PSA: Jeff Healey’s personal Jackson Siamese Doubleneck (1988)!

[HamerCustomEr]

No affiliation.  Own a piece of history for $12,000 Canadian (worth about $9,600 USD).

https://www.12fret.com/instruments/jeff-healeys-jackson-siamese-doubleneck-black-1988/

You can see this exact guitar in action throughout this video:

and you can spot it in this one, too:

By the way, the 12th Fret in Toronto is THE place to buy guitars in Canada.

[DJL]

A giveaway , at that price .

I was lucky to see him on his first U.S. club tour , and a couple of times after that . A Beautiful player ..... gone too soon .

D.~

 

[Eli]

He remains a master who has not gotten his appropriate due.

[bambino68]

Great guitar. Cant tell if its been repaired or the headstock work was just cosmetic.

[kizanski]

I always liked how the headstocks are joined.
Were they all like that (assuming this is a not a one off) I know next-to-nothing about Jacksons, obviously.

[hamerhead]

1 hour ago, bambino68 said:

....Cant tell if its been repaired or the headstock work was just cosmetic.

He couldn't either.

 

C'mon - you knew it was coming.....

[Biz Prof]

14 minutes ago, kizanski said:

I always liked how the headstocks are joined.
Were they all like that (assuming this is a not a one off) I know next-to-nothing about Jacksons, obviously.

While there are not thousands of them out there, of those that I've seen, many Soloist doublenecks have siamesed headstocks. 

[ebradfordrich]

A hell of a lot more affordable than this other Healey double neck I came across recently:

https://reverb.com/item/40525468-jeff-healey-s-1991-fender-custom-shop-double-neck-larry-brooks?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=40525468

[HamerCustomEr]

4 minutes ago, ebradfordrich said:

A hell of a lot more affordable than this other Healey double neck I came across recently:

https://reverb.com/item/40525468-jeff-healey-s-1991-fender-custom-shop-double-neck-larry-brooks?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=40525468

Wow, you are right!  What a deal... comparatively.

[Ham Rex]

I sat at a table next to Jeff Healey at Albert's Hall in Toronto on Queen Street to catch Eddie "Guitar" Burns back in the early 80's.

I spoke to Jeff during a break and he was a super nice guy and so was Eddie.

Eddie autographed a playbill which I still have and spoke to me for a long time after the gig.

At the time Jeff own a bar in TO called Healey's.

What an awesome guitar.

M

[MCChris]

On 11/9/2021 at 8:18 PM, ebradfordrich said:

A hell of a lot more affordable than this other Healey double neck I came across recently:

https://reverb.com/item/40525468-jeff-healey-s-1991-fender-custom-shop-double-neck-larry-brooks?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=40525468

Rube builder should have gone with a reverse headstock on the 6-string neck. Stringing and tuning that thing can't be fun.

[kizanski]

10 minutes ago, MCChris said:

Stringing and tuning that thing can't be fun.

Especially without the gift of sight.  

[Steve Haynie]

Jeff Healey probably just changed strings without thinking much of it.  It was the cost of playing such a guitar.

[Jeff R]

On 11/9/2021 at 7:13 AM, bambino68 said:

Great guitar. Cant tell if its been repaired or the headstock work was just cosmetic.

That's probably a split of some sort. I've read that Jackson employees say the Siamese Soloists were particularly vulnerable to not only the typical LP-style headstock breaks from falling ... but also separations around the Siamese joint and headstock "ears" due to the necks under tension reacting independently and differently in changing temp and humidity environments. What I read said it was bad enough that approximately half of the Siamese Soloists that were started were never finished and scrapped at the factory because the heads would either separate during the build or as soon as they were strung up ... and that even when the heads were working together structurally, getting both necks' relief dialed in perfectly for Jackson-esque action and playability was often impossible due to the attached heads. And I'd suspect issues like that would only get worse 30 years later. 

[Travis]

3 minutes ago, Jeff R said:

That's probably a split of some sort. I've read that Jackson employees say the Siamese Soloists were particularly vulnerable to not only the typical LP-style headstock breaks from falling ... but also separations around the Siamese joint and headstock "ears" due to the necks under tension reacting independently and differently in changing temp and humidity environments. What I read said it was bad enough that approximately half of the Siamese Soloists that were started were never finished and scrapped at the factory because the heads would either separate during the build or as soon as they were strung up ... and that even when the heads were working together structurally, getting both necks' relief dialed in perfectly for Jackson-esque action and playability was often impossible due to the attached heads. And I'd suspect issues like that would only get worse 30 years later. 

THIS ^^^ 

It was a bad design from a structural standpoint given the nature of the wood in the necks to expand and contract under climate variations. Looks badass, for sure. But what seems like a good idea in theory doesn’t always work well in the real world. 

[HamerCustomEr]

SOLD!  You snooze, you blues!

[devrock]

Wow, I haven’t listened to Jeff in probably 30 years. What a phenomenal player he was, and, yes, gone wayyyyy too young. 

 

I did chuckle watching that video, as there’s a female b/g vocalist and a second guitar that are never shown.  As a player, I always find those little things in videos that drive my ADD crazy. Heh. 

Now, I need to go down the Jeff Healey rabbit hole….