12 Stringer

Try searching here and on www.harmonycentral.com

 

Wow someone else has heard of this brand? My p-bass clone is a galvestone, but its only a 4 string. I got it off e-bay, and I haven't found anything else about it either. But it is a pretty nice bass for a beginner's.


Bangin' on
-The dancin', bongo playin', G. Dubuya B.

 

Speak of the devil, I have one. I couldn't resist a 12ver for <$500. It's not quite worth it.

- horrible balance -- the neck dive is insane, it makes it almost unplayable. This is with a strap. THe funny lower horn means playing sitting down sans strap *is* impossible.

- the edge of the fretboard is sharp! combined with the above -> ouch

- passive mode sounds OK. Active mode is so hot that I have to crank the gain way down on the mixer (it overloads normal inputs), and is overloaded to begin with. THis isn't necessarily bad, just a little weird.

I haven't tried one of the Dean or Musicvox 12s, but I'd try there first. The Galveston is NOT recommended.

P.S. anyone want a 12-string bass, cheap?

 

I remember the bassist in Cheap Trick had a 12-string, that I think was 4 courses of strings in unison, thus
EEE AAA DDD GGG.

The idea of this sounded a bit silly to me, if that tuning was actually the case.

Those who have been experienced -- what is the tuning?

 

Andy, it is the same as you heard, except that one of each triad of strings is tuned to the fundamental, and the other 2 are tuned an octave up, kind of like a 12 string guitar.

Sounds awesome! Check out old King's X, Cheap Trick and Galactic Cowboys first release to hear some examples.

 

Yes, that would be silly.

The tuning of most (Galveston, Hamer, Dean, Musicvox) 12ers out there is Eee Aaa Ddd Ggg. Or, more common actually, eeE aaA ddD ggG. The former is more for playing with fingers, the latter for with a pick (so that the higher strings are the first ones played). My Galveston uses the latter.

12s like this are used by Tom Petersson, Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam), Doug Pinnick (King's X), they guy from Galactic Cowboys?

John Paul Jones has a 12 that is BbEeAaDdGgCc, and also some 10s like that (no Cc). They sound great. I'm actually thinking that I'd rather have an 8 or 10 than this 12. The 12 has such a distinctive shimmery sound, which is cool. But JPJ uses it a little more subtley - it just adds a nice grind to the sound.

(edit) Hah! Embellisher beat me to the punch!

 

That would be Monty Colvin.