I complained about the pull not because of the neck stability - obviously many necks can take them, my Gibson CS LP 8-string has no issues and it is a regular LP neck -, but because the extremely taut octave strings feel expressionless to my fingers as they react neither to bending nor vibrato. Unmusical. A 12 string is even worse in that respect and approaches sounding like a synth to me. As if you're a machine playing a machine. If Paul McCartney, Geezer Butler, Jack Bruce and Pino Palladino played 8-strings they would all sound less individual than with 4-string basses. And for the life of it, I cannot here anything individual in the playing of the Cheap Trick guy except that he plays multi-strings a lot and is basically a rhythm guitar chugger with a very unfocused sound live. Even D(o)ug Pinnick loses individuality when playing his multistrings. Rhythmic nuances, bending, vibrato, attack all get lost, the (long scale) eight string is the great equalizer.
There is no musical need for octave strings to be as taut as they are on a long scale (and a Ric isn't even a real long scale, more of an oversize meduim scale), even octave strings on a short scale would be far from floppy. And I believe their brightness would blend well with the mushier regular strings.
I've said this before, my dream bass would have E and A long scale and D and G short scale doubled with an octave.
No offense meant to committed multi stringers, I'm sure you play your beasts well, but I'm equally sure that I would hear "more of you" on a regular 4 string.
Uwe