Regular visitors to this site (Ma? You out there?) know that I prefer this blog to be as self-aggrandizing as possible. I like to think that’s the charm of it. But sometimes you find a reason — in this case, eight of them — to set ego aside.

The Rock Ock guitar, seen here in its video debut, was commissioned by our good friends at the National Guitar Museum. Built by luthier Dan Neafsey and designed by Gerard Huerta (who already has plenty of rock cred as the designer of iconic logos for AC/DC, Boston, and others), the Rock Ock is “the world’s largest, fully playable multi-necked stringed instrument.” To hear NGM Director HP Newquist describe it, creating the guitar wasn’t half as difficult as figuring out how to position eight grown men around the necks to play them all at once.

But play they did. Dig their version here of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads.” We had never pictured it as an 8-way intersection.

The Rock Ock will be on display through January 2012 at the Orlando Science Center in Orlando, Florida, where the traveling National Guitar Museum is currently exhibiting. You can see the Ock when NGM rolls through your town — if they can figure out how to build a case for it.

Dan Neafsey: Mandolin
Billy Perlman: Ukulele
Gerard Huerta: 6 String
HP Newquist: Fretless Bass
Connor Levinson: Bass
Dave Hill: 12 String
Glenn Levinson: Baritone Guitar
Kent Haehl: 7-String
Doug Seirup: Camera & Editing