tomteriffic Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 Methinks that Rev. Stikeleather had a hand in this.
cmatthes Posted January 21, 2012 Author Posted January 21, 2012 The LONG version of the story on this one actually goes back a few years, but since one of my 2011 resolutions was to finish a number of projects I had going, I actually made good on a few of those. Like many of us, I usually scan eBay for the bargains, sometimes late at night, and sometimes, after I've had a few. This has nearly all Hamer parts except for the body, pickguard and a switch. A couple years ago, I was bidding on a Daytona body that a guy in TN was selling. I asked him if he had any of the other parts, and he said he did, somewhere, but wasn't sure what remained. The body ended up going for a silly price, but a few weeks later, the seller emailed me saying he found a box with the original parts and the neck, and he really just needed to clear $75 on the deal. Pickups, knobs, neck, pots, etc. - pretty good deal. At the time, I had a spare '94 Maple Daytona neck lying around, and wasn't even sure if this incoming neck would turn out to be rosewood or another maple board. A few weeks later, also a late night eBay incident, I mistakenly typed in "Dubleneck" as a search term instead of "Doubleneck". Thankfully, the typo/bad spelling gods were smiling on me, and I scored an incredible 3.34 lb (!!!) solid 2pc White Korina Musikraft body for an opening bid that was less than 25% of what the seller had paid to have it custom made less than a year before (less than 1/2 the HFC-approved price). The body was a great find, flawlessly made, and just incredibly resonant. I happened to luck into a trade with Serial that got me an original (and very rare, apparently?) Daytona hardtail Wilkinson bridge. At that point, the wheels started turning, and I realized I had most of the parts to make an evil twin Daytona, but wasn't crazy about the whole "zebra" neck concept. I ended up shelving the project for a while, and actually sold the Maple Daytona neck. Geoff/Zenmidbeginner came to the rescue with a Rosewood boarded Daytona neck that he had outbid me on from some guy in WV earlier. We struck a deal, and the day before that arrived, I snagged a set of new condition PhatCats that some Gear Pager had yanked out of his '00 Newport the day he brought it home. I took the whole deal up to the incredible Mike Forrester at Forrester Kustoms (just north of Baltimore), and he did some detail routing to match one of my Daytona bodies (recessed backplate, contour, control routing, PhatCat routes, string through for the hardtail and he got the neck pockets to fit the Hamer necks like they were made for each other). My funds were going towards getting another favorite guitar refinned by Stike (an old Jazzmaster), so I boxed this one up yet again for a while. My wife/kids surprised me for my birthday last year by sending it out to Marty Bell for an Ice Blue Metalflake finish. A few other things ended up taking priority over finishing this one (including yet another ROWYCO "project"!), but I finally got it back to Mike Forrester ("Bluzboy66", here on the HFC), and we worked out how to best attack the wiring/controls. He turned that around quickly, and I picked it up yesterday afternoon, took it home, drilled for the Dunlops and strung it up. I'm sure the whole idea is kind of goofy to some people, but the guitar is amazingly lightweight (weighs less than a lot of single Daytonas I've played), it plays great on both necks, and I'm really digging the whole PhatCats/Korina/hardtail sound - very "Live At Leeds"-ish, if that makes any sense. The stock Daytona Duncans give me all the Strat stuff I need, and the bridge rail sounds like a beefy mini-bucker. The switching between the necks is done by an "On/Off/"On" Fender Mustang slider switch between the two necks, since I didn't want a high-profile toggle added anywhere in the playing area, and that blends in with the guard pretty well. I've had a Gibson 1275 before, and never had any use for an "On/On/On", so liked the kill position idea on this guitar. I also never use the dual tone controls on any Strat/Strat-style guitars I've owned, so Mike wired up a master vol/master tone, and we went with the more logical/familiar Gibson-style toggle as the pickup selector for the top neck, and kept the logical/familiar 5-way blade for the bottom neck. The bladebucker in the bridge was just because I've never met a Strat bridge pickup I could stand. The last thing is the swapping out of the 2lbs of metal from the stock Sperzel tuner buttons for the Pearloid plastic buttons, which I've done on all of my Daytonas/Duotones. A little touch that goes a long way. At any rate, the options are fun - standard tuning on one neck, the other tuned for slide. Drop-D, tuning down 1/2 step, any other crazy open tunings I want to mess with, and .440 on the other neck. Not something everybody will like, I'm sure, but I feel good about "saving" two basketcase Daytonas and putting them together into something really cool and unique. Special thanks to Serial, Zenmindbeginner, HHB, Bluzboy66, and lousy spellers on eBay for their contributions to this masterpiece. Stay tuned for what happens to the $85 USA Daytona project I snagged last fall. Coming soon...
veatch Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 Too cool for words - great concept, and well done!
Stike Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 But wait ya'll, he has ANOTHER "dubleneck" in process! So when are the korina fetishists going to start going apeshit because that body got an opaque finish?
cmatthes Posted January 21, 2012 Author Posted January 21, 2012 But wait ya'll, he has ANOTHER "dubleneck" in process! So when are the korina fetishists going to start going apeshit because that body got an opaque finish? You knew I was waiting for that!
dgstandard Posted January 22, 2012 Posted January 22, 2012 WOW. What a wicked idea that turned out amazing!!
bubs_42 Posted January 22, 2012 Posted January 22, 2012 Looks Awsome! I can't wait to get started on my project.
BTMN Posted January 23, 2012 Posted January 23, 2012 But wait ya'll, he has ANOTHER "dubleneck" in process! So when are the korina fetishists going to start going apeshit because that body got an opaque finish? You knew I was waiting for that! I SOOOOOO wanted to say something, but it looks fantastic as it is. Fun looking ride.
gorch Posted January 23, 2012 Posted January 23, 2012 That's so freaking cool! The story compares to the story of my avatar pic. Really nice idea and well done, Sir!
zenmindbeginner Posted February 2, 2012 Posted February 2, 2012 EPIC build! WOW! It came out so awesomely. Which neck was the one you got from me? The top one? Did Hamer even make any doubleneck Daytonas through custom orders? I'm blown away.
cmatthes Posted February 3, 2012 Author Posted February 3, 2012 Geoff:The top neck is the one I got from you. Pretty sure Hamer never made any double Daytonas - that sort of sick idea is probably limited to my warped mind...
cmatthes Posted February 3, 2012 Author Posted February 3, 2012 It's got a '96 Serial Number.And a '96 Serial Number.
gorch Posted February 3, 2012 Posted February 3, 2012 It's got a '96 Serial Number.And a '96 Serial Number.That's sort of boring. I thought there is more tension in it. It's not 2 consecutive numbers, is it?
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