Dean Rhapsody 12 12-String Bass Transparent Black

This instrument would not be A good choice for a first bass or an only bass. It is great for adding depth to the sound.

Dean might still be mad at me for turning one of their Rhapsody-12s, but I did that because Dean won't open their eyes and start producing the Edge-10 again. If they did, I'd still get one. Anyway, since that conversion worked so well, I got the nerve to modify one more. It's still a 12-string, but now, it has six pairs of stings, each pair tuned in octaves. Now it has an even deeper voice as I tuned it (low to high) F#-B-E-A-D-G. It plays very well. I say this every time - don't try to do something like this unless you have some serious experience with this sort of thing. I have two pictures below.

I said I'd do it, and I "done" it. I converted my second R-12 into an R10, and it came out great! I had to cut new grooves into the nut and bridge, but I could still use several of the existing grooves on both ends. Up close the bridge and nut look pretty awful, but to me, they are very beautiful, because they WORK. Yes, there is extra space between the new low B string and its octave counterpart, and for two reason. 1- I really had no choice on that one, and 2 - a little extra space helps the fingers and picks anyway while giving a little extra space for the rather wide vibration of the B-string. I Used all D'Addarios, a Pack of EXL-170-8s, a singleXLB-125 and an XLB-045. It still has much of the chime but also dishes it out on a much lower, almost evil, tone. I'm happy as can be. You should hear it through a Big M**f fuzz box. New dimension there! Let me remind you, don't try anything like unless you know what you are doing !!

I know this might set Dean's Guitars hair on fire, but I'm going to convert this bass from a 4-course 12-string bass into a 5-course 10-string bass. I was going to replace the bridge, but it turns out that I can't get it off the instrument. Then I took some close looks and did some measuring and discovered the existing bridge will work, and so will the brass nut with minor modifications. My other R-12 swerves me very well, and I still enjoy it after a few years of playing it. The reason I'm doing this is to get a pair of octave B strings on the thing. I don't need to change anything else, and the project has begun very nicely. The neck is wide enough to not have to squeeze the string sets too close to each other. The R-12 (soon to be R-10) is a very good and sturdy platform for the conversion. This modified bass is going to give me a new sound to choose from when deciding which bass to play from one set to another. Once more, I strongly recommend that if you the reader get a wild hair to try something like this, YOU BETTER KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!! If you don't, then get a professional to do it.