Mosrite double necks

[Deke Dickerson]

Hey Terry--

First of all a little historical perspective might help. Back in the late 40's and early 50's Les Paul had a bunch of instrumental hit records like "Lover" and "Brazil" etc. along with vocal records with his wife Mary Ford--"The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise," "How High The Moon," etc. These records featured a very high pitched guitar which Les achieved by overdubbing at half speed, so when the tape was brought back to normal speed the guitar was an octave higher and very fast.

Semie couldn't figure out how Les Paul was doing this, so he reckoned he must have a "little guitar" to achieve those effects. Hence, the octave neck! Semie put an octave neck on his first tripleneck (along with a mandolin and guitar), and then put an octave neck on Joe Maphis' original doubleneck.

Now, Joe could play the crap out of the octave neck, because he could play anything. Half the time Joe played it like some tiny guitar, half the time he approached it like a mandolin. Joe used his octave neck all the time.

But realistically, not that many guitar players had a use for the octave neck. Probably more country players had a use for a mandolin neck on top, since most of them doubled on mandolin. Most rock & rollers could have used a 6-string bass or later on, the 12-string.

Other than Joe & Larry Collins and Brian Lonbeck, I dont' really see too many players using the octave neck or incorporating it into their music.

It was a no-brainer for Semie to put the 12-string necks on the production doubleneck, because by 1966 the sound of the electric 12-string guitar was all over the radio with bands like the Beatles and the Byrds all using them. I think the electric 12-string was at it's peak from 1965-1970.

Then again, the purpose of the multi-necked guitar is mainly just to look cool, right?

Look at Rick Nielsen's (Cheap Trick) 5-neck guitar. Wonder how much he uses the fretless guitar? ha.

Deke

[TerryTNM]

Hi Terry,
I know you've worked on that guitar and I brought this particular instrument up on the Bob Regan thread. Deke descibed it as not as big as the guitar he(Larry Collins) had back in the days of his duets with Joe Maphis. Is it basically constructed the same as the 50's style, only slimmer, or is it more of a semi-solid/chambered design?

Larry's present guitar, dated 1988, is along the lines of the JM65, which I would call semi-solid, but has a unique outline of it's own.. It is a totally hollow body. About the same overall thickness as the early guitar. The top plate is about 3/8' thick I would imagine the back about the same. If Larry's 50's guitar is like the Bob Regan body of the same era I would call it chambered I've never seen the inside of Larry's original doubleneck. One other thing, Larry's original guitar didn't have a carved back, it was flat, most likely to save weight.

[Strat-o-rama]

Thanks Terry. Interesting differences. I also like the 'Tequila Sunrise' 'Burst finish on Larry's '88 doubleneck.

I must admit, my first exposure to Joe Maphis was an instrumental track on Deke Dickerson's "Million Dollar Seller", and it made me think of Les Paul when I heard it. Reading the CD cover opened a door for me musically when I discovered Joe Maphis.

To answer Danny's question, for me it would be a baritone neck, and I know there are no double neck Mosrites with a bari neck, but it would fit in with the kind of music I play.

[mosriteforever]

Hey All!!
Maybe this should be on the recent Double Neck Thread, but it seemed appropriate here. I had a chance to photograph Larry Collins' Double Neck at Barris Kustom City so here it is. I will get the photos of some of Artie's killer collection displayed at Front Porch Music soon. 59 Custom is coming along. Thanks for your patience.













I hope I figured the picture thing out now. It is not that hard. By the way, I have a 1966 Gospel Model in this same burst!

Mosrite/Hallmark forever

[brutus]

[url][/url][url][/url]The coolest!! Davie Allan making the 12-6 look as tuff as you can. Dig the smirks and total punk attitudes. Churning out biker fuzz soundtracks non stop can take it's toll on a person. Davie is really a mellow low key guy nothing like these photos would imply. Check out the Sundazed Devils
Rumble to get a overview of his 60's output... really mind blowing stuff. I would
like to get a 6-12 myself someday

[oipunkguy]

has anyone ever seen a 12/6 double neck from the early 70's with mosrite humbuckers?????

I saw one on ebay around 2001, wish i had a pic of it....

[Dennisthe Menace]

Wish to heck I could find those PIX of Drake Levin. There's one of him playing a 1963 Octave neck (like Damon67, but in Sunburst) and there is another of him playing a 12/6 Sunburst.......

[brutus]

Guys, those photos of Davie are from a great mag. called Fuz by Seth Wimpfheimer 1997 all things Davie plus Mimsy Farmer!!
Anybody know what ever happened to Davie's 12-6? I don't know if it has any
sort identifiable marks or options that would be easy to identify? I think it is red but i have never seen it in a color photo.

[Deke Dickerson]

Okay, gang I've been a little slow to post on this topic, but I've been swamped for time lately. Here's a bunch of eye candy, guitar porn, whatever you want to call it, on the subject of doublenecks!

Here's fellow listmember and Mosrite apprentice Terry McArthur of TNM Custom guitars and the first doubleneck he made around 1958 (right Terry?)--


And here's Terry again with TNM Custom #2 (the one that I currently use) with it's original owner, Ernie Odum, around 1959-1960.


Here's Dwayne Tracy with what looks to be a 1963 era doubleneck--around the same era as Damon's "Bob" doubleneck with the wooden pickup covers. Unfortunately it looks from this 1970's era picture that Dwayne did the old "strip off the finish and make it natural" redo as was so common in the 1970's. I have no idea who Dwayne Tracy is, does anybody here on this list?


I have no idea who this guy is, but he sure looks happy with his new pearl white Joe Maphis model doubleneck!


Another kid with a doubleneck!


I'm so glad I found this picture--this is Bakersfield CHP officer Doug Brewer with the doubleneck that he got new in 1960 or 1961--one of the first guitars Semie made after going up to Bakersfield from Granada Hills. The headstock caps were originally all plastic inlays and they started shrinking and falling out, so Semie made him some new headstock caps later in the 60's. Other than the later Mosrite top hat knobs, pretty much everything else is original on it, including the mistake plate early vibrato, and the super early Bakersfield homemade pickups. Note the inlaid cross (with shadow) in between the two necks--like many of the Mosrite people of that era, Doug was a gospel guy.


Here's Larry Collins original 1950's doubleneck as it exists today. It's the original body with two necks installed in the late 50's (smaller headstocks), original Carvin pickups but changed to black covers instead of the original cream colored covers.


This guitar was discussed earlier on the list, but here's a photo of Joe Maphis' 2nd doubleneck, circa 1972, as it exists now in the Kern County Museum, Bakersfield, CA. This is the guitar that Semie built for Joe after Joe donated the original to the Country Music Hall Of Fame in Nashville. The push button in the middle of the pickguard is some kind of booster switch for when Joe went to play a solo and wanted the volume a little higher.


I got a few quick snapshots of this one at Guitars R Us back on Sunset Blvd. about 12-13 years ago. It doesn't look that out of the ordinary at first glance, but after all my years of looking at these things, this is the only stock doubleneck from the 1964-1965 era I've ever seen. Time for a quick geek-out....Semie made plenty of doublenecks up until 1963 because he was still making everything by hand on a custom order basis. After he went into business with the Ventures, everything was so crazy that there were basically no more doublenecks until 1966, when the production model Joe Maphis doubleneck came out (12 string on top). This guitar, however, appears to be totally stock from the 1964-1965 era--Vibramute, metal nuts, tortoise guard....and an octave neck. So they must have made a few during this period, but this is the only one I've ever seen turn up.


Somebody sent me this picture a long time ago and I can't remember who. This '66-'67 era doubleneck is very cool looking, I wonder if that's an original finish?



To be continued....

Deke

[dorkrockrecords]

I got a few quick snapshots of this one at Guitars R Us back on Sunset Blvd. about 12-13 years ago. It doesn't look that out of the ordinary at first glance, but after all my years of looking at these things, this is the only stock doubleneck from the 1964-1965 era I've ever seen. Time for a quick geek-out....Semie made plenty of doublenecks up until 1963 because he was still making everything by hand on a custom order basis. After he went into business with the Ventures, everything was so crazy that there were basically no more doublenecks until 1966, when the production model Joe Maphis doubleneck came out (12 string on top). This guitar, however, appears to be totally stock from the 1964-1965 era--Vibramute, metal nuts, tortoise guard....and an octave neck. So they must have made a few during this period, but this is the only one I've ever seen turn up.

As of two years ago this guitar was at a shop in Tokyo. I remember it vividly, right down to the generic Radio Shack knobs, matching headstocks front and back, and the old Joe Maphis script logo.