If you have a HSBC premier account in another country than perfect they will sort everything out for you, my friend used them last year and were very happy. But if you are just a normal joe bloggs client than I wouldn’t recommend them.
In general it seems it is up to the branch bank manager to decide what rules they implement. But I was told that some banks near Robinsons Sukhumvit (Asok) will accept tourist visas to open bank accounts so you might want to do a few forum searches on that.
Get yourself down to Pattaya for a few days, its 1200bt in a taxi limo or 113bt on the bus leaving from Ekkami BTS, takes under2hours to get there.