Can you ID this double neck?!

[cetera]

A friend of mine has inherited this fascinating instrument and he's trying to identify it.... and get a value on it...

 

I don't have any info except that he believes it to be late 60's/early 70's, the pickups say 'Baldwin' on them and the tuning heads say 'made in West Germany'. I believe they could be Schallers....

 

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Never seen anything like that, but it’s got a bit of Punisher thing going on at the bridge end of the body. Nice.

[BigRedX]

Probably something custom made.

 

Despite the Baldwin pick-ups the vibe of the rest of the hardware is mid-70s at the earliest. Especially the machine heads and mini-toggle switches.

 

Is there any information lurking under the control cavity covers?

[Bassassin]

I think the Schaller tuners (M4, by the looks) place it at 70s rather than 60s. The pickups are Baldwin, (Google tells me 60s Italian-made single coils with double rows of poles) with bits of the lettering looking deliberately removed to make them read 'ALDW'. Odd. Bridges look of similar vintage but not ringing any bells.

 

I'd hazard a guess it's early/mid 70s, and probably inspired by some of the oddities played by the likes of Squire & Rutherford at the time. Very likely a one off by a luthier or talented 'visionary' home builder! Proper prog bass, that is.

[BigRedX]

BTW the pickups are probably single coils despite having two sets of "pole-piece" screws with the coil between them. This is how they were on the Burns/Balwin 12-string I used to own.

[ambient]

Is it a bass/guitar or a 4/6 string bass?

 

If the former, then the scale length is surely very long for a guitar?

 

if the latter, then why?

[Grahambythesea]

A 4 & 6 Bass - definitely why? A bet the neck dive is humongous!

[BigRedX]

Could be A-A 30" baritone on the 6-string neck.

 

I think we need some more information like scale length and photos of the neck joints and whatever is under the control cavity cover.

 

If it is a 4 and 6 string bass the reason for both will be string spacing and therefore the playing technique each neck lends itself to.

[BigRedX]

Looking again it has got a bit of a Mosrite/Bigsby vibe, which is maybe where the notion of it being late 60s comes from.

 

Also has the control plate been broken at the top?

[Bassassin]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Also has the control plate been broken at the top?

 

You might be right - it does look like it should mirror the shape of the lower part.

[cetera]

Apparently it's a 4 string bass and a 6 string bass (maybe diff tunings?) - who knows why....?

[Bassassin]

9 hours ago, cetera said:

Apparently it's a 4 string bass and a 6 string bass (maybe diff tunings?) - who knows why....?

 The 4-string neck looks like it's a lined fretless.