Recent Additions to this Site

November 22 Update

Just a quick note that we're still alive and well. The template for the new site is in hand and is very cool! The 'behind the scenes' technical stuff has been completed and pages are getting converted to the new format. Nobody will be happier once the upgrade is completed than me, it's been a long time coming but well worth the wait. Thanks to everyone for their patience!

Recently I acquired a Musicvox Space Cadet 12-string bass. I'll be posting a review soon but for now let me say that I really like it! Neck through body construction, active / passive electronics, stereo outputs and locking tuners. I've never had a bass with locking tuners before but now I'm hooked - a real time saver! If you get a change to check out a Musicvox, do it!

June 12 Updates

Vox Humana Guitars in the Netherlands built an 18-string bass a few years ago. Now they have built a 12-string to go along with it. Photos of each bass have been added.

Electrical Guitar Company has built another custom aluminum 12-string bass, and this one was built for Tom Petersson. And they are building him another four basses to go along with it! Thanks to Chris Hall and Kevin Burkett!

The latest quarterly issue of Bass Professor magazine published in Germany features an article about 12-string basses. We supplied a few photos and some information for the article. Thanks to BP's editor Lars Lehmann for mentioning this site in the article credits!

A very cool custom Modulus 12-string bass has been added, as well as new photos of the 18-string Modulus bass.

Robert Cole plays a very cool Gibson Les Paul 4-string that was converted to a 12-string bass. Thanks Robert!

The Discography section has been updated to include albums by In The Machine, Miles Helm and Bass Face LV. With this update we finally made it to 100 albums listed. If you know of other albums that should be included please let us know.

Two B12L's have been added to the Hamer basses section.

Thanks to everyone who answered our survey questions! Your feedback about 12-string basses has been very helpful and is being put to good use!

  

February 6 Updates

Using piccolo bass strings for the octaves when tuning to Low B is the subject of a Review of by Ed Cantarella. Thanks Ed!

Ron Westerduin from The Netherlands has been added to the Dean Players page. Thanks Ron!

A Waterstone 12-string bass has been added to the Basses For Sale page. Thanks Kenny!

Other Recent Updates

A 50% increase! That's the result when the new Fretless 12-string bass built recently is added to the two fretless 12's already made. Michael Sparacino in Minnesota started with a Wishnevsky body and 5-string neck blank and built the third fretless 12-string bass which is also the first-ever lefty fretless 12. Hey Michael, as the newest member of the Fretless 12 Society, your secret decoder ring and Domino's Pizza coupons are already in the mail to you.

There are a bunch of other cool custom 12-string basses that have been added. Matthias "12stringbassman" Haydn in Germany built his Custom 12 from scratch using a body design similar to that found on BC Rich guitars. Mattias even made his own custom 8-saddle bridge.

Here is your chance to help design a new 12-string bass! Please take a few minutes and answer some Survey questions.

What do Dweezil Zappa, Vince Neil and Johnny Cash all have in common? They have all released songs that were recorded with a 12-string bass! If you haven't visited the Discography section in a while, now would be a good time to check it out. Eight new entries have been added.

The DVD page has been expanded with live concert shows from Union and White Sister.

A big THANK YOU to Carl Cleaver for his donation, and also to Hans Sahlen for his continuing financial support of this site - it is greatly appreciated, Carl and Hans! Your donations help us to promote fellow 12-string bassists worldwide, to maintain, update and expand this site, to give away contest prizes and to spend considerable amounts of time tracking down information and interviews. If you'd like to help too, just click here:

PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!

Andy Duke, bassist / singer of the Buck Brothers band in the UK, used his Dean Rhapsody 12-string bass on their latest album, "We Are Merely Filters" on the song Deeply Shallow. Buck Brothers is the band that in 2007 got listed in the Guiness Book Of World Records for playing the most gigs in a 12-hour period - 28! This is a great album, and Andy sent us Deeply Shallow  to share with everyone - thank you Andy! Be sure to check out the new album and buy it already!

It's about time! I've been threatening this for a very long time, but a complete overhaul of this website is finally in the works. When I started this site almost 8 years ago all I knew how to do in regards to building a website included .htm pages and frames, both of which have been obsolete for years. While this outdated site is still fully functional, the obsolescence doesn't allow search engine spiders to properly catalogue all the pages or images. Plus it's always been difficult to format things to display properly. As time went by the idea of a site overhaul became ever more daunting. Now with over 350 pages to convert (and no programs available that will effectively convert the existing pages due to all the outdated html) this represents a rather considerable investment of time to manually update each page. Until now I simply haven't been able to devote any time to this project. But thanks to a slowdown at my job and the resulting lengthy furlough, it's finally time to get started.

Mark "Surf Rat" Rowe, Editor and Fretless 12-String Bassist

It is my intention through this website to spread the "Gospel" about the 12-string bass. The free flow of ideas benefits everyone, and the information that has been collected here is meant to be shared. This resource is not Exclusive, which means to keep some people out, it is Inclusive! If you would like to use the knowledge or photos contained here please feel free to do so, just credit the photos or information as having been obtained from www.12stringbass.net and provide a link to this site. Thanks!