Jaydee Twin Neck - Reunited with it's owner 28 odd years later!!!!

[FlatEric]

Hi to all you Outposters. 

I still pop in and out to see what you are all up to.

I have posted this on a couple of other forums and intended to put it up on here
but time has run away with me.

This is the beast - Made in 1978, by John Diggins, in Birmingham - that's England,
not Alabama - just in case you were wondering!!







The original owner was Richard "Fez" Ferriday and the band was "Cryer"





Ahhhh, Seventies Rock and all it's excesses!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't you just love it???

It is a heartwarming tale of a bass created, gigged hard and then given up.
Since then, it has travelled around the country and was in Scotland when I acquired it.
I have had it for about three years and have even put up pics on here before but
the main reason for the blog entry and the post on here is to tell you the story of
how it came full circle.
When Richard opened the case and saw it again, it was like time stood still for
a few moments, it was me who took it out of the case and carried out the
"Handing over Ceremony" - his face lit up, he went straight to the "Eight" and
the smile got wider. 

I am going to see him on Friday, at the gig and check out that I have got this right.
When we met, he talked about the reunion gigs and his Thunderbird, which if
I heard him correctly, used to belong to Gezzer Butler.
Richard had a Ric that Geezer fancied and Richard was quite take with Geezer's
Thunderbird, so a swap was done. Magic, eh??
I will check and let you know.

The story so far - more details and more pics:
http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2011/11/jaydee-gemini-twin-neck-bass.html

I hope you enjoy it.

All the best.

Cheers.

[hieronymous]

Wow, very cool! Is the 8-string 30" scale? Did you sell it back to him or just loan it? I've been contacted a couple of times by previous owners of instruments that I currently own, but this story is really special, especially with the reunion gig!

[Dave W]

Eric, you always come up with such interesting stuff.

That bass is like a time capsule from the 70s.

[mc2NY]

Cool doubleneck. At first glance, I almost thought it had boomerang inlays, like my Hamer 8/4 dblnk.

I wonder if the JD inspired the boomers, which Hamer didn't begin until the late 80s?

[godofthunder]

  That's a awesome bass and a great story! John Diggens does some fantastic work and I am soooooooooooooooo lucky to have one of his bases!

[gearHed289]

For when you absolutely, positively HAVE to switch to an 8 string in the middle of a song... 

[dadagoboi]

For when you absolutely, positively HAVE to switch to an 8 string in the middle of a song... 

Or need to justify that double hernia.

[hieronymous]

Any updates? I really love this bass - one of my fantasy basses would have an 8-string as one of the necks, maybe a 6-string (a la Bass VI) for the other one?   

But I don't see myself ever getting another doubleneck - I dug up this picture of my 1975 Alembic:



The picture came from John Judge, who had a doubleneck built by Alembic after the one I am now the caretaker of - his had a fretted 8-string and a fretless with a whole fantasy scene (complete with dragon, undead skeleton soldiers and naked lady chained to a post if I remember correctly) inlaid in the neck. When he was having it built, they sent him the picture I scanned to show what they had done in the past. He recalls them telling him that mine was the first one that Alembic made.

[FlatEric]

Update, as requested.

A brilliant night, one I shall never forget.

Some of the pics we took.

I will be putting up more details of the night, Cryer and the support - Quartz, on my blog
during the next few days.















Cheers.

[Chris P.]

It looks even better in horizontal position!

[Dave W]

Looks like a good night. If that bass could talk...

[gearHed289]

Cool. Looks great in action!