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Did Jimmy Page help popularize the EDS 1275?

IMMUSICRULZ

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May 25, 2021
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As we all know, the original studio version of Stairway To Heaven was played on a Martin D28, a Fender Electric XII and a Fender Telecaster. However, all 3 guitars proved hard for Jimmy to play on the same track, so he eventually started using the Gibson EDS 1275 to cover the song in its entirety. He has made much of it fashionable ever since.

However, Jimmy was NOT the first to use the EDS 1275. His close friend Pete Townshend of The Who was the first to use the EDS 1275, using it on live versions of Substitute.
gibson_eds1275dneck.jpg
dneck-closeup.jpg
It was damaged in 1967, but subsequently repaired and used again. Some pictures from the Chinese Eyes and Face Dances sessions also show him with this EDS 1275.

Since Heart began their career affectionately covering Led Zeppelin, Roger Fisher decided to make his own EDS 1275 (using the body of a Gibson SG to do so.)
Another name linked to the EDS 1275 was Alex Lifeson of Rush, who has always played (and continues to play) the dn.
Robbie Robertson also owned a red Gibson double neck, but his was a mandolin-double neck guitar hybrid.
And despite being a double neck guitar (12 strings on one neck and 6 on the other) the EDS 1275 is NOT a 12 string. It is 18 strings. Hamer makes similar double necks played by Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. Ace Frehley, Steve Howe, Tom Morello, James Hetfield and John McLaughlin also played the 1275 and put it to good use. Mike Rutherford of Genesis also played lots of doublenecks.
Don Felder of the Eagles played an EDS 1275 for the song Hotel California, using the 6 string whilst feeding the watery 12-string through a Leslie Speaker. Slash uses an EDS 1275 on live performances of Guns N Roses, mostly on the covers of Knocking On Heavens Door and Only Women Bleed by Alice Cooper. Roger Hodgson of Supertramp used a Gibson EDS 1275 during the Breakfast In America, and Famous Last Words tours, as well on the classic Paris concert. Steve Miller was influenced by Page to pick up an EDS 1275, despite strictly playing Strats.
800px-Steve_Miller_in_1977.jpeg

Bob Welch of Fleetwood Mac used a black EDS-1275 during his tenure in Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974 as well as in Paris, alongside a white Gibson SG, a white Gibson Les Paul Custom and a Fender Stratocaster. Most of his guitars were given to Gruhn Guitars in Nashville in the early 2000s. big_welch9f-1-web.jpg

Lindsey Buckingham played one too, and whether this is the same black EDS 1275 that Bob Welch used is unclear. Someone on LPF claimed it was used on Say You Love Me, but I believe that song was played on either an Epiphone 12 string or a Rickenbacker 330/12 string, both of which Lindsey also played. He did use it on the Rumours tour in 1977, on the tracks Oh Daddy and Gold Dust Woman.
big_Lindsey_Buckingham_Guitar_Technique_Jan__2011_pg_39.jpeg
Eddie Van Halen had one in his collection too, but I don't think he ever used it on any Van Halen albums. Wolfgang acquired it after Eddie died.
Joe Perry also owns an EDS 1275, as well as an ES 335 with his wife Billie's face on it.
White seems to be the usual color for a Gibson EDS 1275. And the EDS 1275 is further proof that Gibson made some very sonically powerful guitars during the Norlin takeover. If I had more money and if the EDS 1275 didn't weigh so much, I would certainly snag it up! I don't think I've ever seen an EDS 1275 that DIDN'T have a rosewood fingerboard or WASN'T left handed.

But did Jimmy Page popularize the EDS 1275, or is that just my opinion? If so please let me know.
 
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fernieite

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Jan 3, 2010
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Cool, I never knew so many had used a double neck!

Didn't Elvis Presley have one too?

Btw, I think Stairway was done on the Harmony Sovereign H1260, not the D28.
 

IMMUSICRULZ

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Frankie Sullivan of Survivor also used an EDS 1275, as did Steve Clark of Def Leppard, who used the EDS 1275 (and a Les Paul) on the Hysteria tour in 87. Apparently Steve Clark was a Gibson player.
 

Ed Driscoll

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Page credited Chicago bluesman Earl Hooker for inspiring his use of a doubleneck: “Earl Hooker played the first one I saw. I always wanted one but you just couldn’t get them," so he asked Gibson to custom build an EDS-1275.

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In the jazz-rock fusion world, John McLaughlin was also blazing on his EDS-1275 contemporaneously with Page:

english-guitarist-john-mclaughlin-playing-a-gibson-eds1275-doubleneck-picture-id169001458
 

Ed Driscoll

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Apr 24, 2002
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4,691
As we all know, the original studio version of Stairway To Heaven was played on a Martin D28, a Fender Electric XII and a Fender Telecaster. However, all 3 guitars proved hard for Jimmy to play on the same track, so he eventually started using the Gibson EDS 1275 to cover the song in its entirety. He has made much of it fashionable ever since.

However, Jimmy was NOT the first to use the EDS 1275. His close friend Pete Townshend of The Who was the first to use the EDS 1275, using it on live versions of Substitute.
View attachment 16190
View attachment 16191
It was damaged in 1967, but subsequently repaired and used again. Some pictures from the Chinese Eyes and Face Dances sessions also show him with this EDS 1275.
The doubleneck Townshend posed with for the Chinese Eyes PR photos and the "Faces Dances Part Two" video is a different guitar, given that it lacks the wide V-shape of the two necks in the '60s doubleneck he briefly played, and is a different color. According to The Who Tabs.net, "This model of EDS-1275 dates between 1957 and 1961, one of 46 made, and features semi-hollow body with a a carved two-piece spruce top, maple sides, one-piece maple ply back, Florentine cutaways, one-piece mahogany necks with rosewood fingerboards; 20 frets, a 24¾″ scale, two PAF humbuckers for each neck, three three-position toggles."

ed01ee55dc9484baf76d861218286715.jpg


 
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IMMUSICRULZ

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May 25, 2021
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Considering Epiphone is also owned by Gibson, Epiphone also manufactures a similar guitar to the EDS 1275. I don't remember what it is called though.
 

Melodyman

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Aug 11, 2012
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Saw my first one on display at The Teenage Fair in LA 1965.. So there were out and about that early..
 

goldtop0

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Goodness gracious me Chad and Jeremy, and then there was Peter and Gordon .......oh man the '60s.
 

IMMUSICRULZ

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May 25, 2021
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Denny Laine of Wings and The Moody Blues used a Gibson EDS 1275, you can see it on the Wings Over America concert film. But he also played an Ibanez double neck guitar
my girlfriends dad actually knows Denny personally.
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Mike Starr, the original bass player for Alice In Chains, played a Rickenbacker 4080 double neck bass in mapleglo finish.

93C4A261-8C74-48DE-B0E9-971BD6222972.jpeg
 
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