**How Jimmy Page’s Iconic Double-Neck Guitar Summoned Rock Immortality**
There are moments in rock history when image, innovation, and raw talent collide to create something truly immortal. One of those moments came when Jimmy Page stepped onto the stage wielding the now-legendary Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck guitar—a striking instrument that would become forever linked with Led Zeppelin’s magnum opus, “Stairway to Heaven.”
Though he wasn’t the first to use a double-neck, Page transformed it into something mythical. With its custom configuration—six strings on one neck and twelve on the other—the EDS-1275 was built by Gibson at Page’s request after he discovered the model had been discontinued. Page needed a solution to perform “Stairway to Heaven” live without switching guitars mid-song or bringing in another guitarist. The double-neck became that solution—and an icon was born.
The EDS-1275 allowed him to begin the song’s delicate intro on the 12-string neck, switch seamlessly to the 6-string for the soaring solo, and return to the 12 for the majestic finale. It wasn’t just functional—it was visual poetry. The silhouette of Page standing beneath a single spotlight, draped in a dragon-embroidered kimono, coaxing ethereal tones from this beast of a guitar, became etched in the collective memory of a generation.
Page never used the EDS-1275 in the studio, but live, it became inseparable from “Stairway” and his onstage persona. It symbolized his refusal to compromise artistry for convenience—a rare blend of perfectionism and showmanship.
And like Led Zeppelin itself, the double-neck seemed to exist in a realm just outside the ordinary. As Jack Black joked during their Kennedy Center tribute, “Of course they sold their soul to Satan; there’s no other explanation.” Whether or not that’s true, one thing is: Jimmy Page, with that guitar, didn’t just play music—he conjur
ed legend.
