| Author | Message | ||
| surfrat29
New Username: surfrat29 Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2008 |
I'm hoping somebody can give me more info on this Alembic 8-string bass used by Tom Petersson in Cheap Trick. The bass was used on the Dream Police album in 1979 to record the song "Gonna Raise Hell" and it can be seen in the video for the song "Voices". Petersson recorded several other songs with it, and Jon Brant also recorded a song with it several years later. This photo is from 1980. Does anybody know when this bass was built? When did Petersson first start using it on stage? I recently ran across a few photos of CT bassist Pete Comita using it on stage in early 1981. This suggests it wasn't Petersson's bass or else he would have taken it with him when he left CT in 1980. So was it actually owned by Rick Nielsen? Any insight will be greatly appreciated!  | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 1537 Registered: 10-2003 |
"Gonna Raise Hell" has the best bass tone EVER! I've heard that he played the Alembic quite a bit with his own band in the L.A. clubs during the '80's, but this is the first picture I've ever seen of it. John | ||
| tdukes
Member Username: tdukes Post Number: 57 Registered: 4-2008 |
I found this article
Maybe its the same bass. Todd. | ||
| senmen
Senior Member Username: senmen Post Number: 827 Registered: 7-2003 |
Guys, you got me wondering on this. Isnīt Tom famous for the use of the 12string basses? And I ever thought that Gonna Raise Hell was taken with a 12string?!?! Just wondering Oliver (Spyderman) | ||
| surfrat29
New Username: surfrat29 Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2008 |
Hey Todd- Thanks for that link! I found the photo of Allen Woody with his basses from Bass Player magazine and it looks like the Alembic 8 is on the right side, right in front of the 18-string Modulus. We recently interviewed producer Tom Werman on my website (12stringbass.net) and he confirmed that Gonna Raise Hell was the Alembic 8-string. Tom Petersson was the first bassist to play a 12-string bass, and he does use his 12-string basses on GRH when he plays it live.  | ||
| cozmik_cowboy
Advanced Member Username: cozmik_cowboy Post Number: 364 Registered: 10-2006 |
I dunno, Mark - that one looks a lot more Carl Thompson-ish than Alembic to me. Peter | ||
| alembic76407
Senior Member Username: alembic76407 Post Number: 583 Registered: 5-2002 |
This is one of Tom Peterson's 12 String Kidd bass with my two Alembic's | ||
| pauldo
Member Username: pauldo Post Number: 70 Registered: 6-2006 |
I lean towards agreeing with Peter - it certainly does look Carl Thompson-ish. I saw a video somewhere of Woody playing that 18 string - MONSTOROUS! Allen Woody was the sum of all bass heroes! He took a little bit of everyone and made it into himself. He is legendary. RIP | ||
| surfrat29
New Username: surfrat29 Post Number: 3 Registered: 10-2008 |
Oops. I dug out my BP and if I'm reading this right, it's a Karl Kimensky. There are a couple of Alembics but they're tough to see. I'd love to know what happened to all these basses..... Whose black 12 is that to the left of the Kids? | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 1538 Registered: 10-2003 |
I have played that 18-string Modulus. In fact, I came very close to buying it instead of 811952. Vic Zinn Music in Noblesville, Indiana, was asking $3k for it with an anvil case... While I have no regrets about having 811952 built, it would have been nice to have that 18-string... I think that black 12-er is a Hamer.. John | ||
| alembic76407
Senior Member Username: alembic76407 Post Number: 584 Registered: 5-2002 |
yes, the black 12er is a Hamer, they belong to a friend of mine | ||
| dfung60
Advanced Member Username: dfung60 Post Number: 365 Registered: 5-2002 |
Tom Petersson had a long and very visible history with a variety of Hamer 12-string basses, but the Hamer 12 wasn't really a reality until around the time of the live Budokan albums. Before that time, the multi-string bass sounds were Alembic. Petersson worked with Jol Danzig at Hamer to build the first 4x3 12-string bass, but the concern of the enormous string tension caused them to build a 10-string bass first (only 2 courses on the lower strings). The tonal change between the Alembic and Hamer is pretty enormous - the Hamer was recorded with much more distortion. On many of his later basses, there are separate volume controls and output that feed bass and guitar amps and which allow him to blend distortion to clean mix from the bass. A lot of the basses used in Cheap Trick were in a pool of instruments belonging to the band, nominally owned by Rick Neilsen. I have a bowling pin white 12-string Hamer that was purchased directly from Rick via Gruhn Guitars. It's the bass the Pete Comita used in the Chicagoland concert video around the time Tom Petersson left, was used on tour by Jon Brandt, and in the studio on a number of albums. It's a pretty unusual bass - it has DiMarzio X2N guitar pickups, completely parallel stereo wiring (each pickup is a separate active EQ circuit and volume knob that never join, even on the stereo output jack). It's amazing to play - you'd think that it would be very hard to play an instrument with 3 parallel courses, but this one plays with a beautiful action. I also had an opportunity to buy the 18-string Modulus that was also built for Tom Petersson. It was built by Modulus at enormous expense, delivered to Petersson who never paid for it. He left it at SIR in LA where it sort of languished in a warehouse for many, many years. At some point they were cleaning out old stuff, found the instrument, couldn't connect with Petersson, and eventually contacted Modulus to find out what it was worth. Since it had never been paid for, it reverted to Geoff Gould at Modulus. I went up to play it and thought about buying it (Geoff knew I was a huge Cheap Trick fan), but it was so odd, unwieldy, and expensive (seems like Geoff, who's a longtime buddy of mine, wanted around $4000) that I just couldn't bring myself to buy it, even with the amazing pedigree. It was better off with Allen Woody - it would have just sat for another 15 years in that gigantic flight case if I had gotten it. I did end up having a very unique 35" 12-string through-body Modulus bass built, which took two trips to NAMM shows and has appeared in Bass Player mag. It's 4x3, built on a Quantum 6 TBX neck form. The body is shaped like a Gibson Ripper bass (I have always loved the shape), with a carved body with a super-thick quilt maple top (so the Ripper body carving is all in figured maple!) and mahogany body. It's 1/2 maple and 1/2 mahogany like the famous Hamer Quadbass that was Tom's main axe for many years. It sounds amazing. I've always loved multistring basses. I have a Series 8-string from 1980, a Modulus 8-string Quantum, a Hamer 8-string, and even a very old Veillette-Citron 8-string. David Fung | ||
| hieronymous
Senior Member Username: hieronymous Post Number: 450 Registered: 1-2005 |
Wow, this thread kind of popped up out of nowhere and became fascinating! I'm a big fan of multi-string basses as well, more through Doug (dUg) Pinnick of King's X, though I listened to Cheap Trick without realizing I was hearing multi-string basses. I've got a couple of Rickenbacker 8-strings. An Alembic 8-string is a dream that I've had for a while and don't see fulfilling for a while. It's really exciting to see fellow club members with similar tastes but much more interesting experiences! Here's a website that has some interesting stuff, including an interview with Pete Comita (never heard of him until this thread!), pictures of lots of 12-strings, and an "interesting" article on the creation of the 12-string bass... http://12stringbass.net/ | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 1541 Registered: 10-2003 |
I first played the 18-string at the '81 NAMM show in Chicago. I played it for a bit then Tom Mulhern (I think that's his name) showed up and I was chased off (after being the only person so-far who'd dared give it a whack). A few weeks later Vic Zinn had it, and it was for sale with the anvil and a $3k price tag. He told me then, if I recall correctly, that it had been made for Tom, who didn't want it. So it was likely that either someone else left it at SIR, or even that after not finding any likely buyers it was sent there to get it out of the way with the hopes that maybe Tom would change his mind and use it after all. If you've ever had the pleasure of playing a Warrior 15-string bass, imagine a neck that's at least another 20 percent wider! John | ||
| eligilam
Intermediate Member Username: eligilam Post Number: 134 Registered: 2-2006 |
My favorite in that Woody pic is the gold one with the long lower horn on the back row slightly to the right. I played one of those about 10 years ago and regret not getting it. I can't remember if it's called a Moonvox or Spacevox or something like that with the word Vox in the name. It was super cheap and had a crazy, twangy sound I haven't heard since then. | ||
| briant
Advanced Member Username: briant Post Number: 236 Registered: 12-2004 |
I've owned and sold three 12-string Hamer Chaparral basses over the years. The first one that I had built and then sold a few years later is my biggest "sold bass" regret ever. It was all black and to my knowledge it is the only one like it in the world. Hamer liked the idea so much when we were talking to them about it that they did all the custom work/upgrades for free. The custom stuff: ebony fretboard, boomerang inlays in black mother of pearl, black bridge, black nut, black tuners, a reverse shadow 'Hamer' logo so the word 'Hamer' was actually black and the shadow was a thin white line. Very cool. It took them almost 14 months to deliver it due to a number of factors. I seem to recall that the black mother of pearl was difficult for them to locate and get imported to the US. I believe I ordered it in 1992 or 1993. I sold it in the mid 90's while I was a starving college student. Very sad. The guy that bought it lived in Czechoslovakia at the time and I sold it for what I paid for it - so at least I broke even on that deal. I often wonder what happened to that wonderful bass. | ||
| eligilam
Intermediate Member Username: eligilam Post Number: 135 Registered: 2-2006 |
re: post 134 above...I found my own answer: it's a Musicvox Spaceranger. I knew I wasn't crazy... | ||
| surfrat29
New Username: surfrat29 Post Number: 4 Registered: 10-2008 |
"Here's a website that has some interesting stuff, including an interview with Pete Comita (never heard of him until this thread!), pictures of lots of 12-strings, and an "interesting" article on the creation of the 12-string bass... http://12stringbass.net/" I wrote that article about the creation of the 12-string bass this spring. I knew it would be controversial, in fact I expected some hate mail because of it. Interestingly, nothing happened, not so much as a squeak from anybody. Perhaps that was because Hamer had already connected the 12 to the tiple in their 2007 catalogue in their description of the B12L. I still don't think the whole story has been told and I'm convinced that the key to finally sorting everything out lies with Rick Nielsen. I would LOVE to be able to sit down with Rick some time and talk guitars. It's possible that the idea for the first 12-string bass came entirely from Rick. The reason I posted my original question about the Alembic 8-string is that I wondered if it might have been involved in this whole situation somehow. I also find it interesting that Petersson continued to play it for two years after he had 12-string basses available to him. As an aside, I'm a big Rickenbacker fan too, I played them exclusively for 20 years until I discovered the 12-string. Here's a photo of my fretless 8-string Rick bass in the silver finish (which thanks to the aging of the lacquer is now turning light green). It was custom made for me in 1987. It has the bound body and neck just like the standard 4003 series, as well as the stereo electronics. I easily logged over 600 gigs with it.  | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 1543 Registered: 10-2003 |
Nice. The only other fretless 8's I've seen are the graphite necked Alembic and the Hamer Sting played on de do do da... Here's the Voices vid with the Alembic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWqxKqMV--w John | ||
| dwmark
Advanced Member Username: dwmark Post Number: 208 Registered: 1-2005 |
The Alembic http://alembic.com/club/messages/395/31452.html | ||
| hieronymous
Senior Member Username: hieronymous Post Number: 457 Registered: 1-2005 |
Yee-haw!!! This is a great thread! I love 8-strings. Great fretless Ric 8-string surfrat29!!! I've got a 4008 which is similar to yours - although it has the unbound 4003S style body and fingerboard dots, the neck IS bound, and it has Ric-O-Sound (and is fretted). Kind of a hybrid model I guess:  Gee, I usually don't get to show off my Rics here, so while I'm at it, here's a soundclip of the 4008: tardis pedals I can't remember if I used the Ric-O-Sound or just split the signal, but one is clean, the other distorted (probably the Fulltone Bass Drive), pretty sure both signals are going through separate channels of my F-2B, so there's some Alembic content! (Message edited by hieronymous on October 24, 2008) | ||
| surfrat29
New Username: surfrat29 Post Number: 5 Registered: 10-2008 |
Well since we're talking 8-strings, does anybody know what brand of 8-string bass Tom Petersson is playing in this photo from 1980? Yeah, fretless 8's are pretty unusual. The Fender custom shop made one a few years back and there are a number of other one-offs. I see there is a Chinese-made fretless 8 on eBay now, it was only a matter of time before the Chinese got involved.  | ||
| tdukes
Member Username: tdukes Post Number: 63 Registered: 4-2008 |
With all of this talk about 8 and 12 strings, I broke out my Cheap Trick Silver DVD. Then I went to eBay and saw this and let it expire without bidding myself. $213.62 seemed like a pretty good price from the pictures. Any opinion on these low-end 8 and 12-string basses. I don't really play bass, I play guitar. But the thought of owning an 8 or 12 string interests me. Todd. | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 1547 Registered: 10-2003 |
I've got a rhapsody 12 and it's a fine bass. John | ||
| bkbass
Intermediate Member Username: bkbass Post Number: 191 Registered: 11-2003 |
I just picked up an Electro Harmonix Micro Pog pedal. Now I can plug in any bass and make it sound like an 8 or 12(for four strings). I also own several 8's. This thing is pretty much dead on and I have none of the neck/intonation associated problems.Plus string bends were never easier. | ||
| bsee
Senior Member Username: bsee Post Number: 2103 Registered: 3-2004 |
I never actually played an eight string before I acquired a POG. I liked it, but wasn't totally impressed. I figured it sounded a little odd and that an actual eight would sound better. I found a nice deal on an American Hamer and tried it out. It really sounded not much different, and certainly no better, than the POG and I was quite surprised. Barry, any particular control settings that you are really fond of? | ||
| 57basstra
Senior Member Username: 57basstra Post Number: 783 Registered: 4-2005 |
I have a Dean Edge 8 string. Active pickups. For as much as I need (or want) an eight string bass this one is great. I paid around $350 for it new. It had been literally hanging around one of my local music store haunts for a year or so. Killer looking bass (although one of my Frankenstein drum kit toms fell over on it and put a bit of a gnarled gash in the side.) As I have said before, Fender charges extra for that. Nice bass. I bring it out for a few songs and it sure fills up some space. Forgive me for some rants and ravings tonight. One of my childhood friends -- a guy I went to school with for 12 years and grew up about four houses away from will be buried tomorrow. SCHS Class of 1975. I know, I know, y'all don't know exactly what I am talking about; however, this is for me -- like many if not most of you all -- a primary part of my social circle. Will it go 'round in circles???? | ||
| 811952
Senior Member Username: 811952 Post Number: 1563 Registered: 10-2003 |
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky? Sorry to hear about your friend. John | ||
| 57basstra
Senior Member Username: 57basstra Post Number: 797 Registered: 4-2005 |
Thanks, John. |
