Oktober Custom Explorer 12-String Bass

Oktober Explorer 12-string bass

The Oktober Explorer 12-string bass was custom built in 2015 for John Gallagher of the British heavy metal band Raven. This bass is 35” extra long scale and strung Inverted with the fundamental strings on top. John has always played 12-string basses that were strung Standard.

John told us, “I CANNOT get on with this arrangement. I tried it tuned down to approximate my usual ‘extremely ultra thin’ strings and it was better... but not enough.”

John continued, “This was an order that Tony at Oktober Guitars made for me. ‘I'm getting you a 12-string bass just like your 8-string!’ he said, and they kinda did everything wrong... scale length... neck width... space between strings... inlays... lack of binding. I wanted it to be a 32" scale, narrow neck, tight spacing, lightning bolt inlays, red binding… So Tony told me about it and I said I'd take it - but!”

Gallagher has a long history of playing 8-string and 12-string basses live, many of which have been short scales such as the Carlo Robelli 8-string bass and the Hamer B12S 12-string basses. He has also played long scale basses of the Hades and Oktober brands, but the extra long 35” scale of this Explorer 12-string bass adds a lot of extra string tension, size and weight compared to the instruments that he has been used to playing.

This bass has an overall length of 51½”, making it among the longest 12-string basses ever built. It weighs 12½ lbs. Set neck with Rosewood fingerboard, diamond inlays. Passive electronics with Volume and Tone controls and a single mono output. Tune-O-Matic style 8-saddle bridge with generic hardware. Neck width at the nut is 50 mm, with a neck width of 66 mm at the 12th fret.