Bass Player Magazine

Bass Player magazine ceased publication of its print version with the October, 2022 issue citing overwhelming printing and distribution costs. The online version continues.

NOVEMBER 2020 - ISSUE 401

Jeff Ament and his Hamer 12-string bass are on the cover. Jeff states, “'My Father's Son', which was on the last record (Pearl Jam’s Lightning Bolt album in 2013), has a 12-string bass - with a heavy, riffy song, I always want to bust that thing out because it's such a cool sound. It's almost like having a piano out there with it.”

You can read Mark’s interview in its entirety in the Articles section.

DecEMBER 2020 - ISSUE 402

This issue features bassists from the 1970’s, and a photo of Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson is included with his Hamer B12A 12-string bass and the caption, “Twelve strings did it for Tom Petersson”.

June 2016, Vol. 27, No. 6

The interview with Tom Petersson includes two photos of his Gretsch 12-string bass. When asked if his approach to playing a 12-string bass was different than his 4-string style Tom said, “My playing doesn’t change whatsoever from a 4-string to a 12-string. The 12-string happens to perfectly suit my style because I started on guitar. I’ve always loved playing a 12-string electric guitar, so the transition to a 12-string bass was no big deal. My style is a key part of it, as well. So much of a player’s sound comes from their hands. You can have someone play any bass and it will sound like them.”

April 2015, Vol. 26, No. 4

A review of the Musicvox MI-5 12-string bass is featured, plus a Musicvox ad shows off the MI-5.

August 2013, Volume 24, No. 8

This issue features a review of the Musicvox Space Cadet 12-string bass. A couple of comments from the review: “Once I plugged in, I finally understood the appeal of this massive bass. Sure, players like Petersson, dUg Pinnick, Jeff Ament, and Allen Woody have opened our ears to this instrument’s possibilities, but there’s nothing like plugging in, turning up, and hitting three notes at once with big bottom and bright highs.”

“Something about the 12 seemed to inspire Middle Eastern and Indian scales and modes, especially when the treble strings were slightly detuned.”

June 2013, Vol. 24, No. 6

The article begins, “With the frequent use of 12-string basses (slung super low by the terrifically tall southpaw) and bi-amped rigs, Pinnick created one of the most distinctive bass sounds in rock & rock, in and of itself a tremendous achievement.”

Pinnick states, "I did play a lot of 12-string on Faith Hope Love and King's X (1990 and 1992). I got the idea from Tom Petersson from Cheap Trick. He's the originator, the godfather. King's X was touring with Cheap Trick in 1988 for our first record. Cheap Trick is one of my favorite bands in the whole world, so I was trying to hang out backstage and be cool. At one gig, right before they went on stage, I said to Tom, 'Man, that 12-string is cool'. He said, 'Check it out,' and he took it off and handed it to me. I went, 'Dude, I want one of these,' and he told me to get in touch with Hamer and ask them to make me one. About six months later, Hamer called Ty and asked if he would play one of their guitars. I called them up and said, 'What about me?' They went, 'Well of course you, dUg!' So they built me four 12-strings."

When asked if he still played 12-string, Doug responded, "I try to pull it out on at least one song per record, because everybody wants to hear it and see it." Then when asked why he moved away from the 12-string bass, Pinnick said, "I got lazy. One thing about the 12-string is it doesn't work well if you're just playing along with the guitar. You've got to write a song on the 12-string - like Pearl Jam's 'Jeremy'. But I usually don't pick up the 12-string when I have a song to write. I'll grab a guitar instead. So it just slipped away from me. I wrote 'Human Behavior' (Dogman, 1994) on a 12-string. That's why it's real minimal and primal. The 12-string bass has all these harmonic chiming artifacts that turn it into a huge sound."

Doug Pinnick's 12-string bass pointers: "First off, you need to get the action really, really low, and you have to use light-gauge strings all the way around, even on the bass strings. If you're a pick player, you want the little strings on the top, and if you're a fingerstyle player, you want the little strings on the bottom. Because if you hit the big string first, you're going to miss the octave strings.”

December 1994, Vol. 5, No. 8

This issue includes a two-page ad from Hamer Guitars featuring Doug Pinnick of King’s X and Hamer B12L 12-string basses, plus an ad from Warwick showing their 12-string bass.

August 1994, Vol. 5, No. 5

Tom Petersson states, “The 12-string doesn’t fit on everything. If you don’t have the right amount of space, it ends up blending into the mix like another guitar. In fact, if I had to use just one instrument all the way through the recording of an album, it would have to be an old Fender Precision.”

“Even though you may think you’re hearing 12-string galore on Cheap Trick records, many of their classic crunchers - such as the nine-minute ‘Gonna Raise Hell’ (from 1979’s Dream Police) - were, in fact, cut with medium-scale Alembic 8-strings. As for Petersson’s fabled 12’s, these days they’re relegated to duty during Cheap Trick’s stage show, where he deploys either a checkerboard or blue Hamer.”

April 1994, Vol. 5, No. 3

In the interview with Jeff Ament he states, “After playing stand-up for a couple of songs, you can pick up an electric and think, Hey, this is cake. The 12-string is similar; after playing the 12 for a while, a 4-string feels like a little toy.” A graphic showing Ament’s rig is included, as well as an SWR advertisement showing Ament live on stage with his Hamer “Ament” B12A 12-string bass.

Also in this issue, in a sidebar to his interview Doug Pinnick details recording the album Dogman and his multi-string basses; you can read his comments in their entirety in our Articles section.

November 1993, Vol. 4, No. 7

The interview with bassist Jonathan Sanborn includes a comment about him playing on the Curtis Mayfield tribute album: “Jonathan not only propels the tracks with his groove-oriented playing but is also featured alongside his father on ‘People Get Ready’, carrying the soulful melody with cool octave work on a Hamer 12-string bass.”

February 1993, Vol. 4, No. 1

An article about Jeff Ament includes, ‘With a real studio budget at his disposal, Ament started to experiment. “I rented one of Tom Petersson’s prototype 12-strings, which you can hear on ‘Stardog Champion’ and during the middle of ‘Holy Roller’. I just had to try it, ever since I heard Cheap Trick’s ‘Gonna Raise Hell’ as a kid and was blown away by Petersson’s awesome tone.” (Editor’s note: ‘Gonna Raise Hell’ was actually recorded on an Alembic 8-string bass.)

Ament’s arsenal consist of his main stage bass, assembled from a Warmoth body and an ESP neck, and three customs (4-, 8-, and 12-string) built by Hamer’s Jol Dantzig. The customs are all based on what Dantzig calls the ‘Tom Petersson Style,’ featuring a single cut-away body that’s shaped like an acoustic guitar. The industrial-looking black 12-string provides the beautiful intro to the plaintive ‘Jeremy’ where Ament performs pull-offs to create a harmonic ‘chime’ effect. The 12 is also responsible for the cyclical ‘ambient-noodling groove track’ reminiscent of Mick Karn, that opens and closes Ten.”

July/August 1991, Volume 2, No. 4

This issue includes an early article about Hamer 8-string and 12-string basses, and features King’s X bassist Doug Pinnick. Doug says, “I think just about just about anyone can benefit from using a 12-string bass.” You can read all of Doug’s observations about multi-string basses in the Articles section.

May / June 1995, Vol. 6, No. 4

The report from the L.A. NAMM Show includes a photo of a custom Modulus 12-string bass, as well as an Alembic 6x2 12-string bass.