12-string bass guitar gets a new life

Local man's newest version lent to inventor

Friday, July 13, 2007
By TOM LOEWY
The Register-Mail

GALESBURG - Jackie Morgan remembers a simpler time. "When I married Jim nine years ago he had two bass guitars," she said as she stood on the back porch of her home Tuesday.

"Those were the days. But now, we've moved from a 900-square-foot home to just about a 1,800-square-foot home and we are already out of space. I'm a little tired of tripping over bass guitars."

Jim Morgan has four-string basses, eight-string basses and 12-string basses. The 46-year-old has 14 bass guitars in all - some with semi-hollow bodies, others with solid bodies and they form a kind of rainbow of colors.

"I just always loved music - the Beatles, Cheap Trick and AC/DC, bands like that," Jim said. "I started playing guitar in 1977 or 1978, but I never really took to it much."

Jim started playing the traditional four-string bass in 1980.

"I was self-taught. See, I played the trombone a little bit in high school and going from the trombone to the bass was a better transition."

Galesburg resident and musician Jim Morgan has the autographs of three of four members of Cheap Trick.

Jim helped form his band, Dark Crystal, in 1983. He bounced around - from bands like Crosscut and the hair-band-inspired Triax to a group called Tie-Died Cat and a country-music group called Free Spirit. He's worked for Galesburg Lincoln-Mercury-Nissan since 1982 and is now its parts and service director.

In 1989, Jim tried an eight-string version of the bass. By 1993 he'd graduated to a 12-string bass.

"Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick invented the 12-string bass in about 1978," Jim said. "Hamer built his very first 12-string."

Most musicians consider the 12-string an acquired taste.

"Most guys don't like them," Jim said. "They are more for filling up large frequencies. With the 12-string, the rhythm never drops out. When you listen to Cheap Trick, you think you hear lots of guitar. That's actually the 12-string.

"I was always in bands with just one guitar player, that's what really got me started. But it didn't come without some grief. Guitar players can feel like the eight-string or 12-string really steps on their toes."

Jim's been a member of Dry since 1995 - with guitarist Sean Kistler and drummer Brandon Merry. But his interest in the 12-string led him to search for other players. Eventually he landed on the Internet.

His love of the little-played 12-string and the cyber world changed his musical life - it set him on a course that eventually intersected with the inventor of the 12-string bass.

"Through the Internet, I started talking with Bob Singer, the man who owns the company Waterstone Musical Instruments," Jim said. "Waterstone started making 12-string basses in December of 2004 and I started telling about the things I'd like to see done with the instruments."

Singer liked what he heard from Jim and entered into an artist endorsement agreement with him in 2005. Singer then introduced Jim to one his idols in August of that year.

"I finally got to meet Tom Petersson then," Jim said. "I got to hang out back stage and talk to him before and after the show. It was like he had all the time in the world."

Waterstone has started producing bass guitars for Petersson - the traditional four-string variety. Jim and Cheap Trick's bass player remained in contact.

"A while back, I contacted Bob Singer about making a 32-inch, 12-string red-sparkle bass, but I asked him to make it with the same body as a large-scale 34-inch bass."

Singer made five prototypes of the model. He gave one to Jim and sent one to Petersson.

"Actually, Petersson wasn't interested in a medium scale - the 32-inch bass. So he never even opened the box," Jim said. "Anyway, I went to Nashville about two weeks ago and picked up the new bass there. Then I went to a Cheap Trick concert because Tom was having a little trouble with his bass set-ups. While I was there I asked Tom if he'd tried the medium-scale bass out. He said he wasn't interested. He just didn't think he liked the sound."

Jim convinced him to try the instrument.

"He took it out and stage and I haven't seen it since."

Jim doesn't know when he'll get his medium-scale, 12-string back from Petersson, but he'll see Cheap Trick's bassist soon.

"It's great. I'll be doing some set-ups for Petersson and showing his roadie how to prepare the basses," Jim said. "It's really kind of cool."