….and the answer is…..Charlie Whitney….
He used his all night…..Pagey whipped his out for one big number and put it away again…..
Jimmy Page vs Charlie Whitney?
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Well two heads are always better than one.
….well, you win the white carnation….
I love Led Zep. But I like Family more than I like Led Zep, so this is a no-brainer for me.
In fact sometimes I think I like Family more than, er, my family.
I mean listen to this: Indian strings five years before Kashmir.
Not a particularly good example of Whitney, but a very good example of, er, music an’ that.
Charlie certainly got more use out of his 12-string neck than Page ever did….
Charlie’s was walnut brown, but Jimmy’s was a more attractive cherry red.
Meanwhile Frank White (Jarvis Cocker’s uncle and guitarist with Dave Berry & the Cruisers) had a white one, thought to be the first in Britain.
http://i.imgur.com/a8O3f9C.jpg
…nice….looks like Steve Howe’s……
Don Felder out of the Eagles used a white one and so does Joe Bonamassa.
Is Frank not Richard Hawley’s uncle? Or are Cocker and Hawley perhaps related? I think we should be told
Yes, sorry, my bad (as I believe the young people say).
You’re quite right, Frank is Hawley’s uncle.
Then there’s this:
https://gdblogs.shu.ac.uk/b1017256/2014/05/07/dave-berry-frank-white-richard-hawley-local-heritage/
Wow! No way, Jose.
The double-necked guitar……tell me when that monstrosity first saw the light of day and that day is officially ‘THE END’.
Jimi got out just in time.
By my reckoning that’s two separate instances of “the end” – Eric Clapton’s first album and now the twin-neck guitar…
It’s a work-in-progress…..Clapton’s album, the tongue logo, shite clothes, the last Beatles record, Jimi’s death, and I see no reason why the twin necked guitar shouldn’t be brought into court.
Did anyone have one of these things at Woodstock, for example?
Please advise.
Does this pre-date all of the above?
The 6/12 string is the most common, but Elvis is playing one with a 6 string bass neck and regular guitar neck there. Twin necks came in many and various forms, there was even a mandolin/guitar configuration.
Gibson started making them in the late 50s, but they go back earlier than that. Bigsby were making them in the early 50s at least.
http://i.imgur.com/mTRzegx.jpg
The Elvis picture dates from the 1966 movie Spinout btw, so it’s probably later than Frank White who got his twin neck in 1964
My pic of it taken in the Gracelands museum on my stag week trip to Memphis and Nashville in 96. Note “Spinout” display.
http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i449/charlieboy14/elvisdoubleneck.jpg
The real thing! Thanks Twang.
Stag week trip to Memphis and Nashville!! Respect!!
Double twin-neck action!
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad15/camplimp/alexgeddy_zpsfovn2mqo.jpg
Ambidextrous fretwankery ahoy! Michael Angelo Batio and his ludicrous guitar:
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad15/camplimp/Michael-Angelo-Batio_zpsfug1awjz.jpg
He appears to have borrowed Jeff Beck’s ‘hair’.
Its either Jeff’s or Richie Sambora’s…
Progtastic!
Here’s Chris Squire with his triple neck bass
(cue someone posting “that picture” of Rick Nielsen out of Cheap Trick)
http://i.imgur.com/o0gNJJs.jpg
Derek was partial to a doubler too.
http://i363.photobucket.com/albums/oo78/clampdown59/afterwordy/F3242EAF-7FB1-48F0-90E9-118F249B8DF0.jpg
Steve Vai’s Ibanez Heart triple neck
http://i.imgur.com/KwxYNPA.jpg
“His name is Stevie Vai, and he’s a crazy guy…”
Daaaaamn straight!
Another Zappa reference!
Just weeding out the civilians…
Best to be safe, I always think
…come on, chaps – the thread’s not about hairbrush abuse by blue-haired stunt guitarists….
….I think I’ll pass on the Banoffee Pie.
Junior Brown with his guit-steel:
God, that’s ugly!
Lookit ole Junior, clutchin’ his semi
For those who wish the eighties was still a thing, Washburn have a twin neck bass with headless stocks. The top one is fretless so you can sound like Pino Palladino…
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad15/camplimp/WashburnBantamtwinneckbass780px_zpstbnaxqrm.jpg
Ber-DOOOOWOOOOO!
BeeeeoooowwwwDROOWWWWWW…..
Isn’t the elephant in the room this chap? He got his Gibson 12/6 from the Gibson factory circa November 1971, later commissioning a Rex Bogue 12/6. I wonder did Page think of the Gibson 12/6 after seeing the MO in the US?
Indeed – that Rex Bogue was a fine piece of kit….
you mean this one?
Arrrgh!
The very definition of oneupmanship.
Perverse.
There are no limits to hipster douchebaggery – the twin neck ukulele:
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad15/camplimp/hqdefault_zpseianmfy8.jpg
How about the Collins Kids with 10 year-old Larry Collins on a twin-neck Mosrite circa mid-50s
http://i.imgur.com/y3kIhgU.jpg
but what are their names JC ?
That is one of the great mysteries of rock & roll (or, in their case, country) JW.
Andrew Collins? Joan Collins?
I guess we’ll never really know for sure.
And how about this for synchronicity?
Just as I read your earlier post, this was spinning on my record deck:
http://i.imgur.com/IIVdMLj.jpg
great versions of Stop Breaking Down and Tobacco Rd as I recall .The former appearing on Stones Exile.
Yes, both of those.
Stop Breakin’ Down is credited to Robert Johnson on Exile, but credited to “John Lee Williams” on the Junior Wells LP.
Same song.
What’s the story there?
Before about 1950 a lot of old blues songs weren’t written in the sense that Cole Porter or Gershwin’s songs were written. They were made up and then passed round, borrowed, and/or pieced together from fragments of other songs. The canonical “author” later became the first one to commit a version of the song to shellac or whatever and put a name on it, or record the most famous version. Leadbelly probably didn’t “write” Gallows Pole any more than Martin Carthy wrote Scarborough fair.
This is why people who go on about Dylan being a plagiarist are missing the point. He is, at root, a country bluesman and therefore a kind of bricoleur of words, tunes, images. The art is partly in the assemblage, the curation – like Pop Art.
In other news, I’ve had a drink (hic!)
Noooooooo, put that bottle down, Moose…….Somewhere in Spain a light has just gone on in a monastic cell, deep in the mountains, and @archie-valparaiso has read your Dylan apology and is unleashing a mighty storm.
Mike Rutherford has used quite a few doublenecks over the years. A ‘cut and shut’ Rickenbacker was the first, with a 4001? bass and 360/12 (apologies for any wrong numbers). This was followed by a 6-string Microfrets bass + Rickenbacker, before he had the trademark Shergolds made. The latest one combines a Gibson 12-string and a Yamaha bass.
My air guitar is a Shergold doubleneck. . .
Ha Ha! That’s my first “laugh out loud” of the day. Thanks.
. . .with Moog Taurus bass pedals.
Mentioned it above…..
Did anyone have one of these things at Woodstock?
When was the earliest high-profile sighting?
http://i1060.photobucket.com/albums/t449/GCU_Grey_Area/ruther-dns_zpsgaceydlz.jpg
There may be others. L to R, T to B; Rickenbacker/Rickenbacker, Rickenbacker/Microfrets, Unknown 12 – Fender six-string bass? / ?, Shergold/Shergold, Status, Gibson/Yamaha
…this thread was prompted by my difficulty in finding a t-shirt with a picture of Charlie playing his Gibson, and finding waaaay too many with Page…
Not so much a First World problem as an Afterword World problem….
I was at the barbers and he wanted to know how much to trim off my ‘tache.
“Not much, I still want to be left with a Jim King”
Ha! Did you catch Roger and the guys on their recent two date tour Mooche?
Nay lad. Me Dad went and he said it was a bit too lumpen and heavy. No violins or vibes…. or funk (think of the fab intro to Part of the Load). Also, it ain’t Family without Charlie.
The fact that Chappo has existed this long without simply exploding is a marvel.
Charlie’s guitar
http://i.imgur.com/LSp5sOf.jpg
Original line-up of Family with Charlie and Ric Grech.
Drummer Rob Townsend now plays with The Manfreds
http://i.imgur.com/tHv3c4l.jpg
A later line-up of Family with Jim Cregan on a double neck bass/6
http://i.imgur.com/qOtJR4i.jpg
Chappo is saying “Oooohhh, get madam, look at the muck in ‘ere heart-face!”
…not
He’s not playing something daft there.
…..in picture 1.
But he most certainly is in picture 2.
I’m sure the answer is somewhere c. 1969, I’m guessing Vanilla Fudge or something at the Fillmore West, but when did the knobcheeseability actually start?
I NEED a date, peeps.
The top pic must be mid ’69 at the latest because of the presence of both Ric Grech and Jim King (far out on the right and, indeed, generally). Grech left to join nonce-rockers the Blind Faith.
Rob Townsend taught me how to play a drum roll when I was 9. Two different techniques.
True story.
I feel that need a little more explanation Moose
You get two sticks and a snare drum…. no, this is is too kinaesthetic for me to put into words.
I saw them in late 66/early 67 at Warwick University. I can date it because I went there in Sept 66 (and was forcibly ejected in July 67). Before the students’ union building was opened in early 67, gigs took place in the temporary refectory with no stage, so you could get right up close, and this is where I saw them. (Cream too.)
It must have been one of their first gigs under that name, because according to Wikipedia they ceased to be Farinas in Oct 66. They didn’t even release their first single as Family until September 67.
The above pic isn’t quite the original line-up, because Harry Ovenall didn’t hand over the tubs to Rob Townsend until Sept 67.
Have I ever told you about my time on the buses?
Good story Mike.
I saw Family in 1968/9 at Sheffield Uni.
The one memory I have is that Chapman abused his tambourine so much it came apart and he threw it into the crowd.
Leicester City fans must love this ‘best of’ LP
http://i.imgur.com/vGs24yL.jpg
The Chase is on it! Nice, slightly left-field choice.
A few years ago I gave a copy of this LP to my daughter’s then-boyfriend who is a mad Leicester City fan. Despite being from Leicester he’d never heard of Family.
Pleasingly, he loved the album and went on to buy more of their stuff.
What a lovely story.
Ha ha! Mes parents saw them at Burton Constable in ’68. Their appearance was heralded by an ominous “plunk plunk” noise as several metal hooks hit the stage – Chappo was tearing down the curtain by way of a bit of a rock’n’roll coup de theatre. He needn’t have bothered – the first blast of his voice sent the first five rows retreating a few steps back.
And what a voice it was. Quite unlike anything else we’d heard.
He was a strange character was Chappo. He didn’t dress the way most rock bands did at the time, preferring smart shirts, trousers and proper shoes to jeans and t-shirts. A prematurely receding hairline also meant he couldn’t compete with the likes of Robert Plant in the haircut stakes
When I saw him on the back of Family Entertainment I thought he looked like Shakespeare.
Back in Leicester The Farinas were very dapper in a retro sort of way – not unlike the 20s gangsters look adopted by the early Bonzos. That slight “straight”-ness maybe didn’t leave him.
Hence (according to the fan site) Kim Fowley’s suggestion (what was he doing in Leicester?) that they call themselves The Family, in reference to their Mafia-style double-breasted suits.
Genuine question – I saw a clip of a guy playing a double neck guitar – he was playing left hand of the bottom one and right hand of the top one and another guitarist standing close behind played the alternates. It was pretty amazing stuff. I would like to think it was Jimmy and Stevie Ray but can’t be sure and have looked for it without success so if anyone knows?
Yes it was Stevie Ray & Jimmy. It’s been posted here more than the once by me.
Found it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSjRggiSBrU