Welcome back to another edition of #MusicMonday, where we highlight a piece of Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa’s signature memorabilia. Our last edition of Music Monday was centered around Alex Van Halen’s drum set and this week, we’ll be shining the spotlight on Leland Skylar’s Double Neck Bass.

About the Memorabilia:

This bass was made by Steve Helgeson during the 1970’s.  Helgeson was a falconer (a person who keeps, trains, or hunts with falcons or other birds of prey) who carved the eagle heads for the bass.  The eyes have LED lights that actually light up.

Location:

You can find this piece in our hotel lobby, located right next to the Lobby Bar.

Fun Fact:

Leland Sklar had one problem with the bass, it was the heaviest he ever owned.  The case had to be specifically built for the bass and the weight of the bass made it very difficult to move around on tours.  The difficulty of transporting the bass was the ultimate reason why Leland Sklar decided to stop using the bass.

The creator of the bass, Steve Helgeson, founded Moonstone Guitars in 1972.  During the 1980’s Moonstone was producing over 1,000 guitars a year until a fire burnt down the factory in the late 1980’s.  A few years later, Steve started working a lone again to product a few acoustic guitars for many popular artists.

Information courtesy of musicradar.com, uniqueguitar.blogspot.com, moonstoneguitars.com