The Beast, a mammoth six-neck guitar, goes up for sale

A mythical, Gary Hutchins-designed monster six-neck electric guitar – appropriately dubbed The Beast –  has been let loose, and is now up for sale at UK-based guitar auction house Gardiner Houlgate.

Originally inspired by the five-neck model wielded by Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, The Beast was designed to go 'one louder' with a whopping six necks.

“It’s not something that will be appearing around someone’s neck at Wembley anytime soon,” builder Gary Hutchins told Guitarist back in 2008 when the model was first created. “I originally built it more as a talking piece than anything else.”

Despite describing The Beast as “the guitar that should never have been made”, Hutchins’ creation has been seen on stages around the world, and has been in the hands of comedy royalty Bill Bailey and real-life Royal Prince Charles.

More recently, it appeared at the Victoria & Albert Museum, as well as the Museum of Comedy in London, where it has been dwelling these past few years.

Image 1 of 2

Where to begin with specs? Well, going from top to bottom, the six-neck guitar is composed of a twelve-string, six-string with tremolo, five-string bass, four-string bass, seven-string with tremolo and a six-string hardtail guitar.

Flashing a Metallic Red finish, the monster model is made from one single solid body measuring over three feet wide, with each bolt-on neck sporting a rosewood fretboard. The total weight of the guitar is around 17kg – so a seriously heavy-duty guitar strap will be in order.

Two three-way toggle switches are in charge of selecting the desired model, with an additional pair of three-way switches working alongside two master volume and master tone controls to navigate the plethora of pickups.

As of now, only one bid has been placed on The Beast, which currently carries a starting bid of £1,500 (approximately $2,080).

Head over to The Beast’s listing page at Gardiner Houlgate for more info and to bid on the unique piece of guitar gear.

The same auction is set to play host to Prince's “Diamonds and Pearls” Fender Gemini II acoustic, estimated to sell for upwards of $100,000.