The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Gibson Basses => Topic started by: eb2 on February 27, 2008, 06:37:40 PM
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This guy was pretty inventive.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Gibson-Explorer-12-String-Bass-ONE-OF-A-KIND_W0QQitemZ130201918408QQihZ003QQcategoryZ64402QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
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Friggin' hell, that's ugly! I'd be tempted if the guy had done a decent conversion...
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It's the same guy that was selling the 8 string Explorer last week. I'm going to make a guess that the Explorer was one of his favorite body styles? Either that or he bought them for so cheap that he thought they would be good "project" basses.
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A set of those Steinberger gearless tuners (http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Tuning_machines/i-5460.html) for the octave strings might clean up the look of that headstock... but $1900?! :o ::)
Riiiiight.
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I remember reading a couple of articles about how much extra Hamer and later Chandler put into strengthening the necks of Tom Petersson's 12-string basses, even his original short scale Hamer. With that in mind, why would you want to trust somebody's project 12-string bass? Yeah, I know the octave strings don't have as much tension as the thicker strings, but still, that Explorer neck wasn't meant to handle that much tension.
And the $1900 BIN is just nuts.
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The tension gain with the octave strings is massive. Just think that the D string on a 4 string bass (not the E or A) has the highest tension. And an E octave string regularly has the strength of a normal G string or more. On a 12 string you have all that doubled. Of course, with a medium scale tension is overall less and this guy uses very light strings (regular E is an 85 - that's what most of us use as an A string).
But still: My Ric 4003/8 really isn't built to withstand the tension of 8 strings, twin trussrods or not, and my 12 string Musicvox Space Cadet has a mammoth neck, stronger and chunkier than any 5 string or 6 string bass I've seen, and two trussrods to adjust. OTOH, my 8 string Les Paul Standard holds up fine to the 8 strings so Gibson's truss rod system might be sturdier than others (certainly more so than Ric's), I even have a (4 string) fretless Les Paul DeLuxe where the neck is so straight that the truss rod is completely loosened or action would be too low.
In any case, the mod is pretty hideous, he got carried away on that one. Guy was probably a Cheap Trick enthusiast, combining Nielsen's preferred Explorer look with Petersson's multitude of strings extravaganzas.
Uwe
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Uwe, and you call me a butcher.
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But I didn't do it! Nor will I aid and abet such irresponsible behaviour by bidding on it!