This guitar is about as rare as they come … Fender Custom Shop MasterBuilder Andy Hicks created this one-off lefty offset 12-string Electric XII, nicely reliced with a 3 tone sunburst and pearloid pickguard.
The XII was discontinued by Fender in 1969. No one tried to build one till Carlos Lopez took a 66 XII that was on display at the factory, studied every detail and produced a righty, including reverse engineering the original pickups with Curtis Novak. The only change they made from the original was a 9.5 radius instead of the original 7.25, which enhances playability.
Enter Andy Hicks, who took on this custom project and created a lefty. It took more than two years to complete the build but it was well worth the wait.
How does it sound? Amazing. Easy to play, as jangly as you want it to be, four pickup settings give you tonal variety — each pickup individually, both together and both together out of phase. You know the tone … you’ve heard it in Jimmy Page’s hands on the studio version of “Stairway to Heaven,” on The Who’s epic Tommy record, Carl Wilson played one on the Beach Boys recording of “Sloop John B” and Eric Clapton used it on the Cream record Disraeli Gears. Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison used them in the Velvet Underground.
Condition: Relic; Body: Alder; Neck: Maple 5/4 quartersawn, 62 JazzMaster profile (.820, .900), 9.5 radius; Color: 3 tone sunburst; Pickups: Custom Shop Electric XII; Orientation: Lefthanded (of course)
