David Gilmour’s Double-Neck Custom Stratocaster

This guitar was assembled by David (or someone hired by him) around 1972 after he requested a custom guitar body from Dick Knight that would be able to fit two standard Stratocaster necks. David’s intention at the time was to enable himself to play both normal guitar and slide on the same instrument, so both necks on the guitar were six-string, and one just had a higher action.

These necks were taken from David’s old guitars. The bottom maple neck was the original 1969 neck from his Black Strat, and the top neck with the rosewood fretboard was taken off an early 60s Stratocaster.

David used this double-neck guitar very briefly because it proved to be more of a nuisance than a solution to a problem. By July 1972 he went back to playing his Black Strat, but when he removed the necks from the double-neck, he intentionally swapped them between the guitars they originated from. So, the Black Strat was now fitted with a rosewood neck, while the early 60s Strat has the Black Strat’s 1969 maple neck.