"Six Plus Six" - Super Rare Charcoal Frost
Fender Electric Xll

This super rare 'Charcoal Frost Metallic' custom color twelve-string guitar weighs just 8.40 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches, a very comfortable medium neck profile and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, maple neck, and veneer rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. "Hockey-stick" headstock in matching Charcoal Frost Metallic. Headstock decal with Fender logo in gold with black trim, with "ELECTRIC XII" in black below it, and "PAT. 3,143,028 2,960,900 & DES. 186,826" in black in two lines below that. One eight-hole "bracket" string guide. Six-on-a-side Fender "F" tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Four-bolt neck plate with large Fender backward "F" logo and with serial number "170883" between the top two screws. The neck is dated "12 APR 66 B" and the pots are dated "304 66 17" (Stackpole, April 1966). Two powerful black split single-coil pickups with outputs of 8.82k and 8.38k. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with seventeen screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) and jack socket, all on metal plate adjoining pickguard, plus one four-way rotary selector switch on pickguard. Black plastic knobs with white numbering and silver tops. Fender twelve-saddle combined bridge/tailpiece. There are two 'additional' screws and washers on the face of the body just below the tailpiece. The screwholes are exactly 6 1/4 inches apart and have original 'Fender' screws and washers. We cannot explain why these were fitted - but what we can say, is that from a 1988 photograph (included) of this guitar - we can see that they were certainly there at that time (1988) and quite possibly from the factory in 1966. There are a couple of miniscule surface chips on the treble edge of the body but this super rare custom color twelve-string is still in as near mint (9.25) condition as one could ever wish for. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with black leather ends and orange plush lining (9.00).

The four-way rotary pickup selector switch has the following settings: 1 - Neck; 2 - Neck+Bridge; 3 - Bridge; 4 - Neck + Bridge with 'Phase Inverter'.

Charcoal Frost Metallic was a color used by Lincoln in 1965-66. Fender used this color on their guitars for the years 1965-1969 only. This example has all of the '1965 first year' features, including an unbound neck with pearloid dot markers and appears in Werner's List on p.57. The entry reads: "170883 Elec 12 Char Frost".

There are two letters "ES" stamped into the body between the neck pickup cavity and the bridge pickup cavity (only visible when the pickguard is removed) which signify that this guitar was "Enter Special" as with many other 1966 Fender guitars. This is a near mint example of a very rare 'Charcoal Frost' 1966 Electric Xll -- and the first that we have ever handled. 1966 and the "ES" Stamp. "The two-letter "ES" paint code means "Entered Special" for a special order or a show guitar. This does not indicate a factory refinish job, but was instead used by the factory to tell the finish booth to paint this body special order. Stamped number codes and letter codes mean different things… In 1966, Fender used the "ES" code a lot on their custom color instruments. At least for 1966, the ES code was used as some sort of default for custom colored instruments (be it Teles, or Strats or Jazz Basses). This two letters ("ES" for "Enter Special") seems to denote a special order, at least for 1966. Again this is has been seen lots of times on 1966 documented original custom color instruments." (http://www.provide.net/~cfh/fenderc.html)

This actual guitar was featured in the magazine Guitar World of July 1988. It is pictured standing between a Black Guard Tele and a sunburst Fender Bass Vl. In the photograph (from 1988) one can clearly see the two 'extra' screws below the tailpiece. (Original Guitar World magazine included in case).

The Electric XII hit the music stores in the summer of 1965. "Electric 12-strings had recently been popularised by The Beatles and The Byrds, who both used Rickenbackers, so Fender joined in the battle with their own rather belated version. There were no surprises in the guitar's body -- it was that familiar offset-waist design again (and at $349 the 12-string was pitched at the same price as the Jazzmaster). The Electric XII had a long headstock, necessary to carry the extra machine heads, finishing in a distinctive curved end that has earned it the nickname 'hockey-stick'. An innovation was the Electric XII's 12-saddle bridge which allowed for precise adjustments of individual string heights and intonation, a luxury hitherto unknown on any 12-string guitar. But the 12-string craze of the 1960s was almost over and the Electric XII proved shortlived, lasting in the line only until 1968" (Tony Bacon and Paul Day, The Fender Book, p. 44).