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yuyaya
01-13-2013, 08:37 AM
The double neck guitar is one of the most legendary instruments in rock music. It seems to embody everything that modern rock music stands for in its physical body: it's strangely beautiful; it's too cool for the common; it's loud and proud even just to look at; it's ultra-modern elegance that seems antique; and, if it's not understood, it's probably scary.

What's the deal with a double neck guitar (http://www.doubleneckguitarsale.com/double-necked-guitar/), anyway? Is it just for show? Well, the showy part does appeal to guitar players and a lot of the people in the audiences they play to, but then again so does any electric guitar. Actually, the double neck guitar serves an important functional purpose: it enables the guitarist to effectively access more than one instrument at once. Although that instrument is always an electric guitar instrument, it's not the same electric guitar (no need for a double neck if that's the case, right?). The two (or sometimes, but rarely, more) necks of this instrument are not exactly the same; therefore, they are effectively different instruments that share a common body.

The necks give the player different sounds. For instance, one of the necks is often twelve-string while the other is a standard six-string. Or, the two necks may both be six-string but allow the musician to tune them differently for different parts of one song. A large combination of differences is possible with the different necks. They enable the guitar player to switch between different instruments, effectively, within one song, so that the feeling or sound of a studio version song that used overdubs doesn't need to be compromised (or at least not as drastically) when the guitar player is performing live.

Among the most famous and talented players of the double neck guitar are:
Jimmy Page
Joe Perry
Steve Vai (three necks on his custom built guitar, in fact)
Alex Lifeson
Steve Howe
John McLaughlin

One of the most celebrated and illustrative moments of the double neck guitar live onstage comes from the band Rush, for whom Alex Lifeson is the guitar player. For their epic, ten-plus minute song "Xanadu", this most legendary of hard rock power trios fits Alex with a double neck Gibson guitar. One of his necks is six-string while the other is a twelve-stinger. He has this instrument for this song to handle the huge melody and rhythm guitar parts of the studio version of the song, while he can play the solo and some of the arpeggios on the other neck.

But what makes this song special to see Rush perform live is the fact that vocalist/bassist/keyboard player Geddy Lee also plays a double neck bass guitar on the same song. He has one neck that is the bassist's while his other neck is an electric guitar. During the part of this epic song where Lifeson rips out his solo, Lee switches from the bass neck to playing rhythm guitar, while he fills in the bass parts with pedal synthesizers, to make the live performance sound more true to the studio version with its overdubs.
So, the double neck guitar is for serious musicians only. But yes, it does look impressive, too.
More info about the kind of guitar, pls visit: http://www.doubleneckguitarsale.com/double-necked-guitar/