FEATURE
Bigsby vibrato and three P-90-style pickups.
The mando neck had a single pickup. Martin
used this guitar throughout the ‘50s. The
Grady Martin model wasn’t the first, or last,
doubleneck that Bigsby would make. All
totaled, it’s believed Bigsby made about a
half-dozen doublenecks.
or the other way around, Stratosphere owner
Russ Deaver had just the thing to solve Bryant’s
dilemma: a doubleneck electric guitar that
was different from any before or since. The
Stratosphere had both a six- and twelve-string
neck, maple fretboards and P-90-style pickups.
The body on the Stratosphere was a bit of a
blob. The Stratosphere Twin is acknowledged
as the first doubleneck electric—as well as the
first 12-string electric—offered to the public
for sale (unlike the Bigsby, which was custom
order-only). The tuning of the Stratosphere was
a big departure: on the twelve-string neck the
courses were tuned in either major or minor
thirds. The complex tuning of the Stratosphere
required the player to almost completely
relearn the fretboard. Bryant used a prototype
Stratosphere Twin at a session in September
of 1954. Chet Atkins himself also used a
Stratosphere on the tune “Somebody Stole My
Gal.” Not much was seen of the guitar after.
Semie Mosely may have done more for
establishing doubleneck electric guitars than
any other individual. As an apprentice with
Paul Bigsby when he was barely out of his
Carvin #1-MS Professional Double-Neck. Photo courtesy of Dave Isaac/Hollywood Vintage Room.
Doubleneck guitars were still an extreme rarity
when Jimmy Bryant stepped in. Bryant, the six-string virtuoso whose many recordings from the
late 1940s and early 1950s brought a Django
Reinhardt-fluency to country swing soloing,
was an early adopter of the solidbody guitar.
Possibly the first Fender endorsee, Bryant used
an early Broadcaster to great effect. In 1954
Bryant was looking for new levels of showmanship in his playing, and new ways to get
the sounds in his head out to the world. In a
nutshell, Bryant was looking for an instrument
that would allow him to play melodic harmo-nies without having to team up with another
guitarist. He paired with Stratosphere Guitar
Manufacturing Co. of Springfield, MO. Whether
it was Bryant who approached Stratosphere
