Hamer Chaparral B12L Long Scale 12-String Basses

Hamer B12l 12-STring Basses

Hamer added the Chaparral model B12L 12-string bass to their catalog in 1992. It was Hamer's most popular 12-string bass body style, and the majority were produced in the Black finish. At one time it was reported that Hamer designed this bass in collaboration with Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, but according to Hamer this contention is untrue and Petersson also denies any involvement with the B12L.

The B12L has the long scale 34" neck with dual truss rods and comes standard with EMG active pickups. With the standard wiring package there are knobs for bass and treble tone control, a pan control between the two pickups, and a master volume control.

Jol Dantzig at Hamer told us, "There were two of those 12-string basses with graphite necks. They never worked well. Too much tension! We didn't put a proper finish on it because it didn't work. One was owned by a very famous producer who wanted one for a session. We sent it to him because it was the only 12-string we had around at the time.”

Customized Hamer B12L 12-string basses

Hamer B12L Specifications

• Distinctive Split "V" Headstock with Schaller Tuners, Lubritrak Nut

• 3-Piece Stressed Maple Neck with Fully Adjustable Twin Low Mass Truss Rods

• Quarter-Sawn East Indian Rosewood Fingerboard

• Solid Precision Routed Mahogany Body

• 21 -Nickel Silver Hand Seated .050" x .116" Frets on a 34" Scale

• Two EMG DC-35 Pickups, EMG BTS Electronics with four 25K Potentiometers

• Master Volume, Bass, Treble and Pan Pot Controls

• Hamer Brass Bridge with 8 Individually Adjustable Saddles

• Chrome Hardware, Flamed Maple Top

Hamer B12L Review

by Kevin Macza

I bought this bass in early 1996 as a replacement for my first Hamer short-scale B12S. The color is standard black, no special order here. If I would have had a choice I would have ordered a deep transparent red.

Pros

Compared with my original 30½" scale B12S, the 34" Chaparral has a tighter, more throaty sound to it. Overall, the longer scale length adds greater definition to the notes and makes harmonics stand out more. The tone in general seems more aggressive and piano-like than the B12S. The body design, although generically Fender inspired, gives good access to the upper frets and generally has an ergonomic design which makes playing comfortable in sitting or standing positions. By comparison, the B12S was nice looking but not as practical to play.

Overall, the mahogany body is quite acoustically resonant and adds a woody warmth to the tone when compared to the hard rock maple used in the B12S which sounded very bright. Surprisingly, I found that the B12S had more low lows and high highs while the B12L has more throaty mids, probably due somewhat to the difference in body woods. The B12S sounded more like a harpsichord while the B12L sounds more like a piano if that analogy helps.

The installed EMG BTS circuit has been useful with both the stock EMG and subsequent Lane Poor replacement pickups. The added flexibility of the optional treble knee frequency adjustment on board can allow custom tailoring of high frequency response. I personally prefer the 7-kHz setting for bringing out the rich overtones created by the 12-string bass. The onboard blend allows subtle adjustment to find your favorite "sweet spot" tone, which for me is usually slightly toward the neck pickup.

Cons

While the Chaparral body design is comfortable by itself, it doesn't balance well with the weight of the neck and headstock. Without support from your arm, the neck will dive rather seriously in any playing position. For an instrument that already places a formidable challenge on a player with so many strings to push down, this is an unacceptable fact. Hamer should address this by using ultra light tuning machines and possibly by re-engineering the neck and body so that they balance comfortably. The instrument weight of 9-10 lbs is quite reasonable, just the balance is in question here.

The bridge design is functional, but on both of my Hamer 12-strings it sags in the middle causing the A and D strings to buzz more than the outer E and G strings. On both occasions Hamer has sent a replacement bridge at no cost. What would be nice is a bridge that has better support in the middle as well as both ends. Additionally, I've had to have the tailpiece removed and larger screws put in to keep it secured. After owning the bass for a year and a half, the tailpiece had worked loose and was on the verge of being pulled off by string tension. By reversing the mounting of the tailpiece, the string tension would tend to push it down rather than pull it up, so this is yet another design change to look into.

Hamer switched from passive pickups to EMG’s sometime in the 1980’s, and the EMG active sound is harsh and abrasive to my ears. Both of my Hamers sounded processed and sterile plugged in with the EMG’s, yet wonderfully alive and resonant when played acoustically. This sent me on a quest for replacement pickups which ended up with the installation of a pair of Lane Poor M3.5W (wide aperture) pickups in 1999. These pickups bring out the acoustic sound of the instrument.

On a few occasions, I've asked Hamer about using graphite reinforcement in their 12-string bass necks like Chandler is now doing in their Royale model but so far it has fallen on deaf ears. As a result, my B12L has a slight twist in the neck that gives a little more relief on the treble side than the bass side. I've tried to compensate for this by carefully adjusting the single-acting dual truss rods, but the best I can do is tighten only the bass side rod and leave the treble side only finger tight. The bass plays well with low action as it is, but for this sort of instrument you need to have the lowest action possible to avoid undue hand strain. The addition of dual-acting truss rods would allow for adjustment of both relief and neck twist.

With the use of graphite, this type of problem would be dramatically reduced. For my taste, the neck is a bit too thick from front to back and maybe a little bit narrow from side to side. With graphite strips inlayed, a thinner / wider neck should not be a problem.

Another point of contention for me was string spacing. After getting the replacement bridge from Hamer, Sheldon Dingwall and I set out to optimize the string spacing at the nut and bridge. We decided on a spacing that is about 1/8" wider overall and puts a little more space between each course of strings. Additionally, we were careful to allow enough clearance between octaves and fundamentals so as to minimize string rattle. The end result is that each course is clustered together and more separated from its neighbors, rather than a spread of 12 strings almost evenly spaced across the neck; this makes fingerstyle playing almost possible, and generally makes it less confusing to finger and pluck the desired notes.