What's the appeal of 6, 7, 8, and 12 string basses?

[uwe]

The 12'er is like having a rhythm guitarist who can keep time.

Most brilliant statement in the whole thread!!! 

[uwe]

Cheap Trick and Kings X fans will disagree, but I find an eight string best in a musical setting that is devoid of a guitar. The layered nuances of an eight string get lost once a regular rock guitar sets in.



I find that Cheap Trick for instance sounds mushy live in contrast and that Petersen's sound is largely to blame for that. Now stone me.

[Dave W]

I really like that first vid, very taste- and tuneful, but it's not bass playing, is it? But unquestionably nice.

Long scale guitar playing would be more like it. He does use the low strings, just not very much on that number.

[Pekka]

Cheap Trick and Kings X fans will disagree, but I find an eight string best in a musical setting that is devoid of a guitar. The layered nuances of an eight string get lost once a regular rock guitar sets in.

I find that Cheap Trick for instance sounds mushy live in contrast and that Petersen's sound is largely to blame for that. Now stone me.

I don't care if this sounds mushy, to me it just sounds great even if the balance is way bass heavy:


On the other hand, Greg Lake must have had the worst bass tone ever with the 8-string. Rinky-dink, almost makes Lee Jackson's hollow Vox klonk sound great.

[Hörnisse]

[uwe]

Come on guys, neither the Cheap Trick nor the Rockpile song crave for a 12- or 8-string sound. If anything the playing is a little stiffer than it would be on a 4-string because you can't bend strings as much and aren't that manouvrable/nimble on the fretboard, playing a multi-string is hard work after a while.

Lake's clanky sound is a matter of taste too, but it makes sense in a trio without guitar where there is no guitar for more percussive strumming, besides it's a style elment of a lot of prog music. I'm no great ELP fan at all, but on Fanfare that metallic bass sound fits the song. Mind you, Lake would eq his sound clanky with any bass he played, be it  Jazz Bass, Ripper, Alembic 4 string or Alembic 8 string.  

I've seen Cheap Trick twice in open air scenarios, it's incredibly hard to catch what Petersen plays. He has a wall of sound, but it's hard to pick out runs from what he does. It's as if his bass has a continuous delay running with it. It brings us back to the point that a multistring can sound awsome on its own, but clutters up the sound in a band setting and even begins to grate. In the ELP track all those strings at least have room to breathe because there is no guitar invading the mid frequencies.

But that said, I don't think the history of rock would need to be rewritten in the absence of multi string basses. I cannot think of a bass run on 8 string or 12 string that has introduced a hit song like McGuinn's 12 string guitar intro did on The Byrd's Mr Tambourine man.

I sometimes do get caught up in especially playing my Ric 8 String at home and it sounds gorgeous with effects in the solitude of my living room playing chordy harmonies, but once you are in the rehearsal room the guitarist really has to restrict himself for all that still to be heard.

[Hörnisse]

[dadagoboi]

The interview with dUg Pinnick on 12stringbass.net is pretty good.  Says he only plays a 12 on songs he writes on one.  Also an in depth build article on his custom Yamaha single Duncan PBass pickup 12er and his stereo rig.

[Pekka]

I cannot think of a bass run on 8 string or 12 string that has introduced a hit song like McGuinn's 12 string guitar intro did on The Byrd's Mr Tambourine man.

"Jeremy" by Pearl Jam perhaps?

[TBird1958]

But that said, I don't think the history of rock would need to be rewritten in the absence of multi string basses. I cannot think of a bass run on 8 string or 12 string that has introduced a hit song like McGuinn's 12 string guitar intro did on The Byrd's Mr Tambourine man.

Ehhhhh!? 

GONNA RAISE HELL!

[Pekka]

Ehhhhh!? 

GONNA RAISE HELL!

That of course too. Could be played on any bass but wouldn't sound the same. The same with "Jeremy".

[gearHed289]

"Jeremy" by Pearl Jam perhaps?

+1 even though I can't stand Pearl Jam!

[uwe]

So you come up with two songs out of a zillion that have a multi string bass intro. With all due respect for the composers, they don't qualify as hits in the term of Mr Tambourine Man by the Byrds whose intro is recognized by people who don't know who Roger McGuinn, what a 12 string guitar or who Bob Dylan is. We'll talk again when the Cheap Trick and Sound-we-have-decided-to-shoot-hundreds-of-years-of European-harmony-rules-to-the-bins-garden are still a staple on mainstream oldie radio in twenty years from now. Currently at least, I don't hear their songs at question as often as I heard Mr Tambourine Man on radio in the eighties, but who knows they might still catch up ... In Cheap Trick's and Soundgarden's greatest hit - Black Hole Sun Wants you to Want me - a multistring bass sound plays no role whatsoever. Did I mention how Black Hole Sun's chord changes make me wince to this day? Tis truly horrible and I have made serious efforts to "get" Soundgarden, but I can't their chord combinations are random and, jawohl, widernatürlich!

[TBird1958]

Black Hole Sun? Soundgarden?

Pearl Jam, Jeremy........Seattle bands 


 

[Pilgrim]

Duck Dunn, James Jamerson.   4 strings can do a lot.