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i’m not sure i’ve ever been in the same room with one, though there must have been one at CME or True Tone in Long Beach. given that i converted my acoustic 12 because i don’t play enough 12 to justify the cost of even the Squier it wouldn’t make sense so i’ve never really tried one. if i wanted a 30-pound guitar with two necks i’d prefer the one with the bass neck because it’s more useful for my stuff. having a bass neck on a guitar would be helpful for looping. however, if i wanted an electric 12 it wouldn’t be SG-shaped or have PAFs. one of Captain Beefheart’s guys played a 6/4 when i saw him in 1972, but i don’t recall if he ever actually played the bass neck.

The weight thing depends on the build really, the sg ones are in the heavy Les Paul / Yamaha sg2000 range… i play find a carvin 6/4 that was made in the 80s once… I think it was at bananas at large…that had to have been over 30 pounds.. it was comically heavy

that reminds me of the legendary granite Telecaster Roy Buchanan had built. IIRC it was about 55 pounds and he could only play it sitting down. the sustain was apparently remarkable, though. now i'm gonna have to look for an article about it.

all i can find is anecdotes. they place the weight as 60 pounds and note that Roy never recorded with it, though one source claims he brought it along to a session just to show people.

i don't know what it is about DC that makes Telecaster players with an ocean of chops and no material go insane and kill themselves.

I blame country music.
I remember that… it was written about in guitar player? I think it’s in their service and setup book they put out in the 90s… or it was referenced in the electric guitar building book by Marvin Hiscock..

Roy mentioned it in a Guitar Player interview, saying essentially what’s recounted here.

it wasn’t just him, either…Danny Gatton also had the same career arc. be blindingly brilliant in a niche genre but incapable of writing songs/music or singing them, and unable to function as second banana with a singer or group.

Sadly that describes an ton of guys that played in cover bands in the 70s,80s&early 90s.. or.. 99% of classical soloists…

true. it's just striking to me that Buchanan and Gatton had similar trajectories in the same relative geographic area. was there a huge market there for country-flavored guitar pyrotechnics, or what?

Buchanan and Gatton knew each other and were friends. Gatton candidly admitted to lifting some things from Buchanan and lifted more than he admitted.

i think that's probably true of most people who are, erm, heavily influenced by another player. i'm occasionally startled by what will pop out of the guitar after not being thought of for 30 or 40 years.