The Flying J
The Flying J
History
I've been kicking around the idea of making a double-neck for many years, since before I even started building guitars. But, I could never settle on which two guitars to marry.
Then one day I bought a looping pedal and the choice became clear: Four String bass and a 24 3/4 inch guitar.
Look! I I'm a one man band!
I've seen bass/six string doubles with the bass on top, but my thinking was that it's more natural to wear a bass lower than a guitar, and this way, your strumming arm drops right down into bass playing position.
Also, when looping, you usually just lay down a single bass line, and the rest is just piling up guitars. I like having the bass out of the way while I solo my brains out.
Construction
One of the big incentives to begin this piece was the acquisition of the beautiful Koa for the top, which was gifted to me from friend and luthier Eric "Fish" Johansen, who tells me it was salvaged from a very old piece of furniture, likely from the 1800s.
Book-matched, it was almost big enough, but I had to glue the waist cutaways onto the lower bouts to fully cover the shape.
I labored over the headstock shapes. It was obvious that I had to go with all in-line tuners, but I didn't look forward to the inevitable Backward F comparisons. More than usual, I tried to base them on the body shape, which is the first of my designs to have any points.
The Original
The Flying J has two output jacks. You can send both signals through one - into the same amp, or have the bass go to a bass amp, and the guitar go to another amp.
A 3-way toggle switch lets you play one, the other, or both instruments at the same time.
Accept No Substitutes!
As I mentioned, "The Joe Till Guitars Double-neck Bass and Guitar" is being illegally counterfeited and sold by an unknown entity. They do not have my permission and I am not being paid by them.
But, what's the saying? Any advertisement is good advertisement.