An Old Friend- Mandolin/Bouzouki Twin Neck.
I built this and 26 years later it came back for it's first ever service with the original owner. It has had a hard gigging life on the road and has many superficial (and worse!) marks but after a couple of hours at the workbench it was back playing as well (or better?) than when it was built. The body is made from 6 sections each separated by a strip of padauk. Each section has a mahogany base with a layer of Irish walnut with a maple veneer between. I calculate that there are 36 separate pieces of wood in the body plus the boxwood binding. The necks are mahogany with Irish walnut headstock veneers and Indian rosewood fingerboards. The pickups are single coils custom made by Kent Armstrong. Each neck has a three way toggle switch for pickup selection and there is another three way toggle for neck selection. When this is in the middle position you can play one neck and the other will ring in sympathy as they are tuned an octave apart - a bit like a sitar. Willy Kelly ordered this in 1984 and has remained a friend ever since. He has ordered a few instruments from me since then but nothing as exotic as this. How will it be (or me or Willy!) in another 26 years?
