Double necks!

[Big Kev]

My Stellah Double neck 4 string Bass / 6 string Guitar kit arrived today. I am pleased with the quality of the parts and am quite confident that it will go together well. I was expecting to upgrade some of the parts but they look solid (time will tell). I measured the pick up impedance as follows: bass soap bars 10K and 12K, Strat type double humbuckers 9.8K and 10K. Which seems a good enough reading, 500K pots and switches are fairly robust the Bass selector switch is a single pole neck /both /bridge arangement and the guitar switch is a 3 position strat type. I can see that these may need to be upgraded in time. Machine head / tuners are small single in line type I'll see how they perform. Bridges look OK are fender type non trem for guitar and Fender P Bass which is what I want I will change the Bass strings to Rotosound.
Before I do any assembly I aim to use several coats of Tru-oil on the neck and body which seems to be a simple andd effective way of protecting the wood finish. As seen on this Tru-oil luthier link [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxRndnPEDic"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxRndnPEDic[/url]
The headstocks come as blanks so I have marked out the scroll for Precission and Strat headstock and reckon my jigsaw skills are up to it, with some sanding. As for wiring I am going to wire bass and guitar with separate pick up selector volume & tone controls into a stereo jack out and stereo lead into ABY switch into whatever.

Kev

[Big Kev]

[attachment=125951:IMG-20121228-00021.jpg]


Cut Doubleneck P Bass and Strat type scrolls today with jigsaw, a little wood rasping and lots of sandpapering, finishing with P1000 wet and dry and fine grade 00000 steel wool almost to a polish, They look OK (note the christmas tablecloth in the picture). Tru oil arrived today still waiting for the pore filler to fill in grain before applying it. next job to steel wool the body to a fine finish.

Kev

[Bilbo]

I'm working on a double chin. Is that any good?

[irvined]

Hi Kev,

Wow you are keen! They look really good. I didn't think there was that much wood available for a Fender type.

I've marked mine out with an Ibanez type headstock.

I was going to do a bit tonight but my estate agent phoned saying our buyer wants to visit tomorrow so I've put that on hold and gone into cleaning and tidying mode!

I'm going to use Danish oil on mine, it worked great on my fretless conversion job. I think I'm going to varnish the front of the headstock so I can get some transfers made.

I think you will be finished well ahead of me as time is not on my side until I get this house move completed.

Best wishes,

Doug

[JohnFitzgerald]

[quote name='jonsmith' timestamp='1356564014' post='1911296']
That's not [b]the[/b] Comedy of Errors (as in Scottish prog band from the 80s) is it?

Here are my two doublenecks:

1975 4080 BG--------------------------1982 4080/12 MG


I used to have a Steinberger Spirit 4/6 and a rather unpleasant thing from somewhere around Korea, but both got nicked from the house we had in Ealing in 2010.

Unfortunately I don't play any prog now, but when I was doing the Rush tribute thing, they did get used.
[/quote]


One and the same Comedy Of Errors.
Now having a resurgence with a second album due out in the spring.

Have now done Summer's End with the band and have a couple of festivals booked for next spring too.

[Budgetneil]

I've got the Spirit double neck too. I'd wanted something along those line since seeing an old picture of Mike Rutherford with a stunning one-off headless Status double neck in the 80's. I saw mine in a shop in Manchester and instantly fell for it - the sheer madness of it if nothing else! The bass plays well and sound pretty good, the guitar plays well but the pickups are a bit weedy. Oh, and it weighs a ton.

[Big Kev]

Hi Doug
Yes I guess it comes over that I am a bit keen but I still have a few days before I return to work so I am trying to do as much of the woodwork and wood treatment as I can before I go back to work.

I have decided to replace the switches and have ordered short epiphone / les paul type for the bass and a 3 way strat type both are of slightly better quality from 'axesrus'. I just noticed that the stock bass soapbar pickups are wax potted which is cool. Not sure if the strat humbuckers are, if I am brave enough I might wax pot them I did it with a Jazz bass once and that was much better tighter sound, but is that what I want from a guitar, it might benefit from the loose harmonics? I will try as stock first.

Did a bit more tonight, fine steel wooled the body and necks for a finer finish still more wool finishing to do on the body. I have just sheild painted the pick up and control cavities which conduct rather well. I will use solder tag connectors and maybe braided sheilded wire to link the earth between P'up chambers.
I am also going to use 22 AWG wire for the pot wiring and solid 22 awg wire for the bridge earth as the stock wire looks a bit thin. Other changes are possibly orange drop capacitors ( which I think I have around somewhere) and possibly upgrade pots depending what I have in my bits box.

Good luck with your house move, this could be your first project in your new home.
Kev

[jonsmith]

To answer the OP, the easiest one of mine to play for any length of time was the Steinberger Spirit. It's the lightest one I've played (believe it or not Budgetneil) & it's probably the easiest one to find. I've had a noodle on a Shergold doubleneck and it was also easy to play, but I preferred the bass neck on my Rickenbackers (I'd probably be in a minority here). I think the Shergold configuration (guitar at the top) is probably preferable to the official Rickenbacker configuration (as opposed to Mike Rutherford's Rickenbacker cut'n'shut). It's not a big difference but having the guitar on the bottom on the 4080 makes some chords a little more difficult (especially some of the early Genesis stuff). The Rickenbacker 12 string neck is rather narrow too, which makes things trickier when you have fat sausage fingers like mine, but I'm sure a person with normal fingers wouldn't notice this. Despite all this, I still think the 4080s are great and I spent a long time hunting mine down (especially the 4080/12 as these are extremely rare). They were perfect for the Rush stuff and had a pretty authentic sound for the early Genesis stuff too.

To answer the other question I saw, 'do people need them?'. Well both in the Rush tribute and the prog tribute band I was in, there were parts of songs where a second guitar part was present and other parts of the same song where bass was required, so there was no time to change instruments. The bass pedals covered bass duties during my guitar moments, meaning I had to get pretty adept at tap dancing too. Have to say that after 90 minutes of solidly rehearsing Xanadu, I began to understand why Geddy Lee said he had no desire to ever use a doubleneck again. The weight really starts to get noticeable. I've no idea how Mike Rutherford managed to use his Shergold for whole concerts.

[quote name='JohnFitzgerald' timestamp='1356724260' post='1913008']
One and the same Comedy Of Errors.
Now having a resurgence with a second album due out in the spring.

Have now done Summer's End with the band and have a couple of festivals booked for next spring too.
[/quote]

I saw Comedy of Errors a couple of times in the 80s, once with IQ at The Heathery in Wishaw and then a very short set at an event in a park somewhere in Glasgow (can't remember where, but Love & Money also played that day). A few years ago, someone sent me a recording of the IQ gig in Wishaw & I asked if they had taped the CofE set as well, but they hadn't. I remembered enjoying it (and my girlfriend at the time very definitely preferring it to IQ's set). This old IQ recording made me look to see if any Comedy of Errors material had been released on CD (I'm sure there was something on vinyl in the mid 80s), but I couldn't even see a mention of the band on the internet at the time. This was obviously before Disobey came out. Does any of the material date back to the old days?

Nice to see the band back in existence and I will try to catch a show if you're ever down south.

[irvined]

Hi,

Managed to get the headstocks cut. A bit fiddly using a jig saw but don't have anything else. Going to need lots of sanding.

Got recordings to mix with our guitarist for the rest of the day.

Looks like there's a problem uploading pictures again, I'll try again from work tomorrow.

Cheers,

Doug

[JohnFitzgerald]

[quote name='jonsmith' timestamp='1356748831' post='1913285']
To answer the OP, the easiest one of mine to play for any length of time was the Steinberger Spirit. It's the lightest one I've played (believe it or not Budgetneil) & it's probably the easiest one to find. I've had a noodle on a Shergold doubleneck and it was also easy to play, but I preferred the bass neck on my Rickenbackers (I'd probably be in a minority here). I think the Shergold configuration (guitar at the top) is probably preferable to the official Rickenbacker configuration (as opposed to Mike Rutherford's Rickenbacker cut'n'shut). It's not a big difference but having the guitar on the bottom on the 4080 makes some chords a little more difficult (especially some of the early Genesis stuff). The Rickenbacker 12 string neck is rather narrow too, which makes things trickier when you have fat sausage fingers like mine, but I'm sure a person with normal fingers wouldn't notice this. Despite all this, I still think the 4080s are great and I spent a long time hunting mine down (especially the 4080/12 as these are extremely rare). They were perfect for the Rush stuff and had a pretty authentic sound for the early Genesis stuff too.

To answer the other question I saw, 'do people need them?'. Well both in the Rush tribute and the prog tribute band I was in, there were parts of songs where a second guitar part was present and other parts of the same song where bass was required, so there was no time to change instruments. The bass pedals covered bass duties during my guitar moments, meaning I had to get pretty adept at tap dancing too. Have to say that after 90 minutes of solidly rehearsing Xanadu, I began to understand why Geddy Lee said he had no desire to ever use a doubleneck again. The weight really starts to get noticeable. I've no idea how Mike Rutherford managed to use his Shergold for whole concerts.



I saw Comedy of Errors a couple of times in the 80s, once with IQ at The Heathery in Wishaw and then a very short set at an event in a park somewhere in Glasgow (can't remember where, but Love & Money also played that day). A few years ago, someone sent me a recording of the IQ gig in Wishaw & I asked if they had taped the CofE set as well, but they hadn't. I remembered enjoying it (and my girlfriend at the time very definitely preferring it to IQ's set). This old IQ recording made me look to see if any Comedy of Errors material had been released on CD (I'm sure there was something on vinyl in the mid 80s), but I couldn't even see a mention of the band on the internet at the time. This was obviously before Disobey came out. Does any of the material date back to the old days?

Nice to see the band back in existence and I will try to catch a show if you're ever down south.
[/quote]

Some of the material does indeed hark back to the old days. Some of it 'as was' and some of it with augmentation and modern interpretation.
I know all about The Heathery, a legendary venue back then.
The outdoors gig would have been Kelvingrove Park which had a bit of a heyday around that time for summer gigs.

Down outh gigs I know of so far are a support to Haze in Rotherham, which you'll find details of on the CRS website and also the Electric Garden Festival in Blackpool. Not sure of the dates for this one as yet.

Cheers

JF

[Big Kev]

Hi Doug
I think your Ibanez headstock profile is probably best as after I have put it all together as a first fix the strat scroll can get in the way a little when playing Bass I might modify the guitar headstock to a Telecaster shape cos its the lumpy bit that catches. Not a lot but enough to notice, probably something I will get used to. I have more or less completed the build except the electrics and here are some things to watch for. Both the nuts are to high I think they are plastic and need cutting down to fret hight or replacing. The truss rods definately need tweeking I found I had to tighten the bass one and loosen (unscrew) the guitar. Both bridges are pretty sound, machine heads / tuners good so far but I don' know what they will be like at gig speed. Strings are ok for cheap strings I broke the top E guitar string. The frets could probably benefit from a dressing with a stone or flat file, some of the fret ends need dressing as they are a bit sharp. I used Tru-oil on both body and necks which has turned out very well on the necks and OK on the body which is made of bass wood and is softish so maybe a paint and laquer job that you are going for will toughen it up. There are no string trees supplied and it seems OK without them as the head stock doesn't bend back too far. I founs that the upgraded switches are far better but the holes for the strat 3 way switch need redrilling and the bass (les paul type) switch needs some wood working to go all the way through so the retaining nut does up. Strap pins are a bit small for the bulk.
But I have managed to get it together and it plays, I have played worse sqier's which when properly set up played well so I am anticipating some more fettling to get this Frankenstein to sing well.

Kevin

[mbellishment]

[quote name='Wooks79' timestamp='1356465388' post='1910395']
I probably won't end up pulling the trigger on one, but keep being tempted by the idea
[/quote]
If this doesn't sell it to you, nothing will!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ8ml7eENuI[/media]

[Big Kev]

Woooh ambidexterity

[wombatboter]

A Belgian luthier build this one a couple of years ago and I play it every now and then..
Has a parametric eq system which gives you a lot of sounds..
Five string fretless and four string fretted..
Short clip without changing the sound, only the pick up balance

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQjTEaC5zTk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQjTEaC5zTk[/url]

[irvined]

Nice!

:-)

[irvined]

Just completed a draft schematic for my wiring. Output will go to a new stereo socket. New bass 3 way switch will be fitted together with the strat 3 way. All the pots are doubles so each one controls a bass and guitar at the same time. I could use stacked ones but at £20 each that's a bit too much at present.
Cheers,

Doug

[bassmayhem]

No bass, but all keys...

[tommorichards]

This just popped up on ebay. It looks awesome

[irvined]

Hi,

Just created a Photobucket account.Here's the cct diagram:

[simwells]

[quote name='tommorichards' timestamp='1357438175' post='1922760']
This just popped up on ebay. It looks awesome




[/quote]

That looks identical to mine other than mine's badged Arbiter but that's pretty normal for Matsumoko instruments.

[Wooks79]

Got a link to the auction?

[tommorichards]

Unfortunately its ended: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CMI-Twin-neck-1970s-6-and-bass-/181054082024?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2a27aa0be8

[Big Kev]

STELLAH Double Neck update Kev

Body and necks tru oiled and assembled I Changed the nuts and the guitar neck plate on the [i]'Stellah' [/i] bass and six string guitar doubleneck. I outed the two stock plastic nuts and replaced with a Bone nut for the bass and metal locking nut for guitar. Putting a solid metal neck plate on the guitar instead of the stock one which has a metal plate that sits on a plastic base has made heaps of improvement to the stability of the neck and the tuning the bass neck fitting seems OK as is. I also carefully stoned / fret dressed both bass and guitar frets which has made a world of difference. I have used Gibson vintage guitar strings and Rotosound flatwounds on the bass, the strings that came with the kit were cheap and stretchy. I have sheild painted all the cavities and linked them all with a daisy chain earth wire from the bridge to the output jack soldered to a screwed in tag in each pocket, they all check out with a meter from bridge to all earth points and jack. The original Machine heads and bridges seem to work well but I did tighten up the small screws on top of the pegs to firm them up. The necks are well made and well profiled.
On the whole this kit isn't at all bad but you will need to spend time to fettle and set it up with some TLC. For example the truss rods are not set at all and I found I had to make a fair amount of adjustment to them, You tube has been very helpful for this kind of stuff. I should finish fine tuning the bone nut profile next when the glue has dried overnight.
I hope to get it set up and playable before I fully wire it up yet as however I have changed both the bass (3 position epiphone toggle) and strat type switches to better quality switches. I think I am going to go with a 3 way switch and simple volume tone pot for each bass and guitar, going into a stereo jack to a footswitch that will give bass only, guitar only or both into either 1 or 2 mono outputs for single or two amps. I tried to upload some pictures from my phone but keep getting a no file selected for upload message .

Happy New Year Kev

[Big Kev]

Wish I'd seen the Matsumoko first it looks cool and I love the EBO / SG shape seems pefect for joining two together
Kev

[Big Kev]

[b][i]'Stellah' [/i]bass and six string guitar doubleneck update : 20-01-2012[/b]
[b]All done bar the wiring. This thing needs a lot of finishing, filed the sharp snags on the fret ends. Because of the mass of the double body the guitar neck pulls out of tune easily. The locking nut and fret dress have all helped and I have tried new neck plate and bigger wood screws which has helped, next step to fit neck bolt and insert upgrade kit [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Strat-Electric-Guitar-Neck-Bolt-Upgrade-Repair-Kit-Thin-Body-DIY-Sustain-Project-/290839224989?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item43b75e629d"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Strat-Electric-Guitar-Neck-Bolt-Upgrade-Repair-Kit-Thin-Body-DIY-Sustain-Project-/290839224989?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item43b75e629d[/url][/b]
[b]instead of wood screws. The bass neck is fine with the wood screws provided, no wobble at all. Fitted cavity covers after sanding down the edges to get them to fit. This kit is a mixture of finishes, both necks are well finished, the body is OK but need sanding further. But you get what you pay for, my pig is beginning to grow silk ears. I shall call her Blodwyn.[/b]