The Last Bass Outpost

As Rinus always says in interviews, he is very proud of his basses. The reason for building this beast was as follows. Rinus always liked to play a Danelectro, it has this special twangy sound, but certain song arrangements ask for a more neutral bass-sound like that of a Fender. Due to the fact that a Danelectro was a short scale, Rinus had to play with a pick and that's why he plays guitar-bass and not bass-guitar.


As Rinus states in interviews, he is very proud of his basses. Of the doubleneck's conception, he explains, "I've always missed the hard fat attack of a real Fender bass. I've always played my Danelectro because I liked the sound of it a lot. Due to the fact that my Danelectro was a short-scale, I had to play with a pick and that's why I play guitar-bass and not bass-guitar! "I came to the idea of combining both a Fender and a Danelectro in one guitar... The result of it is my double-neck. During that time I had made many drawings on paper and my dad was a very handy man!

The main thing and beginning of making the doubleneck is the fretboard: I needed a strong fat-sounding neck, and I came to a Fender '62 Precision bass. The neck of these guitars are very very strong, and the strings are very straight for a fat attack. I used the neck for my doubleneck. The next thing I needed was, of course, a good sound and some good pickups. One of the pickups I used were Danelectros - these pickups are very good in the high tones, but not so good in the low tones. For the low ones I picked an older Framus Nashville bass and used the pickup of it - Bill Lawrence." As shown in the photo, Rinus used the Bill Lawrence pickups both on the Fender and the Danelectro side. The Danelectro pickups (the small ones) are also on both sides.

"Making the body was the most complicated thing - a good body is very important for a good sound! Of course I am not a guitarbuilder, but with some close friends who are guitarbuilders and a very handy dad I had no problems making this guitar complete! From my friends I heard that I needed a hard but easy-to-manipulate fine-graining woodpiece. That was not an easy task, because I needed a huge piece, but I...found it. The shape I used was the same as the Danelectro's, but combining two guitars was a problem with balancing. As you may know the Danelectro basses are hollow; exactly the same thing I did with my doubleneck: the top bass" (Fender) "is completely solid but the second bass" (Danelectro) "is hollow. That's why I actually have an Electric and a Semi-Acoustic bass in one. The balance problem was gone, but I felt a certain wobbliness during the playing so I had pasted a heavy piece of wood underneath the second bass and it did the trick!"

 

Rinus plays the Doubleneck at electric concerts, as well as his fretless Darwin bass. The doubleneck is full of secret gadgets. In songs like Long Blond Animal / Radar Love / Sleepwalking he plays the second bass, and switches to the normal bass on top- a struggle, but Rinus built a switch in the body for an easy shift between the top and bottom basses. When playing the lower bass he uses Moog Taurus pedals to complete the bass sound, as sometimes the sound drops out in the switching. Another trick: he uses stereo cables with a splitter at the end, splitting the bass sound into two channels, the low and the high tones (Danelectro pickups and Bill Lawrence pickups.) Rinus never spent more then 500 EURO on his guitars.

It can only have been Steve Morse (and he is still with Purple, Tommy Bolin is in heaven and Ritchie Blackmore lives in the Renaissance period)... and you were not worthy, Jake!

less sociable - eye-sight impairing - adult recreational scenarios ...