two guitars, one player...

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

pretty nice!

[Gregory Matthews]

In December, 2012, my wife and I attended a Christmas service as a local large church where a professional played a custom built guitar that was actually two instruments which had been built into one.

If the kid had the money, he could have one built for him.

[Gregory Matthews]

The following it taken from Wikipedia:

Quote:

A multi-neck guitar is a guitar that has multiple fingerboard necks. They exist in both electric and acoustic versions. Although multi-neck guitars are quite common today, they are not a modern invention. Examples of multi-neck guitars and lutes go back at least to the Renaissance.

Today, the most common type of multi-neck guitar is the double neck guitar, of which the most common version is an electric guitar with twelve strings on the upper neck, while the lower neck has the normal six. Combination six-string and bass guitar are also used, as well as a fretless guitar with a regular fretted guitar, or any other combination of guitar neck and pickup styles. There are also acoustic versions. Two necks allows the guitarist to switch quickly and easily between guitar sounds without taking the time to change guitars.

* * * * * * *

There are many ways to customize a multiple-necked guitar, such as the number of strings on a neck, frets or no frets, the tuning used on each neck, etc. One of the earliest designs still in regular use is the acoustic contraguitar, invented around 1850 in Vienna. This guitar, also known as the Schrammel guitar, has a fretted six-string neck and a second, fretless neck with up to nine bass strings.

One of the more common combinations is where one neck of a double-necked guitar is set up as for a 6 string guitar and the other neck is configured as a 4 string bass guitar. Guitarist Pat Smear of the Foo Fighters utilizes a double-necked guitar during live performances (bass guitar top neck, six-string electric guitar bottom neck) in order to perform Krist Novoselic's bass part in the song "I Should Have Known," from the album Wasting Light, in addition to his own duties. Rickenbacker International Corporation and Gibson Guitar Corporation in the USA have both manufactured production models of these configurations in the past.

A less common configuration has a 12 string guitar neck combined with a 4 string bass guitar neck: Geddy Lee of Rush is well known for using the 4/12-string Rickenbacker 4080/12 production model live in the 1970s.

In the 1970s and 1980s Mike Rutherford of Genesis was known for playing a custom-made Shergold Modulator twin-neck guitar-bass unit in live shows, as he frequently changed between lead guitar, 12-string guitar and bass guitar, depending on the arrangement of the song. The unique design concept of Rutherford's Shergold guitar set is that it consists of several interchangeable modular elements, each of which could be separated and recombined, and which attached to the other units through a system of dowels and thumbscrews, and an electrical connector. The complete original set consisted of a "top section" 6-string guitar, two "top-section" 12-string guitars (each in a different tuning), and a "bottom-section" 4-string bass. Each section could be separated and re-attached to create a variety of twin-neck combinations, with either the 6-string or one of the two 12-strings on the top, and the 4-string bass on the bottom, and there was a matching lower-body section which could be attached to the 6-string and 12-string main units, which created a single complete guitar when these were not attached to the bass.[1] (As a tongue-in-cheek reference to this, the puppet version of Rutherford in the video for Land of Confusion plays a four-necked guitar.)

The National GUITAR Museum commissioned an 8-neck guitar from DGN Custom Guitars in 2011. The instrument, called the Rock Ock, is fully playable and its eight necks are: 1) mandolin, 2) tenor ukulele, 3) 6-string, 4) fretless bass, 5) fretted bass, 6) 12-string, 7) baritone 8), 7-string. The instrument has 154 frets, 51 strings, weighs 40 pounds and was designed by noted artist Gerard Huerta. The instrument has been on display as part of the "GUITAR: The Instrument That Rocked The World" exhibit since it debuted in Orlando in 2011.

Electric bass guitars with two or more necks have existed at least since the 1970s. Some basses have three or more necks, but usually upon custom order only. A double-necked bass guitar can be used for multiple tuning (e.g., B-E-A-D on one neck and E-A-D-G on the other, etc.); combining fretted and fretless necks; combining necks with different numbers of strings, etc.

One of the more well-known multiple-necked bass guitars is that used by Chris Squire (of Yes) for the song "Awaken." This is a replica of a guitar built by Wal for Roger Newell of the English Rock Ensemble. Squire's original triple-necked bass guitar was configured with a four-string fretted neck, a four-string fretless neck, and a six-string tuned in octaves (Squire was known to have tuned it to aA-dD-gG). This bass is currently on display at the Hard Rock Cafe. Steve Digiorgio used a multiple-necked bass guitar with a fretless neck and another fretted neck. A number of makers have also produced double neck basses with an 8-string bass neck (double courses, tuned in octaves like a 12-string guitar) on top and a 4-string bass neck on the bottom. Double neck basses with various other combinations exist, for example: four string and five string bass; four string and six string bass; etc.

Multiple neck "guitars" have also been made which include other stringed instruments among the alternate necks. Country guitarist Joe Maphis famously played a double-neck Mosrite instrument that had a regular 6-string neck on the bottom and an "octave guitar" for the top neck. This was a 6-string neck tuned an octave higher than the standard guitar, that both extended the range of the instrument, and allowed Maphis to play mandolin-like sounds. Between 1958-1968, Gibson made an instrument of this type which it called the "Double Mandolin" (Gibson EMS 1235).[2]

Hybrids with a 6-string guitar neck and a true 8-string mandolin neck were also made (e.g., the 1971 Dawson Electric guitar/mandolin). And Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones has a triple-neck electroacoustic instrument, custom made for him by luthier Andy Manson, which features (from top to bottom) 8-string mandolin, 12-string guitar, and 6-string guitar necks.[3]

To see pictures of some of the above instruments go to Wikipedia.

Would you believe an instrument with eight (8) necks?

[M. T. Cross]

That was great Pam, kid sure does have talent. Its one thing to be able to play like that, but to do it as cleanly as he did was fantastic.

Greg, this is my favourite multi-necked guitar. I saw Mr. Vai play it live and he was flawless as he usually is.