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Five Tempting 12 String Electric Guitars

Here are some great 12 string electric guitars that we’ve looked at for you – this is a good starting point if you’re looking to buy a 12-string.

The unique jangle sound of a 12 string guitar has inspired a number of songs that spans various musical genres, including the Beatles’ “A Hard Days Night”, The Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn!”, Mahavishnu Orchestra’s “You Know You Know” and many more. This unique sound is produced when a course or pair of strings are plucked together. The first four pairs (also called courses) of strings are tuned in octaves while the highest two strings (high B and E) are tuned in unison. This pairing creates a natural chorus effect because the minute differences in pitch and timbre of the paired strings converge and are heard as one.

Although it is commonly used for rhythm and accompaniment, guitar greats like Jimmy Page and George Harrison have shown that with sufficient imagination and skill, the 12 string guitar can do so much more than just play chords.

Rickenbacker 360/12

Rickenbacker 360/12
Rickenbacker 360/12

The Rickenbacker 360/12 is one of the first electric twelve string guitars produced. It was made popular back in the ’60s by George Harrison and up to now, it is still one of the most tempting and sought after 12 string electrics in the market. A unique feature of the Rickenbacker 360/12 is its reverse octave course convention, which meant that the lower octave string was on top of its pair and sounds first when strummed downwards. Some notable features of the Rickenbacker 360/12 includes a slimmed and recontoured set-in neck with 24 frets, it has a maple body and neck with a 24.75″ scale and it has Mono and Stereo outputs. You will have to email the online stores to get the actual retail pricing as requested by Rickenbacker, but after some searching, I found a brand new 360/12 selling for around $2,700. For the complete specifications, you can visit Rickenbacker.

Gibson 50th Anniversary SG 12 String

Gibson 50th Anniversary SG 12 String
Gibson 50th Anniversary SG 12 String

This guitar is designed by Gibson to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Gibson Solid Guitar (SG). They decided to give a jangly twist to the tempting classic SG look and created a 12 string version of the SG. The Gibson 50th Anniversary SG 12 string has all the basic features that made the SG a popular electric guitar with some modifications to handle 12 string tone and tension. It has the same traditional double cutaway mahogany body, stopbar tail piece and tune-o-matic bridge. Modifications include a glued-in maple neck to withstand the 12 string tension, 12 Mini Grover tuners and the use of modern pickups the 490R neck and 498T bridge Alnico magnet pickups. Current price listing for the Gibson 50th Anniversary SG 12 String Electric Guitar is at $1,469. Visit Gibson online to check out the full specs.

Dean Boca 12

Dean Boca 12-String Electric Guitar
Dean Boca 12-String Electric Guitar

The Dean Boca 12 is a beautiful looking 12 string electric guitar that won’t cost you your life savings. For a relatively affordable price of around $400 you get specs and features that you would normally pay top dollars for. The Boca 12 has an arched flame maple top on a semi-hollow mahogany body design which aims to produce unique 12 string tones. Other features include a bolt on maple C neck at 24.75″ scale that supports the increased tension, rosewood fretboard, Grover tuners, tune-o-matic bridge, stop tail piece and is available in three tempting finishes. It is designed to provide you with practical 12 string tones at a fraction of the cost so if you are looking to purchase an affordable 12 string electric guitar that does not look and sound cheap, you might want to check this one out.

Schecter Stargazer 12

Schecter Stargazer 12
Schecter Stargazer 12

The Schecter Stargazer 12 is a tempting full featured 12 string electric guitar. Most noteworthy about this guitar is its ability to resolve the common 12 string electric guitar tuning problems via its Diamond Adjustable-12 bridge. It acts like a hard tail bridge fitted with individual string adjustments for intonation, tilt and height, and you can adjust all the twelve strings. Another fine feature of this guitar is tonal variety, Schecter equipped the Stargazer 12 with push/pull tone knobs for providing single coil tones aside from the default humbucking ones. The guitar also looks amazing, sporting a classic overall vibe with its Ash and figured Maple body. Other features include 22 fret maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, chrome hardware, Grover tuners and SuperRock Custom Alnico pickups. Get a Stargazer 12 usually for less than $800.

Danelectro 12SDC

Danelectro 12SDC
Danelectro 12SDC

Danelectro is known for its distinctive body designs and shapes and the same applies to this 25″ scale 12 string electric guitar. The 12SDC is one of the few affordable 12 string electric guitars available. It has all the basic functionality of other 12 string electrics but scores some plus points with its unique mojo and look. The slick vintage vibe of the guitar is credited to its ’59 era Danelectro double cutaway design and Lipstick Tube pickups. Features include maple bolt-on neck with rosewood fretboard, vintage textured tape binding on the side, elongated “bottle” headstock, satin hardware and gotoh tuners. Danelectro also improved the fixed bridge and made it fully adjustable. As of this writing, Danaelectro no longer offers the guitar which makes it a bit harder to procure, we did however check and found a few stocks remaining at Amazon.

Related Article:

The Best 12 String Acoustic Guitars

Cool Electric Guitars

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