Even before his first 12-string notes rang out through Cheap Trick’s explosive live shows, Petersson infused Cheap Trick with bright and richly distorted shots of thunderous, melodic bass work (check out “Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School” from their debut album). Not a busy lead-bass player like the Who’s John Entwistle or Yes’s Chris Squire, Petersson explored a sonic space somewhere between their note-y twang and the raw energy of punk and hard-rock deviators like the Stranglers’ JJ Burnel and Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, yielding a pronounced punch that inspired later 12-string devotees such as dUg Pinnick of King’s X and Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam.

Since forming in 1975, Cheap Trick has earned a loyal and dedicated fan base through tireless touring and steady releases. Except for his hiatus from the band from ’80–’87 (when he dropped an “s” from his name and formed Tom Peterson & Another Language), Petersson’s style crystallized with his Cheap Trick bandmates: powerhouse singer/guitarist Robin Zander, eccentric guitar hero Rick Nielson, and drum master Bun E. Carlos.

The band hit its stride early in its career with a string of hard-hitting power-pop anthems. Never content to simply rely on past lightning strikes such as “Surrender,” “I Want You to Want Me,” and other gems from the 1979 live classic At Budokan, Cheap Trick enjoyed a second chart-climbing heyday following 1988’s Lap of Luxury. The ’90s saw a new era of rising rock acts such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins singing Cheap Trick’s praises, and the band was even commissioned to record a new version of the Big Star song used as the theme song to the massive TV hit That ’70s Show. The good news is that not much has changed with Cheap Trick: The Illinois Four is hard at work on the road supporting a new release, Rockford. It’s classic Cheap Trick—a hybrid of arena rock, ’60s nostalgia, and blistering power pop.

Do you think of yourself as a technician, or more of an intuitive player?

I totally approach it from feel. Creativity is all-important. You can fix the technical aspects of your playing, but if it’s not creative or interesting, there’s nothing you do about that, no matter how technically perfect it is.

What have you done in your own development to bring technique and intuition together?

There wasn’t a specific time when it all clicked, but I tried to learn as many things as I could at first and develop muscle memory. Development is a combination of so many things.

What’s the best thing about playing bass?

The best moments to me are recording songs in the studio. I love it when you do a track and it comes back better than you thought it was going to be. Happy accidents are the most satisfying, when you are really making something from nothing. Often the biggest mistake is the most brilliant. If you think something is going to come out great before you do it, it almost always doesn’t. It’s better to let the song grow into something that you didn’t expect.

How did the idea for the 12-string bass originally come to you?

Before Cheap Trick, Bun E., Rick, and I were working in a band with a lead singer named “Stewkey” Antoni. I thought it would great to get a big, orchestrated sound. We had just one guitar, drums, and bass, but we wanted to sound huge and heavy. I had one of those old Fender 12-string electric guitars, and I thought I’d play it through an octave divider to get the low end. But the octave divider didn’t track well unless you played really slowly. The idea with the 12-string was to sound like a couple of people were doing what I was playing.

Did you ever have a hard time selling the idea of 12-string to anyone you worked with?

Producers and engineers were freaked out by the 12-string. They said, “No, that sounds like crap—go back to the Precision direct.” By Heaven Tonight [1978], we had gained more control of recording, though. When we recorded At Budokan, nobody got in the way of our sound. That was just us without anything extra. It was live, so there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it.

Budokan was strange. The Japanese decided that they wanted to record us for a television show, and we said, “Sure.” Then we never saw them. We thought they missed the show, but we later found out they set up when we weren’t there and recorded it discreetly.

What kind of rig did you use with your 12-string at Budokan?

[On tour in those days] I used as many Hiwatt guitar amps as I could get—mainly three: one really distorted and feeding back, one not quite so distorted, and one for the low end. Hiwatts are my all-time favorites. Now I’m using Reeves amps, which are essentially the same thing, except you can get them with less power. The problem with Hiwatts is they have to be deafeningly loud to sound right. I don’t want pure distortion—like you’d get with a Marshall—just enough where it sounds like you are really pushing the amp. Like it’s ready to blow up, but it still has clarity.

Why don’t you use bass amps?

Live, there is already so much low end in arenas, especially in clubs. With bass amps, you can’t really hear the bass until you get away from the stage. Then all of sudden you have no control over it, and it ruins the sound of the group. But I’ve used an Ampeg B-15 on every record. They are great. You can push them so that they’re loud and not totally clean. It’s really that Who sound. I want to sound like the whole band—John Entwistle and Pete Townshend combined.

I started out playing guitar, so my main influences are guitar players: Townshend, Jeff Beck, and George Harrison. When I was a kid my hero was Johnny Cash, and I loved Duane Eddy. It was 1964, right when the Beatles had just come out, so it was the perfect time to start playing. Rick and I started working together at the end of ’68. We had gone to London together for a while, and when we came back we started a group. I thought, I might as well play bass. You don’t need a whole bunch of guitar players in the band.

Who are some of your bass heroes?

Guitar-sounding bass players like Entwistle and Ron Wood. I’d never heard a sound like Entwistle’s. He was so good, and that tone was unbeatable. I loved Paul McCartney, too—he has a completely different style. His bass playing is incredibly underrated. Singing those songs and playing those bass parts at the same time—nobody plays like that.

What’s your approach to writing bass lines?

We all do what we think the songs need, and not what makes us personally sound best. A part that’s needlessly complicated is far less important than a really good song idea. When someone hears one of my bass lines, I’d rather they wish they had written it, rather than wish they could manage playing it.

How did you design your first 12-string?

Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig had a guitar shop in Chicago, and when they decided to start a guitar company, I tried to convinced them to build a 12-string. I wanted a long-scale 12-string bass like I have now. They thought the neck wouldn’t be able to handle all that tension, so in 1977, they made me a 10-string [arranged eE, aA, ddD, ggG] as a compromise. I never recorded with it, but I did use it on the road. They saw that it worked fine, so we moved up to 12-string. I wanted that piano sound you get from the long-scale basses, but I couldn’t dissuade them from making short-scale basses. I wanted it to sound like a Gibson Thunderbird with two guitar players playing along. Around 1985, I finally got the “Acoustic” long-scale 12-string from Hamer. I still have it, and it’s great.

How are 4- and 12-string basses different, from a playing perspective?

The 12-string is harder to play. I always use a pick, and sometimes I’m more riff-oriented with the 12. For writing, the 12-string is more like an orchestra with overtones and drones. It’s almost like a cello.

Is there a sweet spot on a 12-string’s neck?

No. It has to all be even or I get another bass. It’s not like a Hofner where you have to learn the instrument’s intonation—where you can’t play in certain places up high on the neck. I want my instruments to be consistent.

What is the best musical context for a 12-string?

Sparse songs. This kind of bass is most useful when you have space for it. It’s usually slower songs that have that space. If there are a lot of overdubs on a track, the 12-string gets lost. Because the 12 has those other strings vibrating, you get a truer bass response with a 4-string. Subtlety is everything in the studio; live, there isn’t that subtlety, so I play 12-string.

You’ve also played Chandler Royale 12-string basses.

Paul and Adrian Chandler really know their stuff, and their instruments are beautiful. But it’s like your clothes—you don’t want to wear the same thing every day.

When did you start playing Waterstone basses?

Almost two years ago. That’s what I have been using exclusively, and because of their low cost I’ve been able to get a lot of them. We always have two different rigs on the road. If we play in London one night, and then London, Ontario, the next night, we can’t use the same gear. So I use duplicate rigs.

Also, I always thought it was a shame that other people couldn’t afford the instruments I had. I know people would like playing a 12-string. So I wanted to do a signature line that was affordable. I wasn’t convinced they would compete with the Chandlers, but they definitely do.

How has the Waterstone’s semi-hollow body affected the tone?

I don’t think it has changed the sound much, but I like that I can face the amp and get feedback. Even still, they don’t feed back on their own. They’re not like acoustic basses, which can be out of control. I also love that you can hear them when you’re practicing without an amp.

Do you use alternate tunings?

Not many; sometimes I’ll tune a step or half-step down. I tune the E strings down to D on “Don’t Be Cruel” [Lap of Luxury].

In tuning your 12-strings, do you detune one of the octave strings slightly to put them out of phase with each other?

I do in the studio. You don’t have to go out of your way to make it sound out of tune, but yeah, if I am recording I put one slightly sharper than the other.

Do you do much chord work on your bass?

No, it kind of gets in the way. With guitar, there’s no real need for it.

Have you found the tone you want, or are you still looking for it?

I always wish I could get “that tone.” It can be a headache—it’s rarely ever right to my ear. But sometimes it works and I think, Wow, that space sounds good.