12 string bass guitars

12 string bass guitars were conceived in 1977. Their creation is perhaps Hamer's greatest contribution to music. They're the outcome of humorous conversations between Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick and Jol Dantzig of Hamer, where they discussed numerous possibilities of creating basses with different numbers of strings. This included 10 strings and 20 strings but eventually they settled with tripling each string.

12 string bass guitars are very fun to play. They are perfect for bassists who have a taste for the unusual - bassist who want to make a statement and who are looking for a distinctive tone. They're set up like a regular bass but instead of four strings they come with four groups of three.

Dean Rhapsody 12 string bass If you don't know too much about this type of bass guitar you may immediately think of it as being very difficult to play. You may be intimated by its looks. 12 strings... ? On the contrary they are very easy to play.

12 string basses are played exactly like conventional 4-string basses. But instead of playing one note, you play three notes at once. Each of the three strings are one octave apart - one bass note and two octaves higher.

Since every note is tripled the music sounds so much richer. Three note chords quickly turn into nine notes. Four note chords quickly turn into twelve notes. 12 string guitars are perfect for giving an orchestral feel to your music. It sounds as if there are two guitar players playing the bass riff along with a bass player.

One popular twelve string bass guitar that is available today is the Dean Rhapsody 12-string bass. It has a beautifully sculpted mahogany body with a maple top, black chrome bridge, black Grover tuners, EMG-HZ pickups, Dean 3D preamp and a 2-piece anchor bridge system, and 24 frets. You will find it at one of our recommended online musical instrument merchants.

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