About
Double neck guitars are objectively cool, I think that’s a pretty universal truth. I had a bunch of old guitar hardware salvaged from several older projects/upgrades and figured I could tackle trying to build one. I did some online deep-diving to explore the general forms and proportions of these kinds of instruments. I eventually came across a pretty slick kit for building a combo bass+guitar.
The kit was B-stock with some missing parts, some incorrectly sized cavities, and some hairline cracks developing in the body. Needless to say, costs were quite attractive for the kit, so I couldn’t pass it up. Since everything was unfinished, I was able to make all the wood repairs necessary to not run into any future problems. As I was still left with a healthy budget I was able to custom fab a few pieces here and there, and I decided to look into some options for getting this instrument properly painted.
After some looking around for an instrument refinisher, I happened to have a crazy stroke of luck. I discovered an old friend of mine has put together a little side business that involves instrument repair, refinishing and respraying. The company’s called Strings Refinishing. They don’t have a website but they do have an instagram page. I reached out and described the project. We both agreed that it needed something extra cool. I was curious if there was a color that they’ve always wanted to do but noone has ever ordered – and this was the result. The color is difficult to photograph because it has a bit of that chameleon color shift. When the light hits it one way, it has a bit of a darker teal look to it, but when angled, it appear more like a dark purple. Super cool.
Once painted, we quickly assembled it in his shop so that we could get some pictures before I had to transport it. Once back, I was able to get the rest of the hardware on it and wire it up. Everything was looking great.
That being said, it does have some downsides. This instrument is massive, heavy and frankly quite impractical for use as an actual instrument. Currently, it lives as a rad little sculpture, as it’s desperately in need of much better hardware and a massive setup. I wired in a couple of kill switches so that the bass and guitar can be turned on or off independently. I’ll likely revisit this project and change some of the wiring and try to get it into a much more playable state. In the meantime, still looks awesome – so I can’t really complain.
