Hamer Duo-Tone Custom 12-String Bass

Hamer Custom Duo-Tone 12-String Bass

The second 12-string bass built by Hamer for Jeff Ament has a partially hollow body cavity with three small sound holes. It has a piezo bridge / saddle pickup in addition to its electro-magnetic pickups, much like the design and function of Hamer's Duo-Tone acoustic / electric guitar.

In fact, Hamer referred to this bass as being “Acoustic Electric”. The theory behind this bass was that it would achieve both an electric tone as well as an acoustic tone from the same instrument.

In practice, the bass didn't seem to achieve as much of the acoustical properties as Jeff had hoped. The sound holes are not large enough to make any significant difference in the tone of the instrument.

Jeff still thought the electric tone was great and the style was a nice aesthetic change from his original Hamer “Ament” B12A 12-string bass. Ament rarely used this bass on stage.