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electric xii!
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 5:10 am
by MKR
here's my new guitar. a lake placid blue alternate reality electric xii.
Back in december i bought myself a cheap epiphone 12 string acoustic that i really enoyed playing. Took a bit of time to adapt my playing style for a 12 string, but once it clicked, i began to pick it up more than my 6 string acoustic. I have always liked electric xii's. Carl Wilson with a xii always did it for me.
So these guitars were always on the wish list in the back of my mind. When i heard that fender was reissuing them i got pretty excited, but i never came across any in toronto. They were never listed for sale on long and mcquade's website. in general they seemed very ellusive.
well i lucked out and came across one and i must say i am VERY glad i did. Also thanks to the people who were recommending this model in my poll thread earlier. It was clearly the right decision.
my quick review is that it's an awesome instrument. build seems high end. pickups sound perfect. pots have a real smooth effect.. I really like the witch hat knobs (looking through a fender book i own, i can see that some early models came with the same knobs). Bridge seems great with lots of adjustability. Mine plays really well out of the store. I did a quick truss tighten and that did the trick. Action is good despite the E saddles being at their lowest... i might add a shim to give myself more wiggle room with the bridge height, but honestly the action is fine so i am not in a rush).
I love the neck. my 12 string acoustic has a huge neck. Very much a baseball bat and very wide. This neck feels so much more comfortable and basically feels like a normal electric 6 string. body shape, weight, everything is perfect and make this a very comfortable guitar to play. Also i will say that i don't mind the pau ferro neck at all. I hate the pale fretboards that are so common now with pau ferro, but this one doesn't seem too different from rosewood in person. it's a bit lighter, but it's close enough i am fooled.
All in all i can't recommend these xii's enough. for anyone who is thinking of adding a 12 string to their arsenal, do it!
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 5:23 am
by sal paradise
Get the les Paul.
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:03 am
by bessieboporbach
Congratulations! My story is very similar to yours, from the Carl Wilson part to the Toronto part. I got my Olympic White one a year ago (wish I could have had it in blue like yours!) and it's a delightful player. I agree that it feels pretty high end.
I do wish the pots had more of a taper to them. Easy fix though.
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 2:52 pm
by SignoftheDragon
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 3:00 pm
by SignoftheDragon
Always awesome to have a new Twelve-a-naut emerge! Great score- The LPB is my favorite of the options on these.
I have 2 of these (a white one and an LPB like yours) and am still quite happy with them 100% stock.
Welcome to the club- excited to see what you do with it!
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 3:37 pm
by jakeisjake
Awesome! They are great guitars.
I'm loving mine, too.
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 5:52 pm
by N0_Camping4U
Huge huge huge Beach Boys fan. Borderline obsessive. You can't nail that California Girls intro without a Fender XII
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:13 pm
by MKR
bessieboporbach wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:03 am
Congratulations! My story is very similar to yours, from the Carl Wilson part to the Toronto part. I got my Olympic White one a year ago (wish I could have had it in blue like yours!) and it's a delightful player. I agree that it feels pretty high end.
I do wish the pots had more of a taper to them. Easy fix though.
out of curiosity where did you get yours from?
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:15 pm
by MKR
MKR wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:13 pm
bessieboporbach wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:03 am
Congratulations! My story is very similar to yours, from the Carl Wilson part to the Toronto part. I got my Olympic White one a year ago (wish I could have had it in blue like yours!) and it's a delightful player. I agree that it feels pretty high end.
I do wish the pots had more of a taper to them. Easy fix though.
out of curiosity where did you get yours from? I really don't understand how these weren't listed on L&M's website. They list a lot of stuff that's out of stock as it is...
N0_Camping4U wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 5:52 pm
Huge huge huge Beach Boys fan. Borderline obsessive. You can't nail that California Girls intro without a Fender XII
help me rhonda is currently getting a lot of play around the living room.
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 3:42 pm
by bessieboporbach
MKR wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:13 pm
bessieboporbach wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:03 am
Congratulations! My story is very similar to yours, from the Carl Wilson part to the Toronto part. I got my Olympic White one a year ago (wish I could have had it in blue like yours!) and it's a delightful player. I agree that it feels pretty high end.
I do wish the pots had more of a taper to them. Easy fix though.
out of curiosity where did you get yours from?
I had to order it from a store in Vancouver (Rufus Guitar Shop) via Reverb. This was in March 2020.
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:24 pm
by MKR
bessieboporbach wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 3:42 pm
I had to order it from a store in Vancouver (Rufus Guitar Shop) via Reverb. This was in March 2020.
oh wow that's not the answer i was expecting. Pretty crazy that this was your best option for what should have been a more readily available guitar. It's not like Fender is some boutique manufacturer.
The availability of these here in canada has been really baffling. It's not like we're some small remote country which has a shortage of consumer goods.
I guess i really lucked out finding mine in the manner i did. I was going through the L&M website and there's a section for unique items specific to each store called "geargunter"- this is where they list used stuff and demo products. I was going through the stock at the store nearest my house and that's where i saw this listed. I waited for the lockdown to end and then i called to see if it was still there. Got to try it out at the store the first day the opened for in store shopping.
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:27 pm
by Larry Mal
Yeah, that was the right call. You can always get a Les Paul later. This isn't going to be around much.
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:53 pm
by bessieboporbach
MKR wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:24 pm
bessieboporbach wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 3:42 pm
I had to order it from a store in Vancouver (Rufus Guitar Shop) via Reverb. This was in March 2020.
oh wow that's not the answer i was expecting. Pretty crazy that this was your best option for what should have been a more readily available guitar. It's not like Fender is some boutique manufacturer.
The availability of these here in canada has been really baffling. It's not like we're some small remote country which has a shortage of consumer goods.
I guess i really lucked out finding mine in the manner i did. I was going through the L&M website and there's a section for unique items specific to each store called "geargunter"- this is where they list used stuff and demo products. I was going through the stock at the store nearest my house and that's where i saw this listed. I waited for the lockdown to end and then i called to see if it was still there. Got to try it out at the store the first day the opened for in store shopping.
Nice! If I'd known there was one in Toronto, I probably would have snapped it up, lol. But no regrets -- the guys at Rufus took good care of me. But yeah, I agree that its insane L&M never formally set it up on their website. It's not like it was a surprise release -- it was announced six or seven months before it appeared. I'm sure they got a bunch in various stores across the country. Oh well.
I had been saving up for it for months and carefully watching Reverb listings for it dwindle down to nothing.
I'd be curious to know how many, in total, Fender made of these. Based on what I've seen online, it seems like the sunburst ones are the rarest.
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:20 am
by SignoftheDragon
I actually passed on 2 or 3 of these in sunburst early on in the run- now my OCD is kicking me for not having one of each color.
Re: electric xii!
Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 8:37 am
by hexes
congrats! i like the lake placid blue on these. there was a white one at a local GC. i drove home to grab my credit card and an amp to trade in and 2 hours later it was gone. i should have put a deposit down…
