Decent,affordable electric 12 string guitars?

Burnt Ernie · Post by **Burnt Ernie** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 2:52 pm

Cant afford a Ricky,had a dano reissue a few years back-kinda meh-any outstanding good deals?

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 3:51 pm

Kapa was an American company back in the 60s that made electric guitars, including 12-strings. Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) has a 6 and a 12 of theirs. I have the tear-drop shaped (Vox-inspired) 12-string and I'm very happy with it. I was lucky and got a great deal on it-- the tear drops are less common and go for more, but the other styles can usually be had for a decent price ($300 to $400). Not bad at all for a made-in-USA 60s guitar.

The Scum · Post by **The Scum** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 3:57 pm

Charvel Surfcaster? Of course, they appear to now have a cult following...

The Schecter 12s? Kinda Rick inspired.

Any of the Eastwoods?

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:46 am

Used 12 string Stratocaster. I have a custom made 12 string telecaster, it's amazing.

LowG · Post by **LowG** » Mon Sep 01, 2014 9:24 am

Rondo Music has low priced import instruments of a huge variety. I have not used a 12 string from there, but I have a P-J bass that is decent and very useable for the studio (after proper strings and setup of course).

roscoenyc · Post by **roscoenyc** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 5:49 am

My main electric 12 is a Jerry Jones. I bought a Danelectro as a backup and it's a surprisingly functional 12 string. Easy to find.

On both of mine I replaced the pickup selector switch with a pan pot to dial in the balance of the neck to treble pickups like the magic little 5th knob on the Rick.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 6:27 am

I bought one of these Cozart's offa the E-bog.

Mine is a solid-body Tele-style, and it's a kinda crappy instrument. The finish is poor, the frets not so smooth on the ends, the pups not too strong, and it's incredibly light, reminding me of, like, balsa wood. The tuners have these white centers on the back what I realized are stickers.

That said, I paid US$100 or so for it, new, and it works aiight for recording, sounds pretty good and keeps its tuning and intonation surprisingly well.

If I lost it, I might spend 10 minutes looking for it, then I'd just buy another.

CraigS63 · Post by **CraigS63** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 8:02 pm

My avatar is an electric 12 from Rondo, nice wide neck. It had a couple of minor finish flaws. I had a Dan-O 12 reissue that I liked better, but someone stole it.

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 9:21 pm

vvv wrote:I bought one of these Cozart's offa the E-bog.

Mine is a solid-body Tele-style, and it's a kinda crappy instrument. The finish is poor, the frets not so smooth on the ends, the pups not too strong, and it's incredibly light, reminding me of, like, balsa wood. The tuners have these white centers on the back what I realized are stickers.

That said, I paid US$100 or so for it, new, and it works aiight for recording, sounds pretty good and keeps its tuning and intonation surprisingly well.

If I lost it, I might spend 10 minutes looking for it, then I'd just buy another.

Never saw these before, thanks for mentioning them! Short of the wood being really light and probably not too resonant, I wonder if it could be a good instrument to upgrade a bit. It certainly looks good in pictures!

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 9:37 pm

It might be OK for that, but me, well, I'd not bother as 12 string bridges and the hardware is relatively expensive; honestly, I'd consider one of the Rondo ones as the next step up, as opposed to lipsticking the pig.

That said, it's fun and I love recording it.

Here's a weird thing I do with both my 12 stringers (my other is a acoustic by Mitchell); I keep 'em tuned a whole step down to D - makes 'em easier to play, is mebbe a bit less stress on the guitar and I break less strings. The latter thing is the main reason - I hate changing 'em!

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 9:40 pm

That said, this might be fun.

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 7:16 am

Ah, I hadn't thought about the difficulty/expense of the hardware since it's a 12 string, good point. It can be hard enough to find reasonable hardware for a 6 string like a Jaguar, I can't imagine having much luck with a tele-style 12 string bridge. Still nice to know where you can get something that's at least useable even if it's not the pride of the studio. I've got an Agile Les Paul-style guitar from Rondo that a client keeps here to use and I really don't see much difference at all between that and the Epiphone Les Paul Standard I used to play.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 4:34 pm

So I googled, "tele-style 12 string bridge", found this first thing:
http://www.warmoth.com/Gotoh-12-String-C707.aspx

But definitely see here, might be easier than I thought ...

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:13 pm

Yeah the Gotohs would work if you're not trying to keep a traditional Tele bridge. The solution on TDPRI would be great as long as the strings won't skip around on the bridge.

dfieldmusic · Post by **dfieldmusic** » Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:12 pm

Could be worth looking at Italia guitars - the Rimini 12 looks nice http://www.jhs.co.uk/italia.html

I haven't played one but I have another Italia and it's very nicely made and good sounding. Not sure how widely available they are in the US though.

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Decent,affordable electric 12 string guitars?

Decent,affordable electric 12 string guitars?

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