You might as well ask how many clouds are in the sky at any given point during an overcast day. As soon as you mention a number, someone will read it, and think "Hey, I can beat that." Then the whole precess starts anew. ~Ryan
I'm not sure if this website is owned by another TalkBasser, so please excuse me if I'm hijacking this link to see some 15 and 18 string basses. I haven't seen a bass with more strings than these.
The bass or guitar with the largest range is the Adler 12-string. It has 92 notes and spans 71/2 octaves.It has C0,or C#0(17hz) up to the entire octave 6 and half of octave 7 , to G7 or Ab 7 , depending on the tuning. The average cost of a set of strings is less than $15.00
18 trippled you mean? Depends on where you draw the line between "Bass" and "____" whatever you want to call it. The Adler has 12 strings. Warr guitars go up to 14. And I've seen a 17 and 18 string, with single course strings.
You asked for it... 17 String Bear Instrument And then there's the 18 string Bear...instrument And of course, the 12-string Adler:
Keeping things in perspective,the Warr,The Stick do not have 12 or 14 strings starting on a C0 ,tuned in consecutive 4ths .They are really 6 or 7 strings,then a second set of 6 or 7 strings starts over sharing the same fretboard. Also,those instruments don't have a .195 C0 string, and they do not have an Ab4 (415.30 Hz) string. The Adler 12 is tuned C0 F0 Bb0 Eb1 Ab1 Db2 F#2 B3 E3 A3 D4 G4,up to G7 at the 36th fret, or a half step higher C#0 - Ab4, Ab7 at the 36th fret. 17,or 18 single course? Has to be two 9 strings on one neck. There are no strings existing that can cover 18 strings in a row,tuned in intervalic sequence such as consecuative 4ths,spaning 7-9 octaves. I have the only G4 and Ab strings for the 32" scale only because I had them developed and custom made.Making the wire was no picnic! Consider the fact that string companies can't wind a ball end on these strings because they are to thin.Adler patented a clamping bridge to solve this problem. If anyone else has these strings, they have been keeping them a secret. The Adler 12-string goes lower in pitch that a bass guitar, and higher in pitch than a guitar. Since it has 5 octaves in bass cleff,and 2 1/2 octaves in treble cleff and is a 34"/32" scale, I call it a bass guitar. The other instruments repeat sets of 6 or 7,8,9 strings.That's having two instruments sharing the same neck.Most likely none of the strings on those instruments are tuned higer than E4 or F4 . With all those strings, they still don't have any notes in octave 7.
