You Won’t Believe The Huge Guitar Texas Rockers ZZ Top Play

They say everything is bigger in Texas and that includes instruments used by Texas bands.

There are lots of big things in Texas with the state itself being the 2nd largest of the 50 United States and the largest of the continental United States.

Among all the enormous things in Texas falls an item that isn't typically all that big ... a bass guitar. Basses are typically 4 string guitars but 5 stringers are super common and they can have even more.

In size, they aren't too much bigger than standard, 6 string guitars. Some guitars can have multiple necks which makes them significantly larger than normal. Axes like these:

Rick Nielson has a 5 neck.

John Paul Jones has a'"triple threat"

Michael Angelo Batio has 2 "opposing" necks. The necks aren't "stacked" so he can ... somehow ... play them both at the same time.

Pretty cool, huh?  Wait 'til you see the bass that inspired this article. It is NOT a standard 4 string bass, nor is it a 5 string. If you're thinking 8, keep going ... until you're well into double digits.

17 is the answer. That's a Texas sized bass for you and here is a video of the "big" bass, being played by that "little" 'ol band from Texas, ZZ Top.

Elwood Francis stepped into the bassist role with ZZ Top following the death of Dusty Hill in July of 2021. Elwood has spent decades as a guitar tech for a number of big name guitarists, most recently ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons.

All the years he spent with ZZ made him the obvious choice to succeed Dusty, which was something Dusty himself had requested of his bandmates.  According to Gibbons:

“When he grabbed my arm and said, ‘I think I'm due to go visit the physician to see if I can bounce back,’ he said, ‘In the meantime, I want you to grab our guitar technician, Mr. Elwood, and take him out of that tech station and strap him up with my guitar and make him carry on with every single note - guitarworld,