This is a video of Nashville-based musician and luthier Keith Medley playing “Ancestors” on his custom-made 27-string guitar:
Medley got the idea for a multi-neck guitar in the 70s, but later refined his idea after hearing Michael Hedges:
…the more I thought about it the more discouraged about it I became; I mean come on, you can only play one neck at a time. The idea faded; or so I thought. I found myself still tinkering with sketches of it when that picture of Michael Hedges found its way to my eyes. As soon as it did it was like I got smacked in the face; my heart started racing and immediately saw the direction the drawing needed to go in. I wanted to simply extend the strings placements on both sides of a regular guitar so as to continue the scale note patterns and keep some music in the air without dead spots musically (if that makes sense).
He finally began building the guitar in 2004. Medley has posted some photos of the guitar as it was being built.
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