Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Was it the first double neck to combine bass and guitar in a PRODUCTION instrument? 4080 started in 1975. Anybody else try this before? Or is it the ONLY bass/guitar double neck?

IIRC, Gibson had one first.

Yeah, the Gibson EBS-1250 started production in 1962.

And a year before that, in 1961, Hofner had the Model 191.

Macca should have played one of those!

I'm sure there was some prototypes in the 1800's that have been destroyed in a pirate ship wreck.

bassduke49 wrote:Was it the first double neck to combine bass and guitar in a PRODUCTION instrument? 4080 started in 1975. Anybody else try this before? Or is it the ONLY bass/guitar double neck?

I have read that Ric was the first to prototype an 8 string bass at NAMM, but Hagstom was the first manufacturer to make an 8 string electric bass a production model.

I think Danelectro did a double-neck bass/guitar in the '60s - not sure of the year though...

Evan is correct, Dano had a 6/4 double neck (Model 3923) in 1959, so I guess that makes them first.

Semie Moseley (Mosrite) was producing double-necks in the mid '50s but I believe most of them would have been custom builds, like the one he produced for Joe Maphis.

gellkeller wrote:Semie Moseley (Mosrite) was producing double-necks in the mid '50s but I believe most of them would have been custom builds, like the one he produced for Joe Maphis.

I think I may have seen a Mosrite bass/6 string double neck - but it would have been post '65. The early ones were 12/6 or mando/6.

I think Semie may even have done a triple-neck or two....

I think the term "PRODUCTION" probably dismisses Mosrite's claim, hence the "custom" reference

To my knowledge the double neck is an old principle, already from the 19th century (at least).
Here is a pic from an instrument 20th century:
and here is one from 19th century:
Usually the upper neck was a kind of bass with strings in a certain tune, so the player did not have to pick it in certaun frets, just the open string.

How about one with an EB-6?

As much as harp guitars were around since the 1800s, at least, I don't think they fall in to the current discussion of double neck instruments as HG are played in a different manner than "modern "DN instruments.

Of course, if I had thought of it first, I'd insist they be included.