Gibson 12 string basss

[godofthunder]

 I am shocked it's not a Thunderbird! http://www.cheaptrick.com/tom-petersson-in-april-2013-vintage-guitar-magazine

[TBird1958]

I like it! 

[leftybass]

I posted about it a month ago!

[chromium]

Curious to see that "V8" that this article refers to...

[mc2NY]

Looks just like a Hamer (the very first Quad 12vers) with a minor upper horn extension.

Stupidly...it only has one truss rod. Especially considering the builder states that he wanted to make his own version of a Hamer 12...and Hamer learned that you need dual-truss rod necks on a 12 or the neck warps.

[Bionic-Joe]

I think I like My thunderbird 8 string basses better...even more..I like the Futura that I built the best!!! That was THEE best 8 string bass I EVER built!!

[Pekka]

I like it except the 4-saddle bridge.

[uwe]

You know in whose collection this should rightfully be, hmmmph!

And who is this upstart Petersson anyway? Never heard of his band, Sheep Track, or whatever they are called either.

I have to check but the body shape of this bass mirrors a four string protoype I have from the end of the nineties I have which with its Bartolini TCT circuit is very likely a Phil Jones creation too, in this case one of the last ones before he left Gibson. So he must have resurrected the body shape. I know that he was always hung up on the doublecut shape and wanted that to grace the nineties LP basses, but Gibson's marketing department went for the more popular and Gibson-ingrained single cut shape.

Anybody have Herr Petersson's phone number? I hear he always needs money ...

Re truss rod, I believe Gibson is there in the ultra-stable department. I have that eight-string T.M. Stevens ordered singlecut LP Bass and the neck is so stiff all I generally have to do is release it to heighten action not the other way around. It's just an eight-string, true, but the way that neck interacts with the eight-string pull i believe it could easily handle another four octave strings.

[Dave W]

Ronn's thread from a month ago: http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=7743.0

Uwe, you can enlarge the story on Cheap Trick's site. It was built by Phil Jones in 1991, and Phil is quoted.

[gearHed289]

I like it except the 4-saddle bridge.

Yeah, what's up with that? Otherwise, cool bass. Love to have it. Been wishing my Hamer was a long scale. It's been collecting dust while my 8 gets all the action. 

[uwe]

Ronn's thread from a month ago: http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=7743.0

Uwe, you can enlarge the story on Cheap Trick's site. It was built by Phil Jones in 1991, and Phil is quoted.

I know, I read that. Must dig out a pic of mine, it seems to be the exact same body shape. Mine came with a certificate that it was late nineties from the Custom Shop, but that doesn't rule out that he made one in the early and one in the late nineties. Mine has mandolin frets which seems to be a nod towards the Lee Sklar Sig which was a late nineties model too.

I don't doubt at all that Phil built this, but his recollection when he built something is sometimes a bit shaky. I have a fretless doublecut early nineties long scale LP bass from him and that looks different as it doesn't have either the lower horn scoop nor the elongated upper horn. But who knows, maybe my "late nineties" prototype is actually an early nineties one, the fact that it has the Bartolini TCT active circuit favored then by Phil certainly might indicate that.

Either way: That 12-string cries to be in my collection, no two ways about it.

[mc2NY]

Re truss rod, I believe Gibson is there in the ultra-stable department. I have that eight-string T.M. Stevens ordered singlecut LP Bass and the neck is so stiff all I generally have to do is release it to heighten action not the other way around. It's just an eight-string, true, but the way that neck interacts with the eight-string pull i believe it could easily handle another four octave strings.

Nah! I've seen a couple of Gibson basses that were converted from 4 to 12-string and the necks could not handle the tension and bowed like mad.

I missed that other glaring error that Pekka spotted....4-saddle bridge. Typical builder errors of someone who has no conception of how to properly build a root-octave bass.

But the builder did say he had made a number of various bass configurations, so this was obviously never meant as a finished model. I'd be curious if it actually has a stamped SN# on it or an "Official Gibson Prototype" stamp?  Still a cool curiosity to have...like that Les Paul 8-string bass that was auctioned off from his personal stuff, after LP passed.

[Pekka]

You know in whose collection this should rightfully be, hmmmph!

Yes, mine. Then it would be played (after changing the bridge of course).

[uwe]

(flabbergasted) I play all my basses - a good harem needs to be kept busy.

[Pekka]

(flabbergasted) I play all my basses - a good harem needs to be kept busy.

I thought you didn't like 12-string basses?