{"id":46043,"date":"2025-03-17T10:49:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T14:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/larry-bells-vast-collection-of-12-string-acoustic-guitars\/17\/03\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-03-17T10:49:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T14:49:30","slug":"larry-bells-vast-collection-of-12-string-acoustic-guitars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/larry-bells-vast-collection-of-12-string-acoustic-guitars\/17\/03\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Bell\u2019s Vast Collection of 12-String Acoustic Guitars"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In My Obsession<\/a>, one creative person reveals their most prized collection.<\/p>\n

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The artist Larry Bell<\/a>, 85, was born with severe undiagnosed hearing loss. \u201cI didn\u2019t know it, and neither did my parents,\u201d he said. Unsurprisingly, music lessons were a struggle but, when he was about 17, he saw a strange guitar hanging in a pawnshop window in Downtown Los Angeles. \u201cI had never seen anything quite like it because it had 12 strings instead of six,\u201d he said. \u201cI asked the man behind the counter if I could see it. I just dragged the back of my nails across the strings, and it was a complete epiphany. I heard it. And not only did I hear it, I could feel<\/em> it.\u201d Bell, who is best known for minimalist glass sculptures that explore the properties of light and color, has been collecting 12-string guitars ever since. Hundreds hang in their own climate-controlled room in his studio in Taos, N.M. Twelve-strings are more sensitive than six-strings: They\u2019re difficult to tune and hard to play, and that\u2019s what Bell appreciates. \u201cMy collection is about my passion for improbable things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The collection:<\/strong> Acoustic 12-string guitars.<\/p>\n

Number of pieces in the collection:<\/strong> \u201cRoughly 300.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent purchase:<\/strong> \u201cI had some spare time [during the run of the retrospective \u2018Larry Bell: Improvisations\u2019 at the Phoenix Art Museum], and one of the curators drove me around to see some guitar shops. I came across a fantastic instrument made in Vietnam. The sound\u2019s sort of a cross between a harpsichord and an organ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weirdest:<\/strong> \u201cIn my mind, they\u2019re all unusual because 12-strings aren\u2019t a popular kind of guitar. Years ago, I commissioned a fantastic musician to make me a 12-string guitar that was small enough to slip under the seat of an airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n