If I Had A Hamer

Doug Pinnick - King’s X

By Scott Malandrone

Although Doug Pinnick is known for his monstrous 8- and 12-string bass tones, Dogman was recorded mostly with a 4-string. He explains: “Ty felt – and I agreed – that I should use the 4-string because it might give the record more punch. It’s always been a struggle to get my sound on tape, because it’s the same frequency range as the guitar. We also felt my tone should be a bit less distorted – as a result, I think we got better separation. This time, instead of being buried, the bass is way out front.”

Doug is a Hamer man – he currently owns six: two 4-strings (“I don’t know what model they are. They just say ‘Doug Pinnick’ on the headstock!”), an 8-string (used for the title track of Dogman), and three 12-strings (one of which turned up on ‘Human Behavior’). One of the 12’s has a short-scale neck, while two are the new long-scale models (see photo). All of his Hamers have Seymour Duncan P-style active pickups. Ernie Balls are Pinnick’s strings of choice – they’re usually gauged .040-.095, but he prefers a .090 for the ‘E’ on his 12’s. There isn’t a 12-string set available yet, so Doug combines a regular 4-string set with an Ernie Ball piccolo set for the high-octave strings. To produce his trademark “never-needs-sharpening” attack, Doug uses a pick.

Pinnick was first lured to the mammoth sound of the 12-string bass by hero Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick. [BP editor’s note: For more on Hamer’s 12-string basses, see July/Aug ’91.] “The 12-string is a whole other animal that needs to be approached differently,” says Doug, “and it takes somebody with a real innovative head to do that. My first 12-string was a short-scale, and I didn’t care for it too much. I liked it, but I found the tones weren’t the way I liked them. My new long-scale Hamers are much better – the necks don’t move, so they stay in tune. But I think it’s an instrument we’re all still learning how to approach.”

Although Hamer’s new 12 was marketed in late ’93, Doug received one of the first models in ’91. Instrument designed Jol Dantzig, one of Hamer’s founding fathers, explains the differences between the two models: “Aside from the longer scale length – 34” vs. 30½” – the new 12-strings have a trimmed-down P-style body, which is more like our Chaparral model, and a mahogany body instead of one made of maple. Sonically, the long scale has more punch – the added tension seems to give it a little more drive.”

“Doug likes his basses to look like they’re upside down,” continues Dantzig, “so we used right-handed bodies but placed the controls on top. That way, when he plays it left-handed, it looks upside down but the knobs are at the bottom. Other than that, he asks for Duncans instead of EMGs, and he likes the strap buttons behind the neck, not on the horn. It’s just little things, really. We also installed a Demeter preamp that adds some treble boost; it gives the sound more drive and a little extra ‘crack’ on the top end.”

Hamer’s aside, Doug’s favorite tracks were recorded with his battered ’63 P-Bass. “That bass is a mess,” he says, “but it sounds great. I used it for ‘black the Sky’ and ‘Pillow,’ with my Fender Dual Showmans on the high end. Those two songs have my favorite tone on the record – and I don’t think I duplicated it on the others.”

In Pinnick’s pursuit of what he calls a “crystal sound with a bunch of sustain,” he hauled in several amps for Dogman. He took a bi-amped approach: a crossover split the signal into two paths; the low end was sent to an SVT tube head with a MESA/Boogie 8x10 cabinet, while the highs ran into one of three different heads for grit: a Fender Dual Showman, a MESA/Boogie Rectifier, or a Marshall Lead 12 practice amp. He also sent a direct signal from the Ampeg preamp into the board. Depending on the amp selected, the head ran either into a MESA/Boogie 4x12 Rectifier cabinet with Celestions or a 4x12 Ampeg. All the cabinets were miked with Shure SM57’s.

To hear the best examples of Doug’s tone and style, he recommends these four songs: “Black the Sky” (Dogman), “Over My Head” (Gretchen Goes to Nebraska), “Faith Hope Love” (Faith Hope Love), and “The Big Picture” (King’s X). The ultimate tone, he admits, is something he may never find – but here’s his game plan: “I’d like to have Boogie modify some things for me. The problem is, I’ve gotten so far into this distortion thing that the notes aren’t notes. It’s time to come back a little bit. And I don’t screw around with my 12-string much any more – I end up trying to play it like a 12-string guitar, with all this picking and chiming. That’s cool, but hey, I’m a bass player! You’ve got to get back to the groove.”