tune it thou

[iamthebassman]

I used to own two, they were all I played. Sold the black one, it was just like the one above but the Salmon Blush looked better than black.
They're not hard to tune(at least the USA ones which is all I'm familiar with)'cause they have dual truss rods, they stay in tune really well. Now restringing is another thing, real time consuming.

[Arthur U. Poon]

Originally Posted by iamthebassman

I've always wanted one of these!

Tom's tone is amazing, and check out the "Dream Police" video: The first time I saw that video while I was in my teens, I decided Tom was the coolest-looking bassist alive.

I also really dig his distorted tone on the tail end of "Ain't That A Shame?". Completely bad***.

[OiBass]

Besides his basses-
His tone was also due to running thru a Hi-Watt guitar rig
along w/ a SVT rig-

[oldfclefer]

Saw CT with Alice Cooper about a month ago. Great show. Tom's tone is surreal. His 12 string (triple-up 4) basses (3 of them) sounded great, and his technique looked a little different as far his fingering position was concerned. It looked like he was reaching over the largest string to push down all three. He was steady and flawless. Nothing fancy, just solid.

[KPJ]

Originally Posted by Kink Rimson

How did he get that amazing tone on Surrender?

Which version are you refering to? The studio recording was most likely done with a Gibson Thunderbird II, the single pickup model.

The "Live at Budokahn" version is his origianl Hamer Quad Bass, which Ronn posted a picture of above.

[PhR]

Originally Posted by KPJ

Which version are you refering to? The studio recording was most likely done with a Gibson Thunderbird II, the single pickup model.

The "Live at Budokahn" version is his origianl Hamer Quad Bass, which Ronn posted a picture of above.

Sorry bringing up the old thread but Petersson is one of my absolutely faves so...

"Surrender" was definitely recorded with a four string bass but I think it was a 60's Thunderbird IV, not II. He recorded the first album with one and probably "In Color" too (he has said it was a T-Bird but Precision too...). The first song recorded with the Hamer 12-string was "Heaven Tonight".

He actually used the 12-string in studio very rarely, on stage it is usually his preferred instrument.

[Bad Brains]

I suppose that would work.

[gamera]

Tom Peterson is just awesome. The Hamer 8 and 12 models are incredible. Even good things can't be said about both.

[fenwickbacker]

I saw them live years ago - the concert starts w/ Petersson walking out onstage w/ the 12-string and a bottle of booze. He was wearing one of the Slash-looking top hats. He walks over to his wall of amplifiers and puts the booze down, walks to the front of the stage while cranking up the volume knob on his bass and nails - I mean nails this chord.

It shook my heart in my chest - solid, loud, etc. I really like alot of his playing - the 12 makes it hard to pick out distinctive notes/lines, but it sets a heavy bottom for a 4-piece band.

A great album is "All Shook Up" - w/ songs like "Just Got Back", "I Love You Honey (but I hate your friends)".

[JimmyM]

I met their producer, Tom Werman, once a long time ago, and he said that Tom P actually didn't use the 12 string in the studio. He said he used a 4-string and overdubbed the octave parts on a guitar because the 12 string was so noisy and uncontrollable in the studio.

[PhR]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

I met their producer, Tom Werman, once a long time ago, and he said that Tom P actually didn't use the 12 string in the studio. He said he used a 4-string and overdubbed the octave parts on a guitar because the 12 string was so noisy and uncontrollable in the studio.

That doesn't apply to all the albums and there's 12-string bass even in those three that Werman produced. "My Baby Loves To Rock" has a bass break that was clearly dubbed with a guitar, and the whole song's bass parts were played by Nielsen.
Petersson has said that engineers were having problems with the 12-string, they didn't know how to record it properly back then.

[8guy]

I met Tom Years ago, and yes all the 12 string stuff I thought I heard on the albums was a Thunderbird doubled with a Telecaster, Tom's original 12s were a Hamer shortscale with quad outputs, Later ones were dual dimarzios without the quad outputs.
Tom quit Cheap trick for a while and was replaced by Pete Comita( a Tom Lookalike) and then Jon Brandt who was a more of a straight ahead 4 stringer, In the meantime Tom recorded a solo recording that used his 18 string bass.
He rejoined Cheap Trick, Playing a acoustic looking Hamer 12 string.
He switched to the Chandler 12s about 8 years ago.

[PaulMacCnj]

Cheap Trick, an old favorite! I saw them live twice in NYC about 1979-80. Once at the Paladium and once at MSG. Great music and great show. Tom had that one and only sound, so did the rest of the band. How about Rick's 5 neck guitar? Wild!!

Paul Mac