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Buckeye beauty 11

#61
James Hart said:
Thanks! I'm having a ball playing them!



my fav 7+ string bass...

Bee20060903_001.jpg


but a Benavente SCA is one of my favorite shapes too. Owning a pair of basses from Chris B, I know his stuff is tough to match.
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i've always really liked that, who did the inlays was it benavente or no?
 
#64
I use my 11 string as a Bass first,a guitar second,a keyboard third and a compositional instrument in total. I have several project out now. Because of the mass,my bass sound is wonderful!! My guitar sound is very fender sounding. I have the luxury of playing everything,including drums on one instrument. I've written over 1600 hundred songs and this instrument is a multi instrumentalist dream!!! I want people to listen to my bass lines. They are solid. I love sitting in with Blues bands and showing them that this Bass can be played simple and solid. They keep waiting for me to play on the high strings but I tell them that Im a bassist tonight!! :-) Thank You Chris and Brian!!! Take Care!! Al Caldwell
 
#69
I admit I love having instant access to a wide frequency range, complete with the capability to do bass, mid, treble, chords, soloing, unisons, and whatever. I think that the ideal for everyone is to have as many strings as they can use effectively. I'm a bit ERB fan.

Yet this 11-string bass bothers me, for a couple of reasons. First, my own B strings (on 5 to 7 string basses) are as low as I can hear, as low as my amp can amplify, and lower than my wireless can transmit and receive. WHY add two strings even lower than the B? You can't hear them, and these massive strings cost more all by themselves than a 7-string set costs!

Second, you can't PLAY those two low strings, because the neck is too wide to reach them. I suppose you could play Stanley Jordan style, with the bass sitting on your lap while you tap all the strings, but then why not go with a Chapman Stick? I've seen Jean's videos, and he dedicates one hand to bass and one to treble as far as I can tell. A different technique altogether, and not one I'd particularly want to learn.

So hey, if you can make music out of the whole instrument, using all it offers, great. I can't. I *might* be able to use an 8-string with 16.5mm spacing, string B-E-A-D-G-C-F-Bb. This would let me use standard technique up to about the 14th fret (I have large hands). But once the neck is 8 inches wide, I'm outta here.
 
#71
mark beem said:
Subscribing for existing and forthcoming asshattery.. :smug:
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:p

Amen!!

and back to On Topic... thank you gentlemen for bringing this bad boy back on track, I'm finally starting to get my hands wrapped around a 6 again and also get my head there. Along with, trying to get the chip off of my shoulder regarding contempt for hearing "Mario Bros." tapped on another kagillion+ stringed bass ... I am getting over it though... anywho, great to see these monstrosities!!! They're kickin!!

and Al, would love to see you on a Blues gig, more for seeing the guitarist's face looking at your fingerboard :smug:

Cheers! and string on!!! :bassist:
 
#72
I will post some video on youtube showing how you can play solid bass with the 11 string. I can play scales over the whole neck and I haven't
written 1 song that covers 4 octaves, but I will give an Example. You can
feel the F#. On the Low C#, it's useful in the Third position. It stops me from having to jump down the neck when I'm reading music. If you look at the 11 string like a pedal steel then you realize that all of the note you want or in the same position "Across" the neck. I know it's hard to imagine but I love that I added this instrument to my arsenal to tonal translators!!
Stay Blessed!! Your pal Al Caldwell
 
#74
Whoah the real Al Caldwell!!!!

Gotta admit, when I recently snagged my 35" scale 6 string fretless, I was kinda glad I didn't have any more strings! I'd think with the extra neck width, I'd have trouble with the first position on the low B. I tend to play a lot in the 5th-10th position on the low B, suddenly the need for an F# string for position playing kinda makes sense.

In the future....I might look into something like that.
 
#76
You know, it looks as if the neck is far too wide; but only until you try it yourself! At least that's how it was for me, when I got my 9 (which is actually the Al Caldwell signature bass - thanks Al!!!). I find that on this bass I can easily reach that low F# string, with good margin - I could easily reach a 10th string and probably an 11th string too. And yes indeed you can hear those low notes, down to low F# -- that note has its fundamental frequency at about 23 Hz which may be barely audible but even if you can't hear the fundamental, the harmonics tells you where it is. It completely rocks with the gospel choir!
 

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