Bassiste

bassiste magazine

This issue includes a sidebar showing a black Hamer B12L 12-string bass, plus an interview with Doug Pinnick of King’s X. Two questions referred to the 12-string bass:

The 12-string bass is part of your favorite arsenal.

It was Tom Petersson from the group Cheap Trick who introduced me to this instrument. He advised me to contact the Hamer brand so that they could make a custom one for me. Even though I’ve abandoned this bass in recent years, I came back to it because I like its sound color and its use in a trio configuration, because it gives more freedom to the guitarist since it allows me to not not only fill the bass spectrum, but also the middle at the same time.

Let's stay for a moment in the field of sound.

The particularity of my bass approach is due to several factors, including the use of 12-string bass. But, my color of sound comes primarily from the tuning of the instruments. The 12-string Yamaha is tuned in D-A-D-G. Depth is my thing and the pick gives the necessary attack. For years I have been working with two amps, one for the treble, the other for the bass. Since 1974 I used the Traynor brand amplifiers, now it's all Ampeg SVT Pro-4. The Line 6 guitar pre-amp recreates the sound of the Traynor. For the speakers, no hesitation, it is also Ampeg (8x10). The fact that we were more serious from the start even earned us the name of precursor of the Grunge movement.