“Stereo” was the buzzword in the recording industry in the 1950s, and the idea of splitting a sound into two separate channels caught the imagination of guitar makers, too, but this Vega 1200 Stereo model took it to a bizarre extreme.

Gibson’s stereo guitars simply separated the bridge pickup from the neck pickup so that each could be played through its own amplifier. Gretsch’s stereo system split the pickups so that treble strings were in one channel and bass strings in the other. Vega went the extra mile – or the extra ten miles – with the 1200, which featured 12 pickups (two for each and every string) and what appeared to be a woefully inadequate control system for so many pickups.

The 1200 Stereo proved to be a dubious high point in the history of Vega electric guitars, which quickly faded into the shadow of the company’s banjos. The brand continued to be known for banjos, under the ownership of Martin in the 1970s and most recently as a part of the Deering banjo company.