Advantages of 2 necked guitar

[Adam Fulara]

What You think about tap-dedicated instrument from site:
http://www.michaelbianco.com/homepage.htm

What are advantages and disadvantages in Your opinion?
Only instrument - not music of Michael Bianco.....


Adam Fulara

[rockola]

That thing must be very heavy!

I'm not sure if there is an advantage in having two separate necks. At the very least you lose the possibility of playing on two sides of the instrument at once with one hand. This is one of the advantages of the "crossed hands" setup, though I'm not sure if very many people actually do this a lot.

I think twin-neck construction will also make the instrument more expensive. Of course, if that's what you need, then that's what you should get.

[Adam Fulara]

Hmm, sure, better if guitar will have two sets of strings at one neck. But is this construction cheaper? I don't know. For example, let guitar have 12 strings (not 2x7, let it be 2x6).

1. bridge - let it be 2xnormal 6 strings tunning - we neet something like 2 joined guitar bridges. Probably more expansive than two classical-fixed bridges.

2. pickups - we need special, verry wide pickup (12 strings). Normal 6 string pickup I buy for about 100 $ (for eg. Di Marzio), I have big choice of pickus.....

3. neck - I don't know if there is easier think to do two necks, or one wide neck..... Probably luthier who didn't built wide necks don't do this well...

This construction is probably heavy, yes, but how is stick weight???? Stick have also heavy-weight neck. 33 inches or more give a lot of wood in neck. For eg. this guitar has probably 25 inches neck. What You think about this?

If You use light wood for body it isn't as heavy as Jimmy Page two necked Gibson. More weight=better sustain.

In the future (two months) some luthier will make this guitar for me. I think about two necked, but if one neck will be cheaper I prefere one neck. Where You can buy special pickups and bridges for Warr and others??

[rockola]

Adam, my comment about a double neck being more expensive was more due to the fact that making such an instrument necessarily has more work phases. Of course, if you have a neck duplicator, like all the big guitar makers do, it might not be such an issue. I was thinking more from the point of view of an individual luthier.

Your comments about the hardware, however, are a bit off the mark. Sure, a custom 12-string bridge is expensive. But it's not the only approach. There are instruments using two ordinary guitar bridges even with just the one neck.

Concerning pickups, to my knowledge there are no instruments with a single pickup across 12 strings. All 12-string instrumens I've seen have separate pickups for the two sides of the fretboard.

I am pretty sure, though I must admit not having any first-hand knowledge, that two necks will have to be made heavier than a single neck.

More weight does not necessarily mean better sustain. You can try this for yourself: hang a bucket of water from your instrument and see if your sustain improves. I'd be willing to bet it does not. Construction tolerances, hardware, and yes, to a degree, wood density all contribute to sustain, but weight is not the only yardstick for that.

Also, I think the decision as to whether you get a twin-neck or single-neck instrument should have more to do with your style of playing than just the price of either approach.

[Adam Fulara]

I agree with You in most of cases.

bucket of water -Yes, but if You touch Your guitar for some heavy wood (for example carbot) and play in this position You'll probably get better sustain (this I think so, I tried some experiment without amp some years ago).

Hmm, if there's two pickups (in small distance) probably there will be some space between strings of left-hand section and strings from right-hand section. Or pickups will be not in one line (one will be close brige than other).


Thanks for Your post. I'll probably ask for more next month....

Adam Fulara

[Jersey Ray]

Adam,

one of our local tappers, Steve Hayden, uses a double neck Steinberger guitar. he has a vey nice sound. In the way that he approaches it, with his hands, it is a lot like the uncrossed hands approach used by Daniel Schell and the Warr Phalanx guitarists, like Jim Wright.

The advantage of 2 necks is that you have absolutely no crosstalk. The guitar strings will not bleed their signal into the bass pickups. The Phalanx has also eliminated this by having a wide neck, but 2 necks takes the groups even farther apart.

Also, it might be easier to get or modify a "stock" double neck instrument (Fender, Gibson, etc.) so there is no need for a custom luthier. Or you could even build your own with "stock" necks. This would be easier than building and fretting your own neck.

I should also oint out that the first dedicated specialty tapping instrument was made with 2 necks, by Dave Bunker (who has posted to this forum, hi Dave!). See Scotty's page www.touchguitar.com

Ray

[Jersey Ray]

Adam,

one of our local tappers, Steve Hayden, uses a double neck Steinberger guitar. he has a vey nice sound. In the way that he approaches it, with his hands, it is a lot like the uncrossed hands approach used by Daniel Schell and the Warr Phalanx guitarists, like Jim Wright.

The advantage of 2 necks is that you have absolutely no crosstalk. The guitar strings will not bleed their signal into the bass pickups. The Phalanx has also eliminated this by having a wide neck, but 2 necks takes the groups even farther apart.

Also, it might be easier to get or modify a "stock" double neck instrument (Fender, Gibson, etc.) so there is no need for a custom luthier. Or you could even build your own with "stock" necks. This would be easier than building and fretting your own neck.

I should also oint out that the first dedicated specialty tapping instrument was made with 2 necks, by Dave Bunker (who has posted to this forum, hi Dave!). See Scotty's page www.touchguitar.com

Ray