The Double-Neck Guitar That Took 40 New Tools to Build

Long before "John Page Guitars" was the name on the headstock, John was already doing what he's always done: building an instrument around exactly what the player needed, no matter how unusual the request.

We recently dug up a 2013 interview John gave to Lollar Guitars for their "Better Know a Builder" series — not long after he'd left the Fender Custom Shop, where he'd spent years co-founding and running R&D, to start building under his own name. It's a good read on its own, and it's also a clear look at where a lot of what this shop still stands for got its start.

The build: a double-neck for one player in Norway

The story at the center of the interview is a custom double-neck John built for Norwegian artist Lars Haavard Haugen. The spec wasn't a stock configuration off anyone's shelf: a 6-in-line peghead and a 23-fret neck, built to the player's own hands and his own material — dealer Arne Hast connected John and Haugen, and the three worked together on pickup selection to land on the exact tones Haugen was after.

Here's the part that stuck with us: getting that spec right meant John had to design and build more than 40 new fixtures and tools, from scratch, to make one guitar. Not a run of guitars — one. That's the kind of investment that only makes sense if you're building the instrument around the player instead of asking the player to adapt to the instrument.

A philosophy built on patience

The interview also gets into how John thinks about time, and it's a theme that hasn't changed in the years since. Even in 2013, his builds ran a minimum of nine months, with customer wait times stretching to 15–18 months. His own words on why:

"My goal is to create instruments that will last for generations… that will sound as good as they play."

He talked about letting the wood move naturally through the build rather than forcing it on a schedule — "a dance between the builder and the woods," as he put it. It's a philosophy that treats the timeline as part of the craftsmanship, not an obstacle to it.

The interview also touches on the AJ model — named for John's son, Adam John — which debuted at NAMM 2012 and which John singled out as a personal favorite for its playability and tone. If that name sounds familiar, it's because the AJ is still part of the current lineup today.

Where that philosophy lives today

Most of John's clients back then, the interview notes, remembered him from his Fender days and specifically wanted a guitar with his name on it. That's still largely true now, though the shop looks a little different: John designs and prototypes each model, and master builder Chase Gullett hand-builds each guitar in the USA — the same patience-first approach, now with a team built to carry it forward.

If you want to see where it all started, the full 2013 interview is still up on Lollar's site — it's worth the read. And if you're curious what that philosophy looks like in a guitar you can actually hold, book a private appointment at our Austin showroom and come play one.