excuse me for flipping out, but...

You could tune it from EADG, and have the strings tuned a major 3rd and a minor 5th from the root or any number of intervals and triads for weirdness.

Cool idea, but how would you conventionally use it?

 

How about 18?

http://guitars101.wordpress.com/2008/07/13/18-string-bass-guitar/

 

i've played one of those before. my cheap trick enthusiast friend has one. it's not as crazy as you would think, but you kinda need to use a pick. it doesn't work so well with fingerstyle. the sound it makes is pretty insane, my friend used it only for certain songs because of how it could easily dominate the mix.

 

Just keep playing the intro from "Jeremy" over and over until the $550 has been amortized and then sell it before you break a string.

 

that pic of the 18 was taken of Allen during a Allman Bros. show. A buddy of mine saw one of those shows. Allen walked out with that bass and started Whipping Post.
Allen is a phenominal player and one of my major influences any time i have a pick in hand. I cant imagine the sound of the Whipping Post intro being played by him on that beast.

 

I would hang myself if I was the tech who had to intonate that.

 

I knew I had seen one of those somewhere. Doug Pinnick of King's X uses/used one

 

This thread has suddenly got me wondering how many strings I can actually fret at once.. Plus I've suddenly got a serious thing going for King X. Thank you for the link!

 

15-String Warrior if you have $5K

http://www.edroman.com/detail_sheets/warrior_15 string_bass_d245.html

 

.....pulls guts out of old piano and puts on ebay as 88 string extended range bass.

 

lol more like 200+ strings if you use a piano.....

 

I get Tom's 12 string and why he invented it. He wanted his bass to sound more like a rhythm guitar to fill in the bands sound. He plays thru guitar amps to reduce to much lo end and strums allot with a pick. I always loved the band and his playing which wasnt the norm for most bassists.

Those other crazy multi string basses with footwide fretboards

 

No such thing as a minor 5th. I assume you mean diminished? Having strings tunes in a diminished triad would be kind weird.

 

Doug gets an unbelievable tone with his 12 string, really ground-shaking, window-breaking kind of growl with it.