Octave twelve Octave twelve An octave twelve is a type of 12-string guitar fitted with a short-scale neck and a small solid body. It is tuned one octave higher than a standard guitar giving it the tonal range of a mandolin and enabling a guitarist to achieve a mandolin sound without learning mandolin fingering. The effect is similar to that of capoing a standard 12-string guitar at its twelfth fret. However, unlike a standard 12-string guitar, the courses of strings tuned in unison, rather than in octaves. The octave twelve was invented by engineers at Vox, which sold the octave twelve as
Bass guitar the strings, and extending the lower string scales allows the string to produce harmonics that are more in tune with the fundamental. To keep proper pitch across all frets in a multi-scale bass guitar, a fanned fret design is applied to the fingerboard. In this case, the frets extend from the neck of the instrument at an angle, in contrast to the standard perpendicular arrangement in standard neck designs, in which the fret spacing is wider for the long scale and closer for the short scale. This is not to be confused with perfect intonation across the whole neck, which