Direct from The Jim Irsay Collection: Icons of Music Auction! Purchased from Christie’s!

1966 Fender XII -Electric 12 String

FENDER ELECTRIC INSTRUMENT COMPANY, FULLERTON, CALIFORNIA, 1966

A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, XII

The logo Fender / ELECTRIC XII at the headstock and PAT. 3,143,028 2,960, 900 3,177,283 / & PAT. PEND, the "F" neck plate stamped 126865, the body of ash with sunburst finish, the maple neck with Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and faux-pearl dot markers, original hardshell case with manufacturer's manual, 1965/66 product catalogue and original strap.

In the mid 1960s Fender came out with a most distinctive electric 12-string guitar model, the aptly named Electric XII. It was around from 1965 to 1969, and if you’ve ever heard quintessential Led Zeppelin epic “Stairway to Heaven", you’ve heard this guitar.

The Electric XII was introduced in June 1965, four months after CBS ownership of Fender took effect and just as the Byrds’ jangly “Mr. Tambourine Man” single and album were topping the charts and ushering in the folk-rock boom (Gene Clark played a Firemist Gold prototype model when the CBS-signed Byrds played the song on the May 11, 1965, episode of NBC’s Hullabaloo; only the group’s second televised performance and, ironically, one of the very few times Clark was seen holding a guitar instead of a tambourine).

Where the Electric XII truly exceeds other electric 12-string models, however, is its bridge. Most electric 12-string guitars use six-saddle bridges accommodating two strings apiece, which could be problematic for pinpoint intonation. The Electric XII, on the other hand, boasts a fully adjustable 12-saddle bridge that allowed precise intonation for each string, with a string-through-body design that offered increased sustain. Simple but stylish and efficient, the bridge was in fact one of Leo Fender’s last designs before his company was sold to CBS in 1965.

The Electric XII debuted in a standard three-color sunburst nitrocellulose lacquer finish with a white pearloid pickguard (quickly replaced by tortoiseshell) and black amp-style control knobs. Custom-color finishes were also offered in early model years. Late-1965 models had white neck binding, and block inlays replaced dots in mid 1966. A black Fender headstock decal appeared in 1968, as did “F”-style tuners and thicker polyester finishes.

Perhaps the most striking visual element of the Electric XII, however, is its enormous “hockey stick” headstock, which also appeared on Fender’s Shenandoah and Villager acoustic 12-string models in summer 1965. Bulky and decidedly not sleek, the hockey-stick headstock seemed at odds with the smooth lines of the rest of the instrument, and it was a major departure from the six-on-a-side tuner layout that had been a hallmark of Fender electric guitars from the very beginning in the early 1950s.

As solid an instrument as the Electric XII is, onstage visibility proved elusive. Although it found widespread studio use, the guitar “never really caught on as a live instrument,” as noted in The Golden Age of Fender: 1946-1970. The 12-string electric guitar trend had dwindled considerably 1967, and the Electric XII was discontinued in 1969, with leftover bodies and parts used to fashion the esoteric and even more short-lived Fender Custom/Maverick model of 1969-71.

That’s not to say, however, that the Electric XII hasn’t found its way into some very noteworthy hands, from the beginning right up to today (Jim Irsay Collection).

Jimmy Page used his 1965 model on at least two Led Zeppelin songs. Most famously, he used his Electric XII in December 1970 to record the beautifully arpeggiated rhythm guitar parts in “Stairway to Heaven". Also at that time, he used it to achieve the massive, mesmerizing guitar drone of “When the Levee Breaks".

Further, Page has used the guitar both before and since his Zeppelin work. He used it in May 1966 to record the Jeff Beck solo single “Beck’s Bolero", and it made its live debut on April 4, 2009, when Page joined Beck and his band onstage at Beck’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction for “Beck’s Bolero” and “Immigrant Song".