Gibson mando/tenor SG custom

[mrmando]

Wowsers. Anyone notice this in the Classifieds?

The scary thing is, it's not the only one they made! I have a photo at Emando.com of another Gibson mando/tenor doubleneck.

Guess I'll go buy another Mega Millions ticket...

[mandolirius]

It does look like a pretty cool thing. The only thing better would be a mando/OM combo.

[mrmando]

Well, you could string the tenor neck as a single-course OM, I suppose.

[man dough nollij]

Well, you could string the tenor neck as a single-course OM, I suppose.

Isn't a tenor guitar a single-course OM? Eh?

[Cliff D]

Well last night I had a dream: a twin necked Gibson was exchanged for an Alden. I probably haven't woken yet.............

[em guitars]

Elvis used an SG doubleneck in the movie Spinout, but it was a normal guitar neck on the bottom, and a baritone 6 string neck on the top. Coolest SG ever!
Eric.

[mrmando]

Isn't a tenor guitar a single-course OM? Eh?

Could be, but from my perspective the standard tuning is CGDA, like a mandola. That's the tuning used by backup players in Texas fiddle music. In other styles of music, players may tune to DGBE (that's what Neko Case does).

[Daniel Nestlerode]

I was seriously drooling on that little teensy picture. Darn you Stan Werbin!
I can think of so many cool ways to use that instrument, but $13,500 is entirely too much.

Daniel

[mrmando]

If you're drooling on the small pictures, for heaven's sake don't look at the big ones.

[journeybear]

Could be, but from my perspective the standard tuning is CGDA, like a mandola. That's the tuning used by backup players in Texas fiddle music. In other styles of music, players may tune to DGBE (that's what Neko Case does).

Holy Wow!!! That's just about exactly what I've been wanting - except the single-string, and, oh yeah, the price! I yi yi! I'm sure tuning pegs and an 8-string nut & bridge and whammy bars could be installed ...

Yes, that is my understanding about tenor guitar tuning, too. That's how I tune my National steel tenor - otherwise I just couldn't play it. Thanks for mentioning Neko Case - glad someone else has heard of her. The only other tenor I've seen played in the last few years is by Ani DiFranco, also steel, but I couldn't say how she tunes it. She uses a lot of open tunings. There's a series on PBS called "Live From The Artists Den" and she uses it in her appearance. Keep an eye on your local listings; it may well come around again.

I wonder who was the original owner? That's what custom-built implies, it was made specifically for someone.

[jefflester]

I think "wowzers" describes it pretty accurately.

[UnityGain]

Words. fail. me.

I think its lottery ticket time.

[Paul Busman]

Does it come with a free back brace to avoid herniated discs?

[journeybear]

I offered them $1000 and I haven't heard back yet. Wonder why??? I think that's fair. I mean, it's over 40 years old. How much can it be worth? How much would you pay for a 40-year-old car, you know? And that could still drive ...


.........

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Well heck yeah. I mean how many people in the world a re looking for a tenor/mando solidbody electric double neck that looks kind of like something Tiny Moore would play on a Texas Swing version of "Stairway to Heaven"?


Daniel

[Jim MacDaniel]

That is awesome, but a too rich for my blood.

For that matter, this new no-name for $400 shipped is too rich for my blood as well...

[journeybear]

Well heck yeah. I mean how many people in the world are looking for a tenor/mando solidbody electric double neck that looks kind of like something Tiny Moore would play on a Texas Swing version of "Stairway to Heaven"?

Yeah, really! What's the market value of something nobody wants?

Um, besides me ...

"It was there I found, beside the Alamo,
A bustle in your hedgerow ...
Don't be alarmed now ... A-ha!"

[Daniel Nestlerode]

That is awesome, but a too rich for my blood.

For that matter, this new no-name for $400 shipped is too rich for my blood as well...

Hmmm... I am partial to Tele's... Looks like it could use just a little work. New string-through bridge for the guitar, drill the holes through the body, add ferules...

But I don't need a guitar/mandolin.

Daniel

[Don Stiernberg]

Do any of you cats know anything about the slightly more conventional 6-string guitar, 8-string mandolin electrics made by Gibson? We were watching "The Last Waltz" by The Band recently and got to wondering about the one Robbie Robertson played on the video version of "The Weight" with The Staple Singers. Of course you can't hear it in the track, but it looks way cool. How many of those are out there? Any available? At what rediculous fee?Thanks for any info, it's an interesting curiosity...

[clem]

Do any of you cats know anything about the slightly more conventional 6-string guitar, 8-string mandolin electrics made by Gibson? We were watching "The Last Waltz" by The Band recently and got to wondering about the one Robbie Robertson played on the video version of "The Weight" with The Staple Singers. Of course you can't hear it in the track, but it looks way cool. How many of those are out there? Any available? At what rediculous fee?Thanks for any info, it's an interesting curiosity...

In my experience (having looked at them from time to time), any mando/guitar double neck, whether Gibson or Mosrite (and one Fender) has been around $10K. All of them are/were "custom orders." There is a double neck Mosrite (guitar and octave guitar) that could be played as guitar/mando (using the octave neck as a 5 string) but is also close to $10K.

Given those prices, it seems like a MUCH better idea to commission Michael Stevens to build one! It certainly would be better quality AND the coolest double neck ever built...bar none (including the Junior Brown model).

[mrmando]

I'd also check in with Andy Manson and/or John Knutsen if I wanted something like this built.

[delsbrother]

ISO Guyatone.



Uhh... Anyone read Japanese?

Oh, and to add to Clem's list, there are certainly some Carvin mando-guitar doublenecks out there that are cheaper than $10K (though not inexpensive, for what they are).

[Paul Busman]

How's this for a custom mando/guitar idea?
One neck sticking out each end of the instrument. You'd wear it on a waist mounted swivel like the old ZZ Top guys and could spin the instrument around to play the desired neck.
Or, if you were REALLY ambitious, you could learn to play lefty and "simply" use the appropriate hand to play whichever neck was closest to it...

[journeybear]

Here are more double-necks than you can shake two sticks at: in Norwegian and translated into English.

Mostly guitars, but then toward the bottom there is Robbie Robertson and his beautiful Gibson mandolin/guitar, and an interesting page from a Gibson catalogue advertising a mandolin/guitar double-neck, though it's really an octave guitar/guitar.

[journeybear]

It gets weirder on pages 2 & 3 ...

You recognize John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin bassist and also mandolinist (he'll be backing up Sara Watkins on Jimmy Fallon Monday night, not sure what he'll be playing). The four-neck is clearly for a one man band - bass, mandolin, banjo, and guitar. There used to be a guy here in Key West who could have played this - he also played fiddle, and all of them well - Gary Blodgett, extraordinarily talented. I sat in with him once, with him and his backing tracks that is. In the middle of "Folsom Prison Blues" he said, "Keep going, I've got to use the bathroom," and left me alone on stage! What could I do? So I kept pickin' away for a couple of minutes till he came back, picked up his fiddle, and we finished it out. Unbelievable. But a lot of bar players here try to go the whole four hour shift without taking a break, to keep the crowd from drifting away.

I've got nothing to say about the five-neck.