On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.

Custom Five-Neck Guitar

Hamer Guitars
Richard Alan "Rick" Nielsen

Not on view

An unusual five-neck guitar has been a feature in guitarist Rick Nielsen’s performances with Cheap Trick. After a period of playing live with multiple guitars strapped on simultaneously, he began collaborating with Hamer in 1981 to combine all of his needs into one outlandish instrument. This guitar, Nielsen’s first of its kind, was built by laminating together the bodies of five Hamer Specials. Nielsen went on to commission and perform with several other five-neck instruments, each with a different configuration.

Technical Description:

Mahogany body and necks, maple top, rosewood fingerboards; 24 3/4 in. scales; natural finish; five set necks with dot inlays; headstocks with Hamer "checkerboard" logo decals; twelve-string neck, six-string neck, six-string neck with Vibrola tailpiece, six-string neck, and six-string fretless neck; two DiMarzio humbucking pickups per neck, five-way rotary control for neck selection, three-way selector switch, two volume controls and one tone control; three nickel sustain block bridges, one tune-o-matic bridge with Vibrola vibrato, one twelve-string bridge and tailpiece, three black and clear plastic knobs, plastic tortoiseshell pickguard, nickel tuners

Custom Five-Neck Guitar, Hamer Guitars, Mahogany, maple, rosewood, nickel, chrome, plastic

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.

Courtesy of Hard Rock International