Luca Stricagnoli sent the guitar scene spiraling when he introduced the world to his latest invention – a triple-necked guitar – and went viral showing off his behemoth instrument with a cover of “Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz. The whole situation is making Jimmy Page’s iconic double-neck guitar look like child’s play as Luca multitasks playing melodies, chords, bass lines, and percussion all on one single instrument. And the story behind this guitar’s creation is just as astonishing.
Amassing more than 3.7 million views to date, Music Man readers can check out Luca’s mind-boggling triple-neck performance in the video below…
A completely instrumental cover, Luca translates Gorillaz lyrics into guitar melodies, backed by chords on a separate neck and finally a three-stringed bass line, which is played on the lowest neck of the instrument. Against all odds, he’s able to tap into the original mood of Gorillaz’s Top 10 hit while expressing brand new flavours hidden in its midst.
Luca first picked up his guitar at the age of 10 and attended the “most prestigious music school in Italy,” the Conservatory as a classical guitarist. But it didn’t take long for Luca’s experimentalist nature to shine through, the guitarist soon falling in love with fingerstyle guitar techniques and crafting his own unique style, which included “utilizing violin bows, multiple guitars at once, modified capos and unusual tunings.”
After releasing his debut eponymous album in 2015, it was Luca’s second album, “What If?” that turned the guitar world on its head as he debuted his latest invention: the triple-necked guitar, a.k.a. the ‘reverse’ triple-necked guitar.
But how did it come about? It all stemmed from Luca’s casual hobby of playing up to five guitars at once, and his dreams of a guitar which could be played by two hands independently. As Luca explains, “When you play one guitar, the left hand selects the notes and the right hand picks the strings – the two hands influence each other, they are dependent on one another. My goal was to separate the tasks of the hands to make them independent.”
Luca brought his idea to a luthier friend and the triple neck guitar was born. So, how does it work? We’ll let the folks over at New Atlas reveal Luca’s secrets: “The first neck has six strings and is used for melody creation using the left hand. The middle neck integrates the soprano guitar, and the third neck rocks three bass strings that go against the usual flow – in that the lower notes sit at the right and the higher notes fly up to the left (which is the opposite of a traditional right-handed setup). This means that sounding a bass line and bashing out some percussion won’t be too much of a stretch for the player.”
This “Clint Eastwood” cover isn’t the only triple-neck guitar performance Luca has posted online, by the way. His covers of “The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem (which you can check out above), “With Or Without You” by U2 and “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson have all passed the million-view milestone on YouTube, while his triple neck Muse and Foster The People covers have topped half a million views to date.
Luca Stricagnoli is unquestionably one to watch — his viral triple-neck rendition of Gorillaz’s “Clint Eastwood” reshapes what a solo guitarist can do. If you’re intrigued by the instrument, the performance or the story behind it, check the useful links below to discover more and watch the jaw‑dropping video.