The "Hockey-Stick" of the Beat Generation!

This great twelve-string guitar weighs 8.80 lbs. Solid alder body, maple neck, and rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. With a nut width of just under 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Six-on-a-side Fender "F" tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Two powerful black split single-coil pickups with outputs of 9.07k and 8.29k. Tortoiseshell over three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) and jack socket, all on metal plate adjoining pickguard, plus one four-way rotary selector switch on pickguard. Black plastic knobs with white numbering and silver tops. Fender twelve-saddle combined bridge/tailpiece. The neck is dated "12 MAY 66 B." Apart from some minor checking to the body, a few small 'dings' on the sides, and some minimal wear to the back of the neck, this is an extremely clean and original guitar. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case. Complete with original hang tag, case key, and allen key.

The Electric XII hit the music stores in the summer of 1965. "Electric 12-strings had recently been popularised by The Beatles and The Byrds, who both used Rickenbackers, so Fender joined in the battle with their own rather belated version. There were no surprises in the guitar's body -- it was that familiar offset-waist design again (and at $349 the 12-string was pitched at the same price as the Jazzmaster). The Electric XII had a long headstock, necessary to carry the extra machine heads, finishing in a distinctive curved end that has earned it the nickname 'hockey-stick'. An innovation was the Electric XII's 12-saddle bridge which allowed for precise adjustments of individual string heights and intonation, a luxury hitherto unknown on any 12-string guitar. But the 12-string craze of the 1960s was almost over and the Electric XII proved shortlived, lasting in the line only until 1968" (Tony Bacon and Paul Day, The Fender Book, p. 44).