FEATURE
Daring Those
Young Men
Doubleneck
and Their
Guitars
A Brief History
of Multi-neck Players
By Bob Cianci
When I accepted the assignment to write the companion piece to Wally
Marx’s article on doubleneck guitars, my first thought was, “Why on
earth would someone want to hang a heavy, ungainly doubleneck instrument around their neck in the first place?” Having owned a vintage
Danelectro doubleneck back in the late 1970s (that I never warmed to),
and after having tried various other doublenecks over the years, including a friend’s Gibson EDS-1275 (commonly known as the Jimmy Page
model), I realized I was unable to bond with this most unusual instrument. At 5' 6", I’m not exactly a candidate for basketball player of the
year, so the doubleneck looked large and silly on my smallish frame. I do
better with Les Pauls, Telecasters and the like.
Once I started researching doubleneck guitarists, however, I came to
the realization that doublenecks, in whatever configuration a player
may choose, open up limitless musical and tonal possibilities you would
not have on a conventional single neck instrument. I had seen Jimmy
Page play his 1275 many times with Led Zeppelin, so that point was
obvious. The second reason is because doubleneck guitars just look so
darn cool, and as guitarists, most of us are looking for something to set
us apart from the crowd. Doublenecks always attract attention. Playing
one onstage will definitely get you noticed.
