The quest to identify unique instruments used by legendary session musicians often leads to fascinating discussions among guitar aficionados. A recent online conversation highlighted the intriguing possibility of Barney Kessel, a celebrated guitarist known for his studio work, wielding a custom Gibson 12-string guitar, potentially a “mandoguitar”—a hybrid instrument tuned like a guitar but with the octave string pairs characteristic of a 12-string mandolin.
This speculation arises from discussions around the instrumental intro of The Beach Boys’ hit song “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.” Session tapes suggest a layered sound possibly created by two 12-string electric guitars, one playing in a higher register and the other in a lower. However, another compelling theory posits that the higher register part might have been played on a mandoguitar, perhaps a custom Gibson, while the lower part was indeed a standard 12-string electric guitar. This combination would offer a distinctive sonic texture, blending the familiar chime of a 12-string guitar with the brighter, more focused tone reminiscent of a mandolin.
Adding another layer to this instrumental puzzle is the concept of “plectrum tuning,” popularized by the versatile session musician Tommy Tedesco. Tedesco reportedly used this approach to adapt to various stringed instruments, tuning them in a guitar-like fashion to facilitate reading standard guitar notation. This technique would have been incredibly useful for quickly adapting to instruments like mandolins or banjos in studio settings. It’s conceivable that a 12-string mandoguitar in Barney Kessel’s arsenal could have served a similar purpose, allowing him to produce mandolin-esque textures with guitar familiarity.
While concrete visual evidence of Barney Kessel playing a custom Gibson 12-string mandoguitar remains elusive, the audio clues from “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and the context of studio session versatility fuel the speculation. The lineup of guitarists on that session—Jerry Cole, Barney Kessel, and Bill Pitman—further underscores the high caliber of musicianship involved, making the use of specialized instruments like a custom Gibson 12-string guitar entirely plausible in the pursuit of innovative sounds. Whether a Gibson 12-string mandoguitar was indeed part of Barney Kessel’s studio toolkit remains a captivating mystery, inviting further investigation into the sonic innovations of golden-era session musicians.
