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Hamer B12L Chaparral 12-string bass Neck/fingerboard measurements question

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phxlbrmpf

Dec 27, 2002
2,898
17
Germany
#1
A friend of mine set his mind on trying to build a 12-string bass (I expect him to fail horribly, though) and it looks like he's trying to model it after the Hamer Chaparral bass.

He knows I post on "that international bass forum" and asked me if I could talk someone who owns a Chaparral into supplying him its fretboard and neck measurements at the nut, the 12th fret and the 21th (last) fret.

Can someone help me out? Thanks a lot in advance.

(I still don't think he'll manage to build a decent 12-string bass, though. As far as I know, he's only built two pretty ordinary electric guitars so far.)
 
#2
I have a Hamer CH12, which is the Korean import long scale 12 string. If that would help, I could try to post the measurements tonight or tomorrow.

Is he building his own for the fun of it, or because he can't afford one? There are at least 4 different budget 12 strings on the market now. Hamer, Dean, Musicvox and Galveston. The Hamer and Dean are very good, and the reports that I have read on the Musicvox indicates that it is very good too.
 
#3
The former, I suppose. I, too, noticed that an affordable Korean version of the Chaparral has been out for some time, but I guess he's doing it "because he likes building guitars".

He's actually my band's ex-guitarist, and we still feel he'd be better advised spending the time he spends building guitars working on his technique, but each to his own, I guess. :D

It would be very cool if you could post your Hamer's measurements. Thanks a lot!

Edit: Oops, I just noticed that you said "longscale", but I guess it'll
be a start. If I were him, I'd build a longscale 12-string anyway.
 
#6
OK, here are the fingerboard width measurements for my CH12, which is supposedly based on the B12L.

1 7/8" at the nut, 2 1/4" at the 12th fret, and 2 3/8" at the 22nd fret.

In case he needs metric measurements, that is 47.625 mm at the nut, 57.15 mm at the twelfth fret, and 60.3249 mm at the 22nd fret.

All values are approximate, and I take no responsibility for the end product based on these measurements.:D

I hope this helps. Any other measurements that he needs?
 
#7
Wow, thanks a lot, embellisher! He just sent me another fairly odd question: do you prefer the neck or the bridge pickup of your Chaparral? For some reason, the guy's planning that the final product is going to be a single pickup bass. o_O
 
#9
I prefer the pickups equally blended, but if I had to choose one pickup, it would be the neck pickup. If he is planning on using one neck pickup, he will need an active preamp, with at least bass and treble boost/cut. The neck pickup, in passive mode, would be too dark to get those trademark 'chime' sounds that a twelve gives you.
 

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