Well... this is different

[BassToGoGo]

I'm curious whether this is something Carvin made, or if the bass neck was simply appropriated from a Carvin bass. The rest of the bass's hardware came from six-string guitars, including the bridge. And that strikes me as too hacky for Carvin to do.

I'm thinking that is an early Carvin neck mated to a LSD-inspired creation. I don't think Carvin ever produced anything with that dodgy a build quality.

Rick B.

I feel that this is 100% Carvin.

They did stuff like this in the early days.

 

[telecopy]

A nice three-tone sunburst and some tort would give it a facelift.​

 

[BarfanyShart]

You see, I play my bass CGDA, and my 8 string ukulele is tuned like a mandola two ocataves up from that - I could actually find a use for something like THIS.

 

[Wissen]

What a weird pairing! As a bass and mandolin player, I kind of dig it. But, man, that thing is bizarre. Even for me.

Ditto. My wife is gonna wish I'd never seen this. Same for our bass player.

 

[Gibson Victory]

I’ll pass. Was looking for the model that has the “Flux Capacitor”. Sorry

 

[bobyoung53]

I remember when Carvin used to advertise in the back of magazines, I don't think they ever advertised this though.

 

[JimmyM]

I'm just trying to understand a scenario where a musician would switch from bass to mandolin so quickly, they would need to be in the same guitar.

John Paul Jones did it

 

[littlebun]

Vintage Carvin Double-neck Bass/Mandolin -A Supersonic Sixties Space Race with George & Jane Jetson | Lazy Angels Music | Reverb

View attachment 3973846

Dig that pole piece action on the bass pickup--

 

[Bajo Clarkko]

First off, it’s pretty weird, and I kinda it.

That having been said, I’d remove the hardware and count the holes, to see if it could also be used as a Cribbage board.

 

[lowendrv]

John Paul Jones did it

While navigating the ocean .

 

[Mo cowbell]

Sad that it doesn’t have a spiral slicer.

 

[dkelley]

I'm just trying to understand a scenario where a musician would switch from bass to mandolin so quickly, they would need to be in the same guitar.

Ask John Paul Jones....

 

[dkelley]

I feel that this is 100% Carvin.

They did stuff like this in the early days.

No. No, they didn't. Look at the wood cutting behind the necks. Those are real fingerboards put onto home made wood necks and body.

And those bass pickups!?!?!??!

 

[Killing Floor]

Almost like it was gonna be a lefty and they got sidetracked (shrooms) and finished it righty.

 

[Diminishedfilth]

Can’t even imagine the horrible sound you’d hear if you set it down too harshly while it’s plugged in.

 

[rollie 55]

Vintage Carvin Double-neck Bass/Mandolin -A Supersonic Sixties Space Race with George & Jane Jetson | Lazy Angels Music | Reverb

View attachment 3973846

Cool

 

[Nev375]

We can't say a bass is "ugly" right? How about saying that they failed to take aesthetics seriously while designing it Is that fair?

With the knob layout I'm not even sure they took the function seriously.

 

[KohanMike]

Here's another shot.

 

[HaphAsSard]

I'm curious whether this is something Carvin made, or if the bass neck was simply appropriated from a Carvin bass. The rest of the bass's hardware came from six-string guitars, including the bridge. And that strikes me as too hacky for Carvin to do.

I'm thinking that is an early Carvin neck mated to a LSD-inspired creation. I don't think Carvin ever produced anything with that dodgy a build quality.

Rick B.

I feel that this is 100% Carvin.

They did stuff like this in the early days.

No. No, they didn't. Look at the wood cutting behind the necks. Those are real fingerboards put onto home made wood necks and body.

And those bass pickups!?!?!??!

I'm with @BassToGoGo. Carvin did totally, positively make stuff like the doubleneck in the OP:

^ Depicted on the cover of their 1959 catalogue, samples of their models #4-BS (bass/Spanish) and #1-MS (mandolin/Spanish); alternatively, they could be the #5-BS and #2-MS, with non-adjustable pickups.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

The control panel is at an odd location, the body shape is missing the violin-style corner,* and the lower bout is the less pronounced one that the BS had (as opposed to the MS), and so it may have been a prototype, but I'm actually thinking custom order in this case: a bass/mandolin doubler must have contacted Carvin about having a tailored instrument made, using parts that they offered anyway, albeit not in that exact configuration. Basically, Keisel ante litteram. Not surprisingly, at that!


* [Points 1 and 2 may be related: the customer may have decided they preferred having the controls up there, so the violin corner, normally out of arm's way when picking both sides on both "normal" models, would have possibly hurt when moving the hand to the controls. Or maybe (s)he just didn't like the corner.]


Speaking of Carving doublenecks: paging @RDB3, who used to own one, and is interested in vintage ultra-short-scale basses.
Ultra short scale bass round up
Yep: the bass side of the OP instrument has a scale length of 25.125".

 

[EddiePlaysBass]

I guess this is one of those "if you have it, you will find some use for it" kind of instruments.