FRESNO SITS in the middle of California's San
Joaquin Valley, 141 miles from the ocean, a geographical
fact that would make it an unlikely birthplace for a surf band. Yet, if you think of the region's flat, arid terrain as a beach in search ofan ocean, perhaps it makes sense that a group like the Neptunes would flourish there.The Neptunes have been together in one form or another for about a decade, but the most unusual thing about the band is not that they play surf music so far from the actual surf; it's that the group's guitarists play double-neck guitars.
Tom Walzem, the band's leader, says the idea of
playing double-necks was born from necessity. "We
were playing as a cover band called Tropical Hot Dog
Night at a local brewery and would throw in the occasional
surftune," he explains. "It wasn't much fun playing
cover tunes, so we decided to go all surf music."
They changed their name to the Neptune Dance Band,
which they soon shortened to the Neptunes.
"We were a quartet back then, and our drummer
was a girl," Walzem continues. "Our bass player was in .
the band to hang out with the girl, but when she quit the
band, he did too. We got a new drummer, John Shafer,
and started to audition bass players, but no one worked
out at the time. Steve Carter, the other guitarist in the
band, and I both played bass. We used to have a bass
on stage and would take turns backing each other up,
which was a pain. One night, I was in bed, and the idea
ofgetting double-necks popped into my head, and the
rest is history."
Walzem ordered a double-neck Stratocaster body
from Warmoth Guitar Products and got the necks
and pickups from imported Fenders. "I walked into
the Guitar Center in San Francisco and asked for the
cheapest Mexican Strat they had in the store," he says. "I
also bought a Chinese Precision Bass." The total investment for the donors was $110 for the guitar, and $135 for the bass. The body was finished in Lake Placid blue. Walzem has since added a Wilkinson tremolo to the
guitar and upgraded the tuners. After meeting famed
pickup designer Seymour Duncan, who came to see a
gig, Walzem swapped out the Mexican pickups for a
set ofDuncan Vintage SSL-I pickups.
For his first double-neck, Steve Carter went a little
crazier. He took two Univox Hi-Fliers, which were
copies of Mosrite Ventures Models, to a local guitar
shop called Backline Repair. Backline cut the bodies in
halfand joined them with a piece of mahogany, which
was carved to match the old bodies. Although the "new"
guitar looked great, itjust didn't work out. "It was badly
out ofbalance and could only be played with the strap
attached to the headstock," Walzem says. "Also, the
short-scale bass lacked the tone for rockin' surf music.
It was retired from stage use, but has since become our
logo guitar." Carter then assembled a guitar from a
Warmoth body and donor parts, much like Walzem's,
which he had finished in surfgreen. Walzem feels that the best configuration is to have the bass neck in the top position. "If the guitar neck is on the top, the trem gets in the way when you play the bass neck," he says. "We found that ourwith the Mosrite copy. Also, it turns out the Strats are really well-balanced. The only thing that might make them better is to have a Tele headstock to cut down on the weight. These things are really heavy, and at the end of the night, my neck really hurts."

At first, the guitars had body-mounted switches
to toggle between the necks, but they soon changed
over to a floor-box switch. "Having [the switch] on the
guitar is just confusing when you're playing," Walzem
says. The guitars had stereo outputs so the bass and
guitar signals could be sent to different amps.
In 2000, this trio version ofthe Neptunes released
a CD on Spinout Records called People ifEarth, We
Are the Neptunes, which is out ofprint on disc but available
as adownload on iTunes. During the next few years,
the band's makeup changed as Carter left (he sold his
two double-necks to ,the drummer) and guitarist Jay
Van Horn and bassist Jon Crossen joined.
With new members came new double-necks.
"Now that we have a dedicated bass player, I don't need
to play bass during the set," Walzem says. "So I got a
reissue Danelectro with a regular guitar neck and baritone
guitar neck. I added a Kahler tremolo so I can still
do those surfdips."
Jay Van Horn is currently playing a Warmoth body
set up, like Walzem's, with a regular guitar neck and a
baritone guitar neck. "He has Fender noiseless pickups
in it," Walzem says. "He's also hot for a Jaguar double
bari-guitar. Those Jag tremolos don't drop down as
much as a Strat trem does, but they sound great."
As for amplifiers, Walzem says the band is adamant
about using Fender gear. "You really need Fender amps
to play surf music," he says. "For the guitars, they are
really the only amps that sound right. I have a 1964
Showman that I play through a Bandmaster 2X12 cabinet.
Jay has a 1965 Showman that he puts through a
Bassman 2XI2 cab. John is the one non-Fender player.
He plugs into an amp that was made in Mexico called a
Golden Gate. It's basically a copy ofa Fender Showman.
I don't know why, but it sounds so smooth and has the warmest tone. It's ugly and it's heavy and all the controls
are in Spanish, but boy, it has the tone."
Walzem says that the all-double-neck lineup has
helped generate buzz: "People really like the way they
look," he says. "We spend a lot of time talking about
them between sets and after shows. People remember
us because ofthe guitars, and in Fresno, we get asked to
playa lot ofprivate parties. We also play fairly regularly
in Santa Cruz, San Francisco and at the International
Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach. They have regular
concerts ofsurfmusic most every Sunday."
Tom Walzem claims he was inspired to build a
double-neck because it was practical, but after thinkingabout
it, he concedes there might be another reason.
"When I was a kid I used to watch surfmovies onTVon
Friday night," he recalls. "One movie that really sticks in
my mind was BikiniBeach, which had a character called
Potato Bugwho played a Danelectro double-neck. It was
cool how that movie blended drag racing, motorcycles
and surfculture into one script. And then there were the
babes in bikinis. You know, I'm not sure I ever got over
that movie." Maybe Tom Walzem and the Neptunes
have been auditioning for the remake ever since.
- MICHAEL JOHN SIMMONS
THE FRETBOARD JOURNAL

Left to right: Jon Crossen holds the "Mosrite" that was cobbled together from a Univox Hi-Flier bass and guitar; Tom Walzem with a recent-vintage Danelectro. the only factorystandard double-neck in the band; John Shafer holding a Lake Placid blue Warmoth body with Mexican Strat and P-Bass necks and hardware; and Jay Van Horn with a red double-neck guitar/baritone guitar made from Warmoth parts and Fender pickups. Photo by JENNIFER BECKER