Fender Electric XII 12 String Solid Body Electric Guitar (1966)
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Fender Electric XII Model 12 String Solid Body Electric Guitar (1966), made in Fullerton, California, serial # 110668, Candy Apple Red lacquer finish, alder body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, original black tolex hard shell case.
OK, this is a cool and lovely Custom Color 1965 Fender XII, but not THAT rare, you say? Well we must reply nay, this is a veritable unicorn of its type, the only one like it we have ever seen -- and we've seen quite a few of these. Not only is this an early production example in Fender's iconic hot rod finish, but the neck is stamped OCT65C on the heel, with that "C" being the crucial signifier. The nut is NOT the standard 1 5/8" "B" width like every other Electric XII we have ever had, but a full 1 3/4" "C" width, a custom order option on the pricelist but hardly ever encountered on an actual instrument. This wide neck was standard on the Precision Bass but almost never encountered on any other Fender model. On a 12 string it provides a truly lovely feel, giving the fingerboard a lot more room to get around reminiscent of our other '60s favorite, the Burns Double Six. Following the pattern of the original 1964 Rickenbacker 360/12, most electric 12's of the 1965-69 period from not only Fender but Gibson, Epiphone, Guild and beyond were built with slimmer nuts, which many players find confining. We don't know if this particular guitar was a custom order or an early Fender factory experiment, but now we wish they had built ALL the original XII's to this spec.
Apart from this delightful deviation from the norm this is simply a beautiful first-year custom-color Fender Electric XII, finished in the always-popular Candy Apple Red. If not one of Fender's best-remembered creations the Electric XII is a superbly engineered, great-sounding and extremely practical 12-string guitar. Introduced at the July 1965 NAMM Show at the dawn of the CBS/Fender era the Fender 12-string married the popular Jaguar/Jazzmaster style offset body to a new 12-string neck with a distinctive extended "hockey stick" headstock. These are often considered the best-playing electric 12s of the 1960s, and this wide neck variation takes that to a new level. Custom color examples like this are particularly striking looking guitars with the elongated matching headstock.
This guitar dates to late 1965, the introductory year of the model. The neck date is October 65 and the pots coded to the 45th week of that year. Prototypes and pre-production examples were built earlier in 1965, but as with many Fenders the main production seems to have begun in the fall, with the bulk built in 1966. The electronics are unique with two pickups each with two separate coil units, as pioneered by the Precision Bass but with smaller Mustang-style coils. These are mated to a 4-way lever switch theoretically allowing individual pickup selections and two different phase combinations. This guitar has a wiring quirk we have encountered with several other 1965 XII's; the selector is mis-wired not effecting one of the two combinations. This is a factory error and can be corrected if desired, but due to the rarity of this guitar we have left it untouched original.
The bridge is a marvel of Leo Fender's design prowess; it strings through the body with 12 staggered-height intonation-adjustable saddles and is generally considered the best of its kind. With all this original engineering, Fender somewhat missed the boat on the electric 12-string fad and by the time the Electric XII was ready to market in late 1965 Rickenbacker had already reaped the bulk of benefit of the Byrds' and Beatles' popularization of the sound. For all that, the guitar is a superb 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 its full potential is perhaps still untapped. This candy-colored wide-neck example is absolutely the coolest we have had, a Fender or electric 12-string connoisseur's choice for sure.
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 3/4 in. (44 mm.).
Perhaps we wander into hyperbole here but this really is a superb and possibly unique Electric XII, with both the wider fingerboard variation and finished in one of Fender's boldest metallic paint jobs. The vibrant Candy Apple red finish is still bright with virtually no fade to the color. The guitar remains all original and very clean showing just minor wear with some light checking and small dings, dents and handling marks, mostly on the body edges. There is one fairly small spot om "strap burn" and some heavier scuffing to the back. Interestingly enough the neck pocket shows some handwork on the treble side required to fit the slightly wider-heeled neck.
This special ordered or possibly production sample guitar shows no alterations and looks to have not really been played much since it shipped out of Fullerton in late 1965 or early 1966. The hardware has some light corrosion here and there, for some reason heavily on the lower strap button. The fingerboard and original frets have some very light wear and playability is excellent. The feel is fantastic; the neck is carved very much to the Precision Bass pattern and feels eerily familiar if one is used to the feel of those basses.
For any player who feels confined by the standard narrow nut on the Fender XII (and many others) this guitar feels like a miracle. There of course may well be other "C" neck Electric XII's out in the world but we have never encountered one. This lovely package of timeless 1960s jangle resides in its original black Tolex Fender HSC with the rare 12-string hangtag/instruction manual (serial #'ed to a different guitar) an enigma perhaps but a delightful one! Overall Excellent Condition.
OK, this is a cool and lovely Custom Color 1965 Fender XII, but not THAT rare, you say? Well we must reply nay, this is a veritable unicorn of its type, the only one like it we have ever seen -- and we've seen quite a few of these. Not only is this an early production example in Fender's iconic hot rod finish, but the neck is stamped OCT65C on the heel, with that "C" being the crucial signifier. The nut is NOT the standard 1 5/8" "B" width like every other Electric XII we have ever had, but a full 1 3/4" "C" width, a custom order option on the pricelist but hardly ever encountered on an actual instrument. This wide neck was standard on the Precision Bass but almost never encountered on any other Fender model. On a 12 string it provides a truly lovely feel, giving the fingerboard a lot more room to get around reminiscent of our other '60s favorite, the Burns Double Six. Following the pattern of the original 1964 Rickenbacker 360/12, most electric 12's of the 1965-69 period from not only Fender but Gibson, Epiphone, Guild and beyond were built with slimmer nuts, which many players find confining. We don't know if this particular guitar was a custom order or an early Fender factory experiment, but now we wish they had built ALL the original XII's to this spec.
Apart from this delightful deviation from the norm this is simply a beautiful first-year custom-color Fender Electric XII, finished in the always-popular Candy Apple Red. If not one of Fender's best-remembered creations the Electric XII is a superbly engineered, great-sounding and extremely practical 12-string guitar. Introduced at the July 1965 NAMM Show at the dawn of the CBS/Fender era the Fender 12-string married the popular Jaguar/Jazzmaster style offset body to a new 12-string neck with a distinctive extended "hockey stick" headstock. These are often considered the best-playing electric 12s of the 1960s, and this wide neck variation takes that to a new level. Custom color examples like this are particularly striking looking guitars with the elongated matching headstock.
This guitar dates to late 1965, the introductory year of the model. The neck date is October 65 and the pots coded to the 45th week of that year. Prototypes and pre-production examples were built earlier in 1965, but as with many Fenders the main production seems to have begun in the fall, with the bulk built in 1966. The electronics are unique with two pickups each with two separate coil units, as pioneered by the Precision Bass but with smaller Mustang-style coils. These are mated to a 4-way lever switch theoretically allowing individual pickup selections and two different phase combinations. This guitar has a wiring quirk we have encountered with several other 1965 XII's; the selector is mis-wired not effecting one of the two combinations. This is a factory error and can be corrected if desired, but due to the rarity of this guitar we have left it untouched original.
The bridge is a marvel of Leo Fender's design prowess; it strings through the body with 12 staggered-height intonation-adjustable saddles and is generally considered the best of its kind. With all this original engineering, Fender somewhat missed the boat on the electric 12-string fad and by the time the Electric XII was ready to market in late 1965 Rickenbacker had already reaped the bulk of benefit of the Byrds' and Beatles' popularization of the sound. For all that, the guitar is a superb 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 its full potential is perhaps still untapped. This candy-colored wide-neck example is absolutely the coolest we have had, a Fender or electric 12-string connoisseur's choice for sure.
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 3/4 in. (44 mm.).
Perhaps we wander into hyperbole here but this really is a superb and possibly unique Electric XII, with both the wider fingerboard variation and finished in one of Fender's boldest metallic paint jobs. The vibrant Candy Apple red finish is still bright with virtually no fade to the color. The guitar remains all original and very clean showing just minor wear with some light checking and small dings, dents and handling marks, mostly on the body edges. There is one fairly small spot om "strap burn" and some heavier scuffing to the back. Interestingly enough the neck pocket shows some handwork on the treble side required to fit the slightly wider-heeled neck.
This special ordered or possibly production sample guitar shows no alterations and looks to have not really been played much since it shipped out of Fullerton in late 1965 or early 1966. The hardware has some light corrosion here and there, for some reason heavily on the lower strap button. The fingerboard and original frets have some very light wear and playability is excellent. The feel is fantastic; the neck is carved very much to the Precision Bass pattern and feels eerily familiar if one is used to the feel of those basses.
For any player who feels confined by the standard narrow nut on the Fender XII (and many others) this guitar feels like a miracle. There of course may well be other "C" neck Electric XII's out in the world but we have never encountered one. This lovely package of timeless 1960s jangle resides in its original black Tolex Fender HSC with the rare 12-string hangtag/instruction manual (serial #'ed to a different guitar) an enigma perhaps but a delightful one! Overall Excellent Condition.