Customized Hamer CH-12 12-String Basses

The work was done by GMW Guitars in Glendora, California, which is the Jackson / Charvel custom shop. Everything but the face of the headstock was stripped of the original finish. The back of the neck and headstock were left natural. The pickups were replaced with EMG-40 soap bar pickups and a BTC active tone circuit was added.

The body has been changed from the CH-12 to the B12S design.

Customized Hamer CH-12 12-String Basses

Pekka Ranta's CH-12 with Custom B12S-Style Body

The neck, pickups and hardware are from a black 2001 Hamer CH-12. The alder body was made by Marko Ursin in Finland. The finish was produced by putting mahogany stain between nitro coats. The original CH-12's active electronics were removed; now the pots are just volumes for each pickup.

Later the bass was updated with the addition of a pickguard and two vintage style Thunderbird pickups.

When asked about the sound of the different body Pekka reported, "Well, the sound is rounder and the harshness with the old bridge pickup location is gone. The front pickup is in the P-Bass position and when the bridge pickup is soloed you can spot a bit of a Sting Ray sound there. When both are played together the sound is more mellow. I actually thought there would be much less tonal variation. Of course I didn't or can't do an A / B test with the old body but the new body resonates better and is a bit louder and open sounding when played unplugged."

"The reason to ditch the preamp was that I prefer to tweak the amp and pedals. The very main reason to change the body was of course the looks."

Steve Cooper from Detroit, Michigan added dozens of stars to his black Hamer CH-12. About the unique custom star design Steve writes, "Once I got my 12-string bass, I knew it was for me. The problem was, when I was playing it on stage (which I used to do for the entire show, three sets a night, three nights a week), I looked at the pictures and you couldn't SEE the thing! Black bass, black pickups, black headstock, all you saw was the little bit of chrome. So I came up with the 'Star' design and had it put on the guitar, and it has been an attention getter every time I put it on.”

The stick-on stars are part of a glow-in-the-dark set that was intended to be used as decorations for a kid's room.

A similar star pattern on another Hamer CH-12.

Custom Pick Guard, Control Cavity Cover and Truss Rod Cover on a Black Hamer CH-12.

Beezer Hill of Milwaukee, Wisconsin played his Hamer CH-12 in a Cheap Trick tribute band named Heaven Tonight. He had custom Japanese lettering added which translates as "Heaven Tonight" and "Beezer".