most strings on a bass guitar you've ever seen

A bass only has four strings!

 

18
http://guitars101.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/18telli1.jpg
11
http://www.gopromusic.com/git.php?id=1235

 

Yeah, Allen Woody's 6x3 monster wins the prize with me.

 

...and a real bassist only needs two of those 4.

 

+1

 

Amen!

 

Oh stop it, you grumpy quasi-purists! Those kind of beliefs can have one banished to the DB forum.

 

Two?? What's wrong with you people, I've got I, IV, and V on only one string!


EDIT: okay, Conklin has made both 13 and 15 string basses, and people actually play them in public. If I remember right, Warrior and Benavente have both made 11 string basses...come to think of it, I remember someone telling me that Warrior made some sort of 20-string monstrosity just to show off that they could. Jerzy Drozd and Bee Basses would be good makers to look into for ERB's, too.

Maybe your friend could look into a Chapman Stick, as well? They've got a 12 string model with bass-like spacing designed by Ned Steinberger these days...I've got an eye on that, myself.

 

What 10 string does he have that can't take a low F#? Just curious, since I've been thinking of removing my high F in favor of gaining a low F# ever since my church installed subs that would project it well.

 

I'm probably wrong and thinking of someone else, then, but didn't Jean-Paul Baudin have one made for him? Or was 13 his maximum so far?

And, more importantly to the OP, would Conklin make a 15 string if someone had the dough?

EDIT: The Google search I should have done before posting reveals only a company named Tennesee producing a non-coursed 15 string bass, apparently reviewed on Harmony Central.

 

Actually, a real bassist only needs one string. The other three just make it easier!

 

Weren't both Jean Baudin and Garry Goodman getting 13's built? Whatever happened to that?

 

I can appreciate the skill that goes into making these mega-string creations -- and even more so into playing them -- but after a certain point you just want to tell a guy to go play the d**n piano...

 

because you can't tie a piano to your crotch.

 

12, anymore than that and it quits being a guitar and becomes a harp!

 

Jeez...

 

Of course you can... they just haven't invented the right strap for it yet