Fender Electric XII Model 12 String Solid Body Electric Guitar (1966), made in Fullerton, California, serial # 134286, sunburst lacquer finish, alder body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, original black tolex hard shell case.
The "Electric XII" is perhaps not one of Fender's best-remembered creations but is a great sounding and extremely practical guitar. Introduced at the 1965 NAMM Show at the dawn of the CBS era the Fender 12-string married the popular Jaguar/Jazzmaster style body to a new neck with a distinctive extended "hockey stick" headstock. The electronics are unique as well with two pickups each with two separate coil units, as pioneered by the Precision Bass, and a 4-way selector setup allowing different phase combinations.
The bridge is beautifully engineered, with 12 intonation-adjustable saddles and must be considered the best unit of its kind ever attempted. This example carries a neck date stamp from June 1966 with pickups coils hand-dated 8-3-66 and pots from the 31st week of that year. "ES" is stamped in body under pickguard, a Fender factory code for "Entered Special" which means it was singled out on the production line for some non-standard fate.
With all this original engineering, Fender unfortunately missed the boat a bit on the electric 12-string fad and by the time the "Electric XII" came to market Rickenbacker had already pretty much reaped the bulk of benefit of the Byrds and Beatles popularization of the sound. For all that, the guitar is a very good design and an excellent sounding stage or recording instrument, albeit without exactly capturing the Rick's trademark jangle. Led Zeppelin, the Velvet Underground, The Move, The Kinks, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, the Baja Marimba Band and many others have made classic recordings with this model, and much of its potential is perhaps still untapped.
Overall length is 42 7/8 in. (108.9 cm.), 14 in. (35.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 1/2 in. (648 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This XII is very clean overall, with only light signs of wear, mostly some fade to the sunburst and a few dings to the edges. The tuners were once changed but have been restored to original; there are light compression rings on the headstock face indicating at some point Grovers or the like were fitted, with one small chip visible. Some of the internal wiring rig has been carefully redone, but the components including pickups and pots remain original and everything functions as it should. This one has a very good neck and clean frets, making for a very supple playing and fine sounding example of this distinctive Fender creation, complete with the Black Tolex OHSC. Excellent + Condition.
