Must be fun to tune this one

I was checking out some 12 string ideas and came across this old doubleneck. I remember getting the carvin catalogs and thinking the 12 inline look was cool. I was about 14 then and now I look at it and think what a pain in the arse it would be to tune this thing:

http://www.carvinmuseum.com/playersgallery/dn612.html

Damn, I don't want to think about restringing or intonating that thing either, nightmare!

It's funny, I was just thinking the same thing about this Hamer 12 string bass.

DAN.

DuoFuzz wrote:It's funny, I was just thinking the same thing about this Hamer 12 string bass.

DAN.

A former band mate of mine has a 12 string Hamer bass, a black one. It sounds amazing, so thick and beautiful, I liked his 12 string bass sound better than a 12 string guitar. And yes, it took him a long while to tune! Was worth the wait however.

I like the descriptions on the Carvin museum page 'unknown DN.'

I have a 12-string Carlo Robelli bass. It's a lot cheaper than a Hamer, but it certainly doesn't sound bad!

I will stick with my old Vantage 12 string acoustic electric. It is simple, sturdy, and sounds great with plenty of volume.

12-string guitars are tedious to restring and tune at the best of times but I'm wondering if the Carvin requires extra length G-B-E strings? That's a Lo-o-o-ng way to the machine heads!

I ran into a similar problem recently restoring a customers 60's vintage Gibson Trini Lopez. For those not familiar with this odd ball model, it's essentially an ES-335 body with a Firebird neck which has an over sized Strat style scroll head stock with 6 in line. Not too much trouble restringing this normally (although there isn't much trebel E string left to wind!). But someone had added a Bigsby to this thing and because of the additional string travel involved I ended up short of the E tuner! Just barely reached the hole and that was it, nothing to wind.

I think the biggest problem with tuning this carvin is the spacing of the tuners - the are so close you are gonna knock an adjacent one unintentionally, or forget which string you are on cause they are all inline. but in the 80's it looke cool.