Kerrang!

Kerrang! Magazine

Doug Pinnick is pictured on the front cover with a left-handed Hamer B12L 12-string bass. The article is focused on the band’s spirituality and religious views with no mention of the 12-string bass.

Paul Hamer of Hamer Guitars offered insights into the building of their guitars as well as some of their famous players. He said, “Tom Petersson came to us and asked for a 12-string bass, and though we told him there was no way we could build a neck that would stand the tension of 12 strings, he insisted. So we compromised. We knew that an eight-string bass worked OK so we decided to have a go at a 10-stringer, which meant arranging the strings in two sets of three and two sets of two.”

“Cheap Trick took it on a tour of Japan and one night Tom was leaning out over the audience and a girl grabbed the head of the bass. Tom tried to pull free and in leaning back he managed to lift her off her feet and drag her onto the stage still clinging to the guitar - and the neck held firm! When we heard about that we got really enthusiastic about our new design of truss rod and went ahead immediately on designs for a 12-string and then an eighteen-string bass. The necks on those things are significantly wider and deeper than on a normal bass which naturally makes them more difficult to play. But guys like Tom Petersson invariably have huge hands to begin with and they’re also the kind of musicians whoa re prepared to sacrifice something to get the sounds they want.”

Paul later recounted, “John Entwistle ordered a 12-string bass with quadraphonic pickups - it looked like something out of Star Wars.”

Editor’s Note: The story of the Japanese girl sounds like another one of Cheap Trick’s tongue-in-cheek humorous stories, much like Tom Petersson’s claim to be the inventor of Pop Tarts. It’s certainly plausible that Paul Hamer was told this story as a joke but believed it. Besides, under Japanese law all young girls attending rock concerts are considered “catch and release” and could not be legally hauled up onto the stage by a band member without attracting severe environmental and law enforcement attention.

There is another version of this story that had been previously published in Hamer’s “Articles, Artists and Hamer Guitars” brochure in 1981. In this version of the story the girl grabbed the headstock, was lifted into the air but then let go and dropped back into the audience. Maybe she actually grabbed the headstock and simply raised her arms as Petersson pulled away, then let go. You be the judge…

The 12-string bass is mentioned in an interview with Galactic Cowboys, who were described as “The Partridge Family on acid”. This article was published more than half a year prior to the release of the band’s first album. And yes, bass solos are a bit of a bore…