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A question about stringing and tuning 12-string basses

I'm sorry, I thought the G that broke was a normal, 2nd octave G (.018p or thereabouts). So have you already received Garry's special .0058p high G? Because if you tried anything else for G4, I'm not surprised it broke. High Gs break all the time on 12-string guitars, and that's at 25.5" scale, which translates to a little over half the tension the same strings would have on your bass = well past breaking point. I mean, I would try a .007p just for shiggles, but anything larger is not exactly primed for success.
Well yes and no, it wasn't the 2nd octave G that broke, it was the 1st octave G (I spliced it back together with a saved trimmed string end), and these are still the stock strings, not the special ones from Gary (he hasn't any in stock).

Anyway, it's staying in "3 octave BEAD" for now until I hear back from the seller or get the special strings (which may be a wait).
 
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Well yes and no, it wasn't the 2nd octave G that broke, it was the 1st octave G, and these are still the stock strings, not the special ones from Gary (he hasn't any in stock).

Anyway, it's staying in "3 octave BEAD" for now until I hear back from the seller or get the special strings (which may be a wait).
Gotcha.
If gauges are reported on the package I could extrapolate from tension charts and suggest where to beef them up.
This said:

very cool! With some patience in EQing, you should be able to perfect the clean sound, while some distortion would turn it into...Jon Lord in a German cathedral! Either way, I'd also add a touch of reverb. (Not a riff on the cathedral theme: it's just that I believe it would gel the three strings together.)
 
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Gotcha.
If gauges are reported on the package I could extrapolate from tension charts and suggest where to beef them up.
This said:

very cool! With some patience in EQing, you should be able to perfect the clean sound, while some distortion would turn it into...Jon Lord in a German cathedral! Either way, I'd also add a touch of reverb. (Not a riff on the cathedral theme: it's just that I believe it would gel the three strings together.)
Exactly! I had the same thought about adding dirt, so I added some "Sweet Drive" gain on my Zoom G5n, results sounded great to my ear, but clipped pretty fiercely recording, I haven't messed around with setting yet to try to get a good recording, but I will. And already did have a touch of reverb on, I'll bump it up some.

Tons o' Fun! hehe
 
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Exactly! I had the same thought about adding dirt, so I added some "Sweet Drive" gain on my Zoom G5n, results sounded great to my ear, but clipped pretty fiercely recording, I haven't messed around with setting yet to try to get a good recording, but I will. And already did have a touch of reverb on, I'll bump it up some.

Tons o' Fun! hehe
Adding Zoom G5n "Sweet Drive" and "Cry" auto-filter:

 
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oh and no gauges or calipers handy, so no guess as to the gauge of the high G yet... pretty small, but not .009, I don't think. I have some .007s I could try...
 
Holy Hell! This thing would be a freakin' MONSTER through a full stack! Just have my little TE ELF for now, still sounds thunderous!
(I was just playing my bass-chord version of "Nantucket Sleighride" transposed to Bm when I went off gushing like that. But it did sound pretty good. Not quite Jon Lord in the German Catherdral quite yet, but getting there.) ;)
 
Just an impression of build quality - way better than the old entry-level Galvestons and the like, at least on par with the Deans, if not better. Neck is quite slender, but so far, fairly impressive in terms of holding the tension. Haven't had to mess with the truss rod yet though...

It does neck dive fairly heavily, combination of large headstock, all those tuners, and the short upper horn. I plan on building an upper horn extender at some point (Basically just an extra-long bolt it tubing over most of it.)
 
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Just an impression of build quality - way better than the old entry-level Galvestons and the like, at least on par with the Deans, if not better. Neck is quite slender, but so far, fairly impressive in terms of holding the tension. Haven't had to mess with the truss rod yet though...

It does neck dive fairly heavily, combination of large headstock, all those tuners, and the short upper horn. I plan on building an upper horn extender at some point (Basically just an extra-long bolt it tubing over most of it.)
continuing review - electronics are definitely the weak point - pickups are weak and noisy, no shielding, abundant buzzes, only usable with tones at minimum. May look into new pickups that fit, should be a standard soapbar size, I would think.
 
Moar Nantucket noodling - tried again, trading off recording inadequacies by switching to my cell phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e). Dolby ON. Came out better, I think.



Playing still a little iffy. 3 different gauges is harder to fret and pick cleanly (oh and I'm a fingers guy for picking).
 
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I'm thinking of having custom headstock waterslide decals made for them, I think I might go for "CHÖADHAMMER" hehe...
 
Do they got the knife-carving font? :roflmao:
Not that I can find. Howza'bout Olde English? :D

Choadhammer.jpg
 
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It's rare for these free decorative and novelty fonts to have extended character sets: they usually drop diacriticals like accents, umlaut/diaeresis, etc. For example I tested "Chöadhammer" on the "Help Me!" font and got this:
View attachment 5136216
Which is certainly a message, but not the original message. :smug:
Yeah, those fonts don't include umlauted letters, would have to patch that in by hand in Paint, but do-able. :)
 
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