12 String Electric Guitars: The Players, The Guitars!
Published on 28 February 2025
Have you ever plugged in an electric 12 string guitar? It’s amazing how many guitarists haven’t had the opportunity to experience it. 12-strings have such a unique sound, and many of the most historically significant songs have included their unmistakable chiming sound.
My motivation for delving into this subject today was the delivery of some pretty astounding - and rare - Rickenbacker 330/12 guitars in Matte Black! How often do you ever see these guitars in that colour? In fact, getting deliveries of 12 string 330’s is rare enough in itself, and it got me thinking about 12-string electric guitars in general.
We do keep a pretty good selection of them here at guitarguitar, so I thought a deeper delve into the world of the jangle was both timely and appropriate.
Whether you’re a Beatle Maniac or a Smiths acolyte (or neither), there will be something here for you today. Read on!
Contents
Extremely Basic and Brief History of the Electric 12 String
Famous Electric 12-String Guitar Players
Top 12-String Electric Guitars
The Electric 12-String Attitude
Extremely Basic and Brief History of the Electric 12 String
Surprisingly little is known of the origins of the 12 string guitar. They seem to have appeared towards the end of the 1800s, and Mexico seems to be the likeliest location. Certainly, pics from 1901 show 12-strings in Mexico, but they weren’t really seen in a major way until the 1920s when acoustic blues artists used them for their bigger sound. Lydia Mendoza is a big name for the 12 string in 1950s Mexico, and Fred Gerlach brought the guitar into folk and blues, prior to more mainstream use.
As far as electric 12-strings go, the 60s saw plentiful use of those chimey tones. Glen Campbell had one, as did Wrecking Crew legend Carol Kaye. Danelectro (whom we’ll see more of) made the first relatively affordable, mass-produced 12 string, followed by Vox and Burns. By this point, audiences were hearing electric 12-strings on hits from The Shadows, The Searchers and, most prominently, from George Harrison’s Rickenbacker 360/12 on The Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night.
As a psychedelic instrument, the electric 12 string was essential. The Byrds, the Monkees and many more mid-60s bands got in on the vibe with 12-string electrics from Gretsch, Fender, Guild, Gibson and more brands.
In fact, let’s stop for a second and check out some notable electric 12-string players…
Famous Electric 12-String Guitar Players
Roger McGuinn
Could The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn be the most influential 12-string artist of all? His gorgeous arpeggios and accessible style have made him a hero to other artists on this very list. Plus, there’s just no arguing with songs like Turn! Turn! Turn! and Eight Miles High. McGuinn with his tiny shades and Mapleglo (natural wood coloured, in other words) Ricky 360/12 is the symbol of psychedelic pop.
George Harrison
The Beatles loved colour and texture in their music, and even in the early days, Harrison’s 12-string playing provided a signature sound for the band. From a Hard Days Night on throughout the career of the band, Harrison’s chirpy 12-string Rickenbacker was a constant presence.
Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page of course sported his iconic Gibson EDS-1275 for triumphant renditions of Stairway to Heaven, where he’d pick out the intro on the 12-string neck and then switch to the 6 string neck for the solo and crunchy chords. He’d use a 12-string to great effect again on Over the Hills and Far Away.
Tom Petty/Mike Campbell
Classic rock hitmaker Tom Petty knew the value of a great 12 string guitar. You hear acoustic 12-strings being strummed away on most of his big hits (Freefallin’, Learning to Fly etc), but both he and his lead guitarist MIke Campell were big into their Ricky 12-strings.
Peter Buck
R.E.M.'s Peter Buck is one of those players heavily influenced by Roger McGuinn. In the early 80s indie rock scene, cleanly played arpeggios on a 12-string electric guitar was a particularly subversive thing to be doing. Though I don’t expect Buck viewed things that way (I get the feeling he has always just played what he wants to play), the sound really singled out R.E.M.s early records, adding an extra haze to an already mysterious band.
Check out the Fables of the Reconstruction album, along with songs like So. Central Rain and Pretty Persuasion for some prime Buck jangle.
Johnny Marr
Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr used a 12-string Ricky on absolutely loads of their tunes. Marr tended to layer up lots of different guitars, from acoustics to electrics to some heavily effected parts. 12-string electric guitars (Rickenbacker once again, Marr having used both a 330/12 and a 360/12) feature throughout the Smiths’ back catalogue, from Shopkeepers of the World Unite to Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and many in between.
Top 12-String Electric Guitars
Those were the players, but what are the top 12 string electric guitars around today? I’ve rounded up some favourites from our current stock here at guitarguitar, including that fantastic Matte Black Ricky…
Rickenbacker 330/12 Matte Black
When it comes to scarcity, Rickenbacker achieve that simply by holding fast to the same ideals and standards they’ve always had. Rickenbacker - who hand make their guitars in Santa Ana, California - have always resisted expanding their premises to produce more guitars, preferring to keep numbers lower and both quality and demand high. It’s a business model that has kept the cool-yet-idiosyncratic brand in constant business for over a century, believe it or not!
As Rickenbacker dealers, we order as many as we can get our hands on, but the plain fact of the matter is, there are never loads of Rickys around at any given moment! 12-strings even less so, and 12-strings with cool matte black finishes? That’s nearly unheard of!
Rickenbacker normally call their black guitars ‘Jetglo’, and here’s why: ‘Jet’ for Jet Black, and ‘Glo’, which is simply short for Gloss. Jet Black Gloss! How cool is that?
Anyway, this new model isn’t glossy, and so isn’t a ‘Glo’. It’s a 330/12 in Matte Black and it is such an excellent colour choice for this model!
This classic is made in the time-honoured Rickenbacker way: semi-hollow maple body and through-neck maple neck. This amount of maple helps give the guitar its distinctive cut and twang, whilst the semi-hollow nature takes a bunch of the incumbent weight away.
Rickenbacker’s ‘Hi-gain’ pickups are installed here, though I’d say that their interpretation of high gain may not equate to, say, EMGs! There’s bags of that famous Rickenbacker 12-string flavour here, which is like a sonic time warp back to a simpler, more innocent time. There’s no sound like a Rickenbacker: it doesn’t sound like a Tele, it doesn’t sound like anything else. That uniqueness continues in the guitar’s singular look (those body lines are almost art deco) and in its playability: what surprises most is not how tricky Rickenbackers are to play (which you’d be forgiven for assuming, given their look), but how comfortable and kind of confident feeling they are. I’d say that they aren’t for the Hendrixes and Stevie Ray Vaughans of the guitar world, but therein lies the appeal, I guess!
There is a whole attitude expressed here in a guitar that’s timeless, classy and very well put together.
Danelectro DC57 Vintage 12 String
Danelectro are a classic guitar brand from the late 50s, who provided a super-affordable and super-stylish guitar option for those who couldn’t afford Fenders and Gibsons. Vintage examples were made from very unspectacular materials (the bodies were originally Masonite, poplar, vinyl and Formica (!) and the ‘lipstick tube’ pickups were called that because they were literally made with lipstick tubes!), so they were never seen as competing with the bigger brands.
However, good design is good design (and doesn’t have to automatically be ‘expensive design’), and Danelectro guitars have always carried a certain counterculture coolness about them. The main selling point, though, is the sound. Similar to how I mentioned Rickenbackers having a genuinely unique overall sound - be they 6 or 12 strings - , every Danelectro guitar has a definite ‘sound’, and one that other guitars do not. I should clarify that Rickys and Danelectros don’t sound the same, I mean they both have their own signature tone, and both are very appealing. The Danelectro sound is shimmer and glass all the way, and in this 12-string iteration, the Danelectro DC59 Vintage 12 String just oozes vintage, psychedelic chime.
These modern reissues have improved some of the initial design’s more bargain-basement specs: the bodies are now made from proper timber and the bridges have been updated to be more adjustable. The short-horn body and ‘coke bottle’ headstock remain in all of their era-defining glory.
Gretsch G5422G-12
Gretsch are a brand who fit in well with the sort of ‘timeless alternative style’ of Danelectro and Rickenbacker. These brands make guitar for performers, band members and songwriters, rather than shredders. This means that they are well-aligned for 12 string electric models, and Gretsch do not disappoint!
The Gretsch G5422G-12 is from the company’s Electromatic range, which sits between the affordable Streamliner and more expensive Professional ranges. In practice, you get a rather gorgeous guitar with all of the decorative Gretsch trimmings (and some lovely gold hardware if you opt for the Single Barrel Burst finish, just saying) and large post-Baldwin era f-holes. There’s no Bigsby of course - I can’t recall ever seeing such a bridge on a 12-string guitar - but everything else here is as Gretsch as it gets.
Filter’Tron humbuckers, ‘trestle block bracing’ (this is still hollow, remember) and a laminated maple body add up to a whole lot of attractive jangle for the cash. Highly recommended!
The Electric 12-String Attitude
It’s clear from today’s blog that electric 12-string guitars have made a real dent in modern music. Their sound is specific and yet timeless, and there’s almost no genres out there that can’t make inspired use of that chime and jangle.
What’s also obvious is that these are songwriters’ guitars. The very fact of them being slightly tougher to fret and even harder to bend strings on means that nobody is really going to be attempting any epic, face-melting shred runs on them!
And there lies the whole crux of it. 12-string guitars are about attitude, about playing textural or rhythmic parts, and about composing on the guitar instead of soloing on the guitar. There’s a whole sensibility to the 12-string that is based on a sort of benefit/sacrifice: you sacrifice the ability to play wild solos, but you gain a sound and texture that you really can’t otherwise have access to.
They are special instruments, and we currently have a nice selection in our stores. When are you coming in to check them out?
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