Yeah crowd won't care where it is played. They look so cool! My one band does Lay It on the Line - Triumph and it really needs the upper register to sound right, to me. I used to play it on a 6 string instead of that awesome 12 string intro cause it was just too painful. As an example. I just hated that fat neck joint and limited access. Can't even really hit to fret 20 very well on the Epi. 17 is pushing it comfortably. The Rich Bich is a bit extreme! Yours may have a slightly different feel.
Mine has huge, baseball bat necks, but uses the standard Gibson EDS-1275 heel, which has a very pronounced 'step' at the heel. However, i dont 'notice' it when playing.
Good point on a song sounding "right." For uears, we did Hotel California in Am for the vocalist. In the new nand, we switched to the original key of Bm and the song sounds "more right" in that key.
Love Song by Tesla, Hotel California and Stairway are my favorite 12 string songs, but interestingly, our #3 guitarist plays the intro to Hotel California on a 1970 Gibson Les Paul P90, using flanger and heavy chorus, then i step in with the single strong phrasing in the 5th measure of the intro, which makes the audience cheer for some reason.
(Note my double neck has two outputs, so you need two amps to switch between 6 and 12)
Our #2 guitar mirrors #1 guitar's clean open chords and i switch to the wah ' chucka-chucka-chucka' part, then to the ascending scales just before and after the "Welcome To the Hotel California" chorus line.
I play both Walsh and Felder's verse fills and the solo.
I am joined on the solo's repetative ending phrases by #2 guitar and we end it with the "Hell Freezes Over" live version.
I really dont play the 12 string neck on this song live!!!!!