Vintage Guitar

vintage guitar magazine

This article gives a brief history of a few Gretsch guitars then discusses the design and construction of the White Falcon 12-string basses built for Tom Petersson. Seven beautiful photos of these basses are included. With MSRP prices for these basses starting at $16,726.00 on the Gretsch website, this is probably as close as most of us will ever get to them.

Perhaps a better name for this article would be “Bass Collector” since Tom Petersson displays basses from his collection, all but one of which are 4-string basses with the exception being the Hamer “Planet” B12A 12-string bass. Some acoustic guitars are also included.

There is some discussion of the 12-string bass. Some excerpts: “I wondered what it would sound like to have an instrument that could kind of be a bass and a 12-string guitar at the same time,” Petersson explained. “And I wanted to have that orchestral kind of sound for performance, since we didn’t have a keyboard player, and there are some times when Robin just sings and doesn’t play guitar. I actually only use a 12-string bass for recording when I think it’s needed, which turns out to be a quarter of the time.”

Petersson left Cheap Trick in 1980, but continued to refine his ideas for the 12-string. The first full-scale prototype from 1985 is the only early Hamer 12-string still in his collection. It was originally blonde but has been refinished blue with a planetary motif.

For all the perceived complexity of a 12-string performance bass, most of Petersson’s gigging Waterstones have only one pickup instead of two, as he prefers the simplicity of single-pickup instruments. Accordingly, he utilizes the neck pickup only on his own Waterstones, so there’s often an empty cavity visible on his performance basses. “It’s my tribute to Malcolm Young,” he explains.

The April 2013 issue, Vol. 27, No.6, includes an article about Tom Petersson and his acquisition of a custom Gibson 12-string bass, as well as an aluminum 12 built by Electrical Guitar Company.

The September, 2011 issue, Vol. 25, No. 11, includes a review of Musicvox Spaceranger guitars, which also mentions the Space Cadet design and 12-string basses: “The Space Cadet came as a six- and 12-string guitar, as well as a 34” scale four- and 12-string bass, with glitter finishes. Space Cadet basses were particularly well received.”

A two-part overview of Hamer Guitars was published in the September and October, 1995 issues of Vintage Guitar Magazine. The 12-string bass is mentioned and a photo is included of Jol Dantzig holding the Checkerboard B12A 12-string bass that was built for Tom Petersson. This same photo was published in an issue of Hamer Tone.

A four-part overview of Hamer Guitars was published in the June through September, 2000 issues of Vintage Guitar Magazine. These articles offer more in-depth information about all of the models of Hamer guitars and basses, and there are photos of 12-string basses in each issue.

The September 2023 issue, Vol. 37, No.12, includes a cool article about 8-string basses, plus Tom Petersson and his orange Gretsch 12-string bass are included in a sidebar.