Show your 8-strings! (non-Alembic OK)

[gregduboc]

Ok, I dropped my jaw somewhere... Thank you. Now I have to go and look for it.
Did any one see it?
 
Greg
 
(Message edited by gregduboc on December 02, 2009)

[sonicus]

OK , ALRIGHT!
  Now I want an EIGHT STRING !  
 
       Mr. dfung60_____I really like that Alembic SERIES 1.5
 
 very nice ______

[dannobasso]

I'd be happy to sell my Warwick custom Dolphin Pro 8, metallic purple w/amber leds and road style case. Pictures to follow when I get a chance.

[57basstra]

 
Dean Rhapsody 8

[bluplirst]

David,
 
I would love to see a pic of your 12 string modulus' body.
 
Thanks,
Dan

[hieronymous]

Sorry I've been away from this thread for a while - lots of cool 8-strings!!! I have to admit, the knobby headstock looks great on an 8! Bill (tgo) and I still haven't managed to get a pic of his 12 and my doubleneck 4 & 6 - imagine those two with the 8!
 
Here's a shot of my other Rickenbacker 8-string - an '82 4008:
 


 
 


 
 
You can see some flame in the neck in the headstock photo. Here's a recording I did soon after I got it:
 
tardis pedals
 
And there's actually some Alembic content - used my F-2B during recording, in stereo no less, one track clean, the other distorted.

[dfung60]

Here's the body of my Modulus 12-string bass.    

  A little off-topic, but here's some history on this instrument - I had this custom-built and it took a number of years for this to get finished.  My favorite bass player was Greg Lake.  His main instrument in ELP was a Jazz Bass, but he was an endorser of the Gibson Ripper for a while in the 70's.  I love the way Rippers feel, and the body's size, shape, and carving are all Ripper-like.    If you like 12-string basses, then you have to like Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick.  The body has an extra thick curly maple top so the top carving doesn't expose any more the mahogany back - it's about 50/50 maple and mahogany. This is reminiscent of the original Hamer Quadbass that Tom Petersson played which was also a 50/50 body.  

  This is a through-body instrument.  The neck is a Quantum TBX 5 neck which is plenty wide for 12-strings.  This is a 35" scale bass, so the octave strings are under a lot of tension and really sound amazing. As is the case with multistring and oddball Modulus instruments, the neck is made with an extra-stiff graphite so it won't bow under the tension of all the strings.  I think the stiff graphite sounds better.  Electronics are relatively normal - EMG DC pickups,  with a BTC tone control for each pickup.  THere are two pickup volumes and a master volume control.  I had toyed with trying to get a set of Series electronics on this instrument, but the cost was already pretty outlandish.  It would have been cheaper to buy a S1 bass and scavenge electronics than have a new set built up.  This bass has an unusual Gotoh bridge that has 12 individual saddles.  I'm surprised they made such a bridge at all.  The octave strings on a 12-string are usually tuned near unison (you want them slightly detuned for the really thick sound), so an 8-string bridge works fine with both octave strings running over one saddle.  This isn't the kind of instrument that leaves the house much, but sounds amazing and is suprisingly easy to play.  David Fung

[12stringwilson]

WOW!!! What a beauty, David! Ever thought about posting her on 12stringbass.net? I am sure they would be pleased to know Modulus did something like this.  
 
I bet she can siiiiing like no other. The graphite neck surely gives extra bite to the sound.

[bassfingers]

I had some work doing quality control for Hamer at their UK distribution place and had plenty of Hamer 8's & 12's pass through.Only once did I get to hear one through a big loud rig but lord,what a sound.In the higher registers it sounded like a malevolent ice-cream truck!.

[hieronymous]

David, I was totally going to say that it was reminiscent of the Gibson Ripper! That thing is awesome.
 
Interesting tidbit - I always thought that Cheap Trick's Gonna Raise Hell was 12-string, but apparently it was played on an Alembic 8-string!

[dfung60]

hieronymous -  
 
If I remember my Cheap Trick trivia properly, the 12-string basses didn't show up on records until Budokan.  The 3 records that were before that were Thunderbird and Jazz basses and an Alembic 8-string.  It really sounds very Alembic on In Color.  The switch to Hamer 12-strings was fully in place on Heaven Tonight.
 
Another interesting Tom Petersson trivia...  Modulus made a lot of unusual custom instruments and my 12-string bass isn't even in the top echelon.  But I think the most insane instrument they ever built was an 18-string bass.  This was tuned like a guitar an octave down x 3 (so low E, instead of low B).  Giant flat neck like an aircraft carrier, gazillion tuner headstock, and giant long custom Bartolini pickups.  This instrument was built for Tom Petersson and kind of disappeared for more than a decade.  It resurfaced  out of the storage space from a rehearsal studio in LA, and was ultimately returned to Modulus which had never been fully paid.  
 
I had a chance to buy the bass when it came back through Modulus.  I went up and tried it out, but just couldn't figure out what I'd every do with it, and regrettably passed.  Allan Woody ended up buying it, and used it nightly during his bass solo on one tour with The Allman Brothers.  
 
David Fung

[elwoodblue]

Here's a pic of Tom playing the monster.

[room037]

Hi,
 
Now the thread is growing up 12 strings basses !
This is my Hamer B12-S.
I want to set up with Activator !
 
By the way, anyone knows Quad PU in the market right now ?
 
 
 
Eiji

[hieronymous]

Check out this 8-string Persuader on sale in Japan!
 
(BTW, nice 12 string Eiji!)
 
(Message edited by hieronymous on December 12, 2009)

[to_81_0190]

I'm late!
 

 
This bass in Show Case