I'd love to pick up a Rickenbacker twelve or Strat XII one day, but can't say the new XIIs quite do it for me, due to reasons practical and petty:
- The original Electric XII had a beautiful, elegant twelve saddle bridge (each with individual intonation) terminating into a string-through sustain block; the new one? Has a basically 'off-the-shelf' twelve string bridge off everyone's Warmoth. Considering you could buy a Squier in the 90s (the Venus XII) with the accurate bridge, this is a disappointment
- They kept the stupidest 'flaw' of the original XII, which is the pickups are actually non-humbucking (despite the P-bass/Comanche design)
- The action needed to come down on the particular guitar I played, and the bridge looked like it could possibly not have enough room to do it. I don't have a problem shimming the neck, but this is a new guitar not to mention...
- It's sort of expensive; sure Mexico makes GREAT guitars now, but at the pricing the purpose is sort of defeated of making them in Mexico to begin with, IMO
- The body shape is not accurate if you look carefully; the bottom of the new guitar isn't offset at all, and this bugs me
Was glad to be able to play one. I would/will be tempted at half the price (if anyone is now listening, I would *love* to see a twelve-string Saddle-Lock bridge on an Espada 
)
Original Electric XII for reference:
So in the meantime I at least have two twelve strings; and since I don't nowadays keep guitars that do not have stories, here they are: '68 Yamaha FG260 slothead - MIJ. Oddly the US only got Taiwanese models (from what I understand,) but my dad purchased this new while stationed overseas, so this is what he got. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for these to have neck and bracing issues, so this one has a slight top belly and (more importantly) drastic need of neck reset.
Maybe ten years ago I got the action from about 1cm at the twelfth fret to ~3mm by shaving the bridge saddle, shimming the truss rod nut (maxed out) and ramping the bridge. So it's playable now - almost alarmingly so. It's a laminate top, yet on the whole it's a VERY light-weight guitar somehow, with a very bright, brilliant sound. Pretty much sounds the way a twelve should in my head.
Mitchell MD100S 12 . About ten years ago I had a friend who would come over to jam about every other night; at one point he brought the below guitar he'd just picked up from Guitar Center, which I was quick to admonish/inform him on the judgment of his purchase (as was my personality,) since it had a quite blatant crack on the top where it had been dropped.
It lived in my living room for a few months and gradually the crack spread to the point where it was no longer playable, as predicted. My friend joined the army and let me know I could keep the guitar when he left - and it sat for about a few years more until I took pity on it. On research, it actually was a pretty legitimate twelve string; solid top etc. so I priced a repair on the crack which came out basically perfect (though visible due to mineral-streaking from not taking care of it earlier.)
It sounds MUCH more mellow than the Yamaha and is a great deal heavier, despite the solid top. Almost too mellow, but could be the old strings on it at the moment. In any case, I've ordered some silk/steel Ernie Ball strings for both of them, since I sort of value playability above sound for these monsters; at least I have the action down to a good 2mm or so on this one (needed to also put a few washers behind the truss nut, to get the neck a bit flatter than it was; I probably took too much off the bass side of the saddle, and not enough off the treble side so may fashion a new bridge soon.)
Definitely needs to be played in; I'm having one of those moods where I feel like I should switch to twelves as my 'primary,' we'll see how long that lasts. It could result in the purchase of a Guild or possibly Taylor
Before Repair:
After:
