How many are too many...

This thing reminds me of the disposable razor war. "new and improved 3 blades for a closer shave", "for the closest shave, our four blade..." "our 6 blade gets below the skin..." yadda yadda.. How freaking many do ya need to do the job..

This just looks awkward...

Can't say he sold me on it. If you ask me, I'll take four.

I wouldn't want to own that instument but you gotta admit that guy plays his bass pretty impressively.

For bass personally I wouldn't go beyond 6 strings - but that's stretching it even.
I don't have any regular needs for anything beyond 4 strings

Kauai808 said:

I wouldn't want to own that instument but you gotta admit that guy plays his bass pretty impressively.

Click to expand...

Your right.. Anyone that has the nads to even try to play that is ok in my book. I would be too intimidated myself. But, there is "cool" in that aspect.

Heck, if he can play it let him have it.

There's another video with a 12 string bass...same tune, just someone else playing it

Here:

I am sure there is an answer to your question, but I'm not sure what it is. Let's see, If you lengthen the scale, then you need fewer strings. But, just how long you make the neck would be limited by how long your arms are. Now, by adding strings, you can keep the neck short, but you have to make it wider. Then the question that must be answered first is, "How large are your hands?" and opposed to, "How long are your arms?" So, we could assert that one string is sufficient provided one has very long arms (at least a very long left arm), or conversely, that one could use as many strings as the size of one's left hand will allow.

I know your question is a rhetorical one. I just feel the need to wax on when I see these bizarre looking instruments. Perhaps I'm simple, but I really appreciate the fact that I have four fretting fingers and my ukulele has four strings. I can live happily with the limited range. It's enough for me to try to master.

Aloha Tudorp,
I even dislike tuning my 6 string ukes, can you imagine tuning this...especially with new strings...You gotta be out of your mind....he he...

How many is too much? Any more than one of each kind. No point in being redundant.

I play 4-string bass about 80% of the time, and a 5-string the rest. But I can't play two parts at once like that on my basses. Of course, I couldn't play two COHERENT parts at once even on that bass! But he can, so I guess he can have as many strings as he thinks he needs! Have you ever seen Tony Levin (or anyone else) play a Chapman Stick?