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this super cool guitar has been around my entire life. once my fathers and now mine=) modified with 1970's gibson PAF humbuckers. sounds like a dream. plays like a dream too. i know a little about these guitars but would love to hear more about them from someone who really knows. thanks in advance and enjoy the pics! =)

Mid-to-late-'60's, looks like. It's a production-model Joe Maphis doubleneck, as opposed to the singleneck Maphis, which was a semi-hollowbody with a walnut back and spruce top. Yours doesn't have the Joe Maphis logo on either headstock--some did, some didn't. The standard color on these was sunburst--metallic blue was a custom color. Too bad about the replaced pickups and pickguard (the original guard would have been solid white, not pearloid), but it's still a cool guitar. A few artists used these back in the day--I can remember seeing Davie Allan and the Arrows with one on TV in the '60's, Sugar Bonner with the Ohio Players had one in the '70's, Drake Levin (or was it his replacement, Harpo?) used one with Paul Revere & the Raiders, and Jimi Hendrix actually owned a right-handed pearl-white one that he flipped over lefty, although I don't think he ever used it outside of the studio. I've never heard of Joe Maphis himself actually using one, but then he had those custom-built Semie Moseley doublenecks with the short-scale mandolin-size 6-string on top instead of the 12-string. A few of these have turned up with the little neck as well, and there are a few with bass necks on top, but the 6/12 combination is the most common--although they're still pretty scarce.

thank you very informative. any idea on value (no, its not for sale)?

just look for them on gbase. these days the joe maphis doublenecks can go for as much as 8 grand in good original condition, although buyers are few and far between dealing with the economy right now. you would not get that for this guitar though. what devalues the guitar the most in my opinion is the pearl pickguard did not follow the original outline so a refinish would have to be done if a buyer wanted to restore the guitar to original specs to cover up the screw holes in the incorrect locations. Not trying to bad mouth the guitar, its a beauty, i'm just saying for your info. if i had to guess I'd say the guitar would be worth 2000 to 2500. i have a feeling this guitar has been refinished, but that would be hard to know with out examining it closer.