Postby jfine » Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:19 am
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.