Somewhere on this Forum, I recently commented on double neck instruments; well I just finished making this for a friend (no really, I burnt his name into the headstock), it is, of course, based in the BC Rich guitars made famous by a well known mocumentary
it took the best part of a year to get this far, off and on; Mark is sorting out the electronics.
So, I decided to address both my need to make increasingly needlessly complex instruments, and my dislike of the Futura guitar series aesthetic by making a two headed monster.
It’s at a very early stage at the moment but my intention is to make a Bass Ten (Bass VI + IV) - 30" scale 6 string + 32" scale 4 string fretless with four splitable humbuckers. No tremolo.
The body is a pair of colliding flying-V’s. I had intended to keep four sharp corners but I literally had someone’s eye out, and had to round them off.
I have, however, hit the twin-neck neck-dive problem. To get it to balance on a strap, I only really get access to the first 16 frets. Pragmatically, I only play two basslines which get beyond fret 13, so should I care ?
What’s the use of having a heretic if you don’t listen to them now and again?
I ordered new pickups today. Not Fralins, Novaks. Curtis was kind enough to give me a recommendation and so we’ll see how it is, which is a PB-CC in the bridge, and PB-V in the neck.
I really like Novak pickups. I have two with Fralins, and two with Novaks, and I am more pleased with the Novaks.
I took the lipstick pickups out of the Bass VI as Ithought they were a little quiet, and reinstalled the ‘vintage tone’ AlNiCo V single coils it came with, I remembered that I did like the sound.
Then I went one step further and put in some Wilkinson hi-Output Ceramic strat singles.
I can hear a difference, and they are plenty loud,.
I will need to try them with the ‘band’ on Saturday and see how they sound with guitar and drums- I think they will work.
I haven’t heard of palemoon ebony before but it looks cool. Not the simple instrument I envisioned but I’m happy.
It’s an interesting process as there were other fingerboard options and I got to pick the wood I liked and how it gets laid out. Here’s one that didn’t make the cut
