The 12-string bass is an electric bass with four

courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

of three strings each, though they occasionally have six courses of two strings. Normal tuning is eeE-aaA-ddD-ggG, with one string of each course tuned similarly to the corresponding string of the four-string bass, and the remaining two strings tuned to the octave. The first known 12-string bass guitar, the "Hamer Quad," was designed by

Jol Dantzig Jolyon C. Dantzig (Jol Dantzig) is an American artist, songwriter, designer, guitarist, luthier, author and one of the founders of Hamer Guitars. Biography Born in Chicago, Jolyon (Jol) Dantzig began playing guitar and piano in grade school. H ...

and built in 1977 for Tom Petersson by

Hamer Guitars Hamer Guitars was an American manufacturer of electric guitars founded in 1973, in Wilmette, Illinois, by vintage guitar shop owners Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig. The company's early instruments featured guitar designs based on the Gibson Explorer ...

. Petersson's Cheap Trick bandmate Rick Nielsen reports that Petersson first conceived of the instrument in 1973, and worked with Hamer over the next few years refining the design.

Notable players

* Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick. Gretsch unveiled the white USA Custom Shop Tom Petersson Signature 12-String Falcon Bass in 2016, followed by the "relic"-finish G6136B-TP12 * Jeff Ament of

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guita ...

. His 12-string bass playing can be heard in the song "

Jeremy Jeremy may refer to: * Jeremy (given name), a given name * Jérémy, a French given name * ''Jeremy'' (film), a 1973 film * "Jeremy" (song), a song by Pearl Jam * Jeremy (snail), a left-coiled garden snail that died in 2017 * ''Jeremy'', a 19 ...

" * Allen Woody of The Allman Brothers Band,

Gov’t Mule Gov't Mule (pronounced "Government Mule") is an American Southern rock jam band, formed in 1994 as a side project of the Allman Brothers Band by guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody. Fans often refer to Gov't Mule simply as ''Mule''. ...

and Blue Floyd * Doug Pinnick of King's X * Chip Z'nuff of

Enuff Z'nuff Enuff Z'Nuff (a sensational spelling of "enough's enough") is an American rock band from Blue Island, Illinois, founded by singer Donnie Vie and bassist Chip Z'Nuff. The Chicago-area band is best known for their charting singles " Fly High Michel ...

* Clint Bahr of TriPod * Les Fradkin * John Gallagher of

Raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...

*Odell Robinson of Super Mega Everything and Judge Unger

Manufacturers

* Dean Guitars * Gretsch * Waterstone Guitars * Musicvox * Schecter Guitar Research

Other bass guitars with 12 strings

Basses with 12 strings and different layouts have been built. A bass with six two-string courses (bB-eE-aA-dD-gG-cC) was played by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.

Notable players

Manufacturers

Other bass guitars with 12 strings

See also

References

External links

Six-course bass