Expert: Skeeter - 3/27/2008

Question
QUESTION: In the closing scene of the Last Waltz The Band is playing a kind of old-time carnival music.  What is the instrument played by Robbie Robertson during this scene?  It has two parts, one neck is a regular guitar and the other is a much larger neck with 10 strings.  Thanks.

ANSWER:   I have never seen the movie so I can't say for certain BUT  being as I am a guitarist, I know quite about about stringed instruments.
  There are only two possibilities, one that it is a double neck guitar and the other neck is either a different instrument style or just another guitar neck.  These are simple called double neck guitars.  
  Normally the second neck has 12 strings or is a bass with 4 strings,  I can't say I have seen one that is ten strings.
  In these kinds of guitars the necks  and strings all run parallel to each other.

  The other possibility is that it could be what I know as a DRONE guitar.   They may have other names but that is what I have heard them called.
  They are  normally acoustic guitars with one neck at an angle to the other,  and the strings from the second neck cross over top of the strings from the primary neck.   
 When the guitar is played and the chords and notes are changed on the primary neck the secondary necks strings sound out sympathetically to the main strings,  or "drone".   

 If you can send more of a description to me I might be able to give you more info, but I am certain it has to be one of these.  

 And, the fact that you say one neck has ten strings makes me tend to think it is a special made one of a kind instrument and not common.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your response.  Would you believe after several days of waiting to ask this question and shortly after submitting it, I met someone who knew exactly what I was talking about?  The instrument in question is a "Gibson Harp Guitar Style U" circa 1900-1920.  Your description of a Drone guitar matches this.  It's a beautiful instrument and I would urge anyone reading this to look up images of it on the net.

Answer
 Thanks for telling me this.   
 I think perhaps that guitar and the drone guitars are a little different in that the drones have the harp strings going at an angle over top of the other strings but I suspect the effect is similar if not the same.
 I had no idea that Gibson ever made such an animal,  I always assumed them to be something made overseas.  
  I have heard the expression  "harp guitar"  years ago and had forgotten about it,  and don't remember that I ever associated it with drones.