Uwe! Gibson 20/20

[uwe]

I find a combination of fretlless bass and fretted one appealing and sensible in principle. My dream custom shop build would be a double neck SG bass with a long scale fretless neck and a short scale fretted neck with octaved D and G strings (short scale D and G strings would retain some flexibility even if paired with a tension-raising octave string). I would then feel sufficiently equipped for most situations a bassist can encounter!

[Highlander]

Wot...! and make all those other beauties redundant...? 

sounds nice... sort of suprised that you haven't got a double gibson already... I have a BJH pic of that style, but bass/guitar, if you want to see what I mean...

[uwe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLUkModihMw&feature=related

[Grog]

Jules...........Did you ever get the red 20/20 in one piece? Are you digging it? I bought mine to pair off with a 1985 Gibson Futura, a neck through the body guitar similar to the Corvus. Both the 20/20 & the Futura/Corvus should have been headless guitars, Gibson marketing people got involved & the outcome was two of the most confusing models Gibson produced. The Corvus at least made it on Guitar Hero, maybe the 20/20 is next..........................

[Highlander]

Uwe... missed your reply - that's the one...

[uwe]

You saw him a lot with that in the seventies. For some reason, BJH were huge in Germany from the midseventies onwards to the early eighties. They had radio hits, huge sales, sold out mega-concerts, all in a country where The Moody Blues couldn't get arrested. The "hairy one" of BJH was a common sight with his double-neck during that time.

[Highlander]

Still surprised that you haven't got one, or are they "rocking-horse-droppings"; the other option is that you consider them "hybrids" ie beyond your remit...

[Dave W]

If Uwe got a doubleneck it would have to be a short scale bass/long scale bass (a la Rinus Gerritsen) or a fretted/fretless.

He would panic if one neck was a guitar.

[EvilLordJuju]

Jules...........Did you ever get the red 20/20 in one piece?

Yeah, just yesterday in fact. Post seems pretty slow just now...

The strings are pretty grimey and the battery is dead.. i'll give it a clean up and then get some photos

[uwe]

I'm just a crap guitarist, especially lead guitarist, that's all. I can do alright on a 12 string though, so a bass/12 string guitar could be an option. But I've never seen an SG doubleneck that was not either a bass/six string guitar or a six-string guitar/12 string guitar combo. I don't think that - unlike Ric -they had a bass/12 string combo in their repertoire at all, not even the BJH guy, Les Holroyd, played one and it would have been perfect for his uses as he only played chords on his doubleneck guitar.

[Dave W]

I never heard of Barclay James Harvest before this thread.

[Grog]

What was Gibson thinking putting the bass on top of the EBS-1250 & EBSF 1250?

[OldManC]

But I've never seen an SG doubleneck that was not either a bass/six string guitar or a six-string guitar/12 string guitar combo. I don't think that - unlike Ric -they had a bass/12 string combo in their repertoire at all, not even the BJH guy, Les Holroyd, played one and it would have been perfect for his uses as he only played chords on his doubleneck guitar.

Uwe, one thing this forum has shown us is that just because Gibson never made it, that doesn't mean you can't get it made... I don't know if your luthier does builds, but I'll bet you could find someone who could build you a perfect clone (of a bass that never existed).

[Highlander]

... But it just would not be a Gibson, George...

It's like Shadowcastz' Moderne... she looks like she should exist, we all know she exists, but she was born somewhere other than the hallowed halls...

Anyway, Uwe, you could always have the guitar neck removed and... no... still not original concept...

[Dave W]

Gibson's custom shop would make it, Uwe understandably wouldn't want to pay their price for something he'd rarely play.