Read Time 2 Minutes
What the crap is up with the guitar and giving people all sorts of zany ideas like multiple necks? In the history of music the guitar’s had the limelight for a decidedly small portion of time, so the idea of having two necks on one instrument took some time to surface.
But the guitar’s not the only neck/body/string instrument, so clearly Vivaldi never thought about having a two-neck violin. What gives? What is it about the guitar that’s given people the kind of insight to treat the body as every bit the piece of art that the music it plays is? Me, I’ve got no idea, but who cares what it is. I’m just looking for a reason to blather on about some iconic multi-neck guitars.
Where would multi-neck instruments be without the Gibson EDS-1275? Who doesn’t know about this guitar? What can I say that hasn’t been said? Yes, it was most famously played by Jimmy Page, though John McLaughlin had done well to popularize it in about the same era give or take. Interestingly enough the guitar actually dates back to the 60s, but it hadn’t sold too well at the time. I suppose the moral of the story is no one cares until a visionary takes matters into his/her own hands.
The 80s were apparently something else for the exploitation of multi-neck guitars and for that reason I’m dumping Steve Vai and Michael Angelo Batio into the same category. I have a friend who would exclaim these guitars to be “ridonkulous”. What does that mean? No clue, but I’m sure he’d say that if he saw these things. What better way to show off than to become an ambidextrous guitarist. What breed of madman does it take to have this kind of vision? Probably the same type of madman that would stick with a haircut like Michael Angelo Batio’s.
Next up we’ve got the behemoth five-neck guitar by Hamer. The one played by none other than Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen.
The first time I saw a video of Cheap Trick Nielsen was playing the five-neck guitar and he frequently lifted it up over his head. At twenty-eight pounds that is certainly not a small amount of weight to perform such eccentric antics as he’s known to do. The guitar was built back in 1980 and was then a one of a kind until he requested another from Hamer in the 90s so the original wouldn’t suffer as much from touring.
- Here is the Epiphone G1275 which is probably the best bang for your buck, it’s only around $500 per neck!
After having written this I started to ponder how big a double-neck contrabass would be and how hard it would be to play one. Just throwing that mental image out there.
These are hilarious! Do these fit in a standard hardshell case…? 😉
Most will. The lefty models will need a special case, but the rest should fit nicely.
Bahahaha! Awesome.