Doublenecks With a Purpose
A replica of Grady Martin’s doubleneck Bigsby
made in the ‘80s by R.C. Allen for Gary Lambert,
the rockabilly picker who played with Glen Glenn
and Eddie Cochran. It diverges from Paul Bigsby’s
original in a number of details, most noteably the
lower bout ornament, vibrato assembly, pickup
and control configuration and (rather obviously)
the pickguard. Photo courtesy of Rick Gould. |
One of the earliest examples of a
doubleneck electric guitar made for onstage
use was a doubleneck electric guitar and
mandolin made in 1952 by Paul Bigsby for
country singer Grady Martin. The guitar
was a solid maple instrument featuring a
standard six-string guitar neck paired with
a mandolin neck. The six-string neck used a 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.
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 harmonies
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
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.
Custom versions (in various stages of completion) of Terry McArthur’s Moseley-inspired recreation, “The Maphis” by TNM
Guitars. Photo courtesy of Rick Gould. |
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 teens, Moseley got the opportunity to work
on the guitars of many famous players.
Picking up the luthier’s trade rapidly, Moseley
learned how to craft every single part of the
guitar himself, including pickups, vibrato tailpieces,
knobs and other plastic parts. They
were also durable, with many examples still
in existence. He also learned to be unafraid
of invention, innovation and making guitars
way, way out of the norm. Going into business
for himself in about 1954, he began
building solidbody guitars for players in and
around Southern California. In 1954, Moseley
made doublenecks for Joe Maphis and Larry
Collins of the Collins Kids. He became known
as the go-to guy for multi-necked instruments
and eventually made more pieces
for Maphis and Collins, as well as for stringburner
Phil Baugh and others.
Sherwin Linton in 1967 with the doubleneck he built in 1965
using a Fender Jazzmaster neck and vibrato tailpiece. Four
of the strings on the 12-string neck use banjo tuners through
the back of the headstock, so they’re not seen in the photo.
Sherwin says he “finished it in blue with the woodgrain
showing through and it was and still is very pretty.”
Photo courtesy of Sherwin Linton. |
Throughout the ’50s, one-off and homemade
doublenecks made appearances across the
scene. Herbie Treece and Sherwin Linton are
two that come readily to mind. Both pickers
in the country circles, each played homemade
doublenecks. Treece’s guitar was a stylish axe
with dual six-string necks of differing scale,
and Linton’s homemade doubleneck had
a revolving cast of six-, eight-, and twelve-string
necks with features such as B-benders
and headstock-mounted vibratos. Linton used
his doubleneck on the aptly named album,
“Hello, I’m Not Johnny Cash.”
The Big Boys Step In
In 1958, Gibson introduced two doubleneck
electric instruments, the EDS-1275 Double
12 and the EMS-1235 Double Mandolin.
The first Gibson electric doubleneck,
however, was built a year or two earlier
as a custom order. Seeing the possibilities
in the model, Gibson built a number
of samples, some of which they exhibited
at the 1957 NAMM show. Enough positive
reaction was garnered that the company
put the models in the next catalog, but
very few of the instruments were actually
produced. Initially, both of these instruments
were thinline hollowbodies, 1-7/8"
deep. The EDS (Electric Double Spanish)
had two 24.75" scale necks, the upper a
twelve-string, the lower six-string. The EMS
(Electric Mandolin Spanish) had a 13-7/8"
scale six-string neck in the upper position
and a 24.75" scale six-string neck in the
lower position. Both models had a two-piece
solid spruce top with maple sides
and a one-piece maple back. Colors available
were white, black and sunburst. The
dual-cutaway shape of the thin-lines was a
precursor to the SG-style solidbody which
both instruments transitioned to in 1962.