Bizarro 1960s Kingston 12-string solidbody electric guitar

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Here's a real oddity, a 1960s-era Kingston 12-string solidbody, of a peculiar design that I certainly have never seen before. It is a very odd shape. It may just be me, but I fancy that if it were finished in yellow rather than black it might resemeble a certain submersible that The Beatles made famous.

So, it's Japanese made by Kawai. What else do we know? Well here's what the eBay seller tells us:

Electronics - All electronics are working including both pickups, on/off selector switch for each pickup, both volume controls and universal tone control have all checked out fine. All electronics look original and vintage. I have owned 100's of vintage MIJ guitars and this setup looks legit. The Pickguard is an interesting material however as it is not plastic. It looks like those faux wood pick guards used on Domino California Rebel guitars although the wood side is reversed. See pics.

Body - Solid wood (not plywood). Finish may or may not be original. It looks like it may have been painted black although my guess is it was painted many years ago as finish has a vintage look. I believe the guitar may have been all white judging from the front of the neck headstock which looks original. There are some light areas around the edge of the headstock that have black paint. Back of neck is black finish as well and matches the body. The body pickguard holes and tremolo tailpiece dugout area look original and not modified in any way. The bridge area however looks like it was modified to be cut into the body and pickguard instead of "floating bridge" style or screwed into top of body. Tremolo tailpiece is typical of Kingston / Kawai guitars of this age and the routing area in body looks all original (I have a Kingston / Kawai S-160 listed at this time with this tremolo tailpiece if you'd like to compare these). This tailpiece is actually machined with 12 string holes (first time I've seen that on one of these tailpieces). The tremolo has been blocked off and does not include the arm stem or arm. A 12 string guitar can be problematic enough to keep in tune, never mind adding a tremolo to the mix!!! Yowza!

Neck - Neck has Gibson type "open book" lawsuit design. Tuners all match and are vintage and all work fine. Truss rod cover has KINGSTON on it. Neck needs attention as it starts straight but takes a dive where it meets the body.

The main issue with this guitar keeping it from being playable is the neck. The neck is the main problem. It starts straight all the way until 10th fret or so then dives down to body. It's not a typical forward or back bow. Also, the bridge being set down into the body (presumably to lower action?) makes the string angle wrong and the strings slip out.

Sad that the guitar has some issues and will most likely end up being a wall hanging rather than a player, but it's a fascinating pieve nonetheless.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US$350.

G L Wilson

© 2016, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Framus 12 String Semi-Hollow Guitar from the 1960s

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We've looked at a lot of Framus Guitars guitars here on Guitarz so I was a little surprised that when I checked we hadn't yet featured this 1960s 12 string beauty.

This Framus looks to be in great shape. The seller even uses the word pristine. Short of the nick in the headstock I'd say they would probably be right.

R.W. Haller

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The Danelecto Bellzouki 12 string guitar from 1965

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This Danelectro Bellzouki was the brainchild of Vincent Bell, a session guitarist in the 1960s. Apparently when asked to play bouzouki for a gig he tuned one up 12 string style and faked his way through the show. This lead him to design an electric version of a bouzouki. 

Initially there were 2 sets of g-unison strings to help emulate the sound of the greek instrument but quickly evolved to a standard 12 string tuning. Interesting to note that the heavier gauge of the octave strings are on top as opposed to the bottom as on standard 12 strings. I've always thought this would be a better idea, but have never owned a 12 string long enough to try it out.

Other than the bouzouki shape this guitar is very Danelectro with the lipstick pickup, aluminum nut , and skate key tuners.

R.W. Haller

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When a Burns isn't a Burns. Japanese made violin-bodied 12 string Burns "copy".

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I found this Japan made Burns guitar while doing one of my regular "Burns Guitar" searches the other day. I'm hesitant to call this a copy as I'm not aware of any Burns guitar that is similar to this model. Has anyone seen one before?

It sold for $127 and I kind of wish it were I who bought it. I'm sure though that it would require quite a bit of work to get playable, so I probably did myself a favour not adding to my list of projects. But I'd sure love to have a 12 string with a tremolo. Imagine the possibilities, the constant tuning would be paramount to heavy lifting finger exercises.

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Hammertone OC-12 - Octave 12 string Electric Guitar

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We've looked at 12 Sting Octave Electric guitars ( and the handsome people that play them ) in this post from a few years ago, but this is the first time that we've featured the Hammertone OC-12.

I've had the pleasure to play a Hammertone and was surprised that it was quite playable and comfortable for my big hands. I was expecting more of a mandolin feel, but it actually was fairly spacious.

I don't exactly love the finish on this Hammertone OC-12 but I'd be more likely to use in a studio scenario rather than live anyways.

Anyone out there have one of these little beauties?

R.W. Haller


© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Shergold 6 and 12-string double neck guitar, ex Julian Cope

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We recently looked at a very fine example of a Shergold doubleneck 4+8 string bass. Now it's time to meet its guitar counterpart, the above pictured Shergold 6+12 string doubleneck which is currently being offered for sale via eBay UK with bids starting at £1,000.

To make it even more interesting, this particular guitar until recently belonged to Julian Cope. I'm pretty sure I've seen it played live at one of his shows that I've attended. The guitar was used on the recording of "Too Freud to Rock'n'Roll, Too Jung to Die" by Cope's power trio Brain Donor. However, the cover of that album features guitarist Doggen Foster holding a totally different doubleneck, namely a Mosrite.

Of course Cope is something of a doubleneck fan. I've seen him playing a customised Danelectrco with guitar and baritone necks, and of course he is the owner of The Beast, an unholy and unwieldy-looking customised Gibson non-reverse Thunderbird/Firebird combination.

G L Wilson

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Blake's 12-string solidbody electric Frankenstein

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Here's an email we received from Blake:

This guitar was created in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The bolt on neck came from a 70s Epiphone acoustic 12 with broken bracing and poor tone. The body originated as an unidentified 60s Japanese Jazzmaster style guitar that was rescued from a dumpster. In order to combine these instruments, the neck pocket was slightly enlarged, the bridge and tailpiece were modified and relocated for proper intonation, and I designed and fashioned a pickguard from a 12" vinyl record. There are no volume or tone controls to weaken the signal output, just a Lace Alumitone wired straight to the output jack. Two barely playable guitars have been combined to form one highly playable electric 12 string. A recording of it can be heard on my bandcamp page: https://secretgeometry.bandcamp.com/

Rock on!
Blake Mandrayk

Nice job, Blake. It looks very cool and sounds great too.

Keep those readers guitars pictures coming in, folks!

G L Wilson

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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A Japanese oxymoron of a guitar: Pignose 12+6 doubleneck travel guitar

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Regular Guitarz readers will know of my fascination for doublenecked guitars. They will also know of my fondness for the absurd, and when it comes to travel guitars what could be more absurd than a doubleneck guitar? This rare Pignose 12+6 Doubleneck Travel Guitar, built solely for the Japanese market, features the now legendary Pignose amp built into the guitar body plus TWO speakers. I admit that I never saw the point of a doubleneck combining 12-string and 6-string necks (realistically, how often would you want to play both on the same song?); as I have commented elsewhere I don't understand why there aren't more bass + guitar doubleneck combinations, or for that matter, doublenecks featuring a pair of six-string necks which would allow for alternative tunings. Despite all that, if you did actually want that 12+6 combination, this Pignose does look like it has a nice compact body and shouldn't be the backbreaker that certain doublenecks are known to be.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $775.00.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Arbiter 12+6 Doubleneck leftie conversion

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As I already mentioned recently, I'm on something of a doubleneck kick lately. I'll explain more in a forthcoming blog post, but in the meantime here's a doublenck Arbiter 12+6 based on the now legendary Gibson EDS-1275, which has been very comptently converted into a left-handed guitar. It's got to be a better leftie doubleneck than some of the Chinese-made cheapies being sold on eBay.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting bid of £299.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

One of a kind Gibson Master Museum Doubleneck Orville Guitar

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The most iconic of all doubleneck guitars is surely the Gibson EDS-1275 as notoriously played by Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page. However, Gibson have produced many other doublenecked instruments over the years, some of which we have already looked at during the 12 year history of Guitarz (which is a round-about way of letting me slip into the text the fact that today is the 12th Anniversary of this blog, the world's first and longest running guitar blog!).

However the above picture doubleneck acoustic is a one-off creation, the Gibson Master Museum Doubleneck Orville and is from the estate of the Late Dr.Michael Brown. It was hand-built in 2003 by Ren Ferguson, who ran the Gibson Master shop for many years. Note how the 12-string neck is the lower of the two - I've often wondered why most other doubleneck 12+6 guitars have the 12-string at the top.

Currently listed on eBay with a quite staggering Buy It Now price of US $34,999. You'd think for that kind of money the guitar would be fitted with more elegant volume and tone controls.

Incidentally, I've got a bit of a thing for doubleneck guitars at the moment. If anyone would like to buy us a 12th Anniversary present, a doubleneck 6+4 (guitar and bass combo) would be received most gratefully!

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Can you help identify this bizarre vintage solidbody electric 12-string?

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Any ideas, guys? It's like a Mosrite on steroids. And what's with the huge extended cutlass-shaped lower horn?

Photo borrowed from the Vintage Japanese Guitar group on Facebook. (That's not to say this guitar IS Japanese. It could be, but it's also possible that it is European in origin).

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Vintage 19667 LaBaye 2x4 XII - 12-string solidbody

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As if the LaBaye 2x4 guitar wasn't enough of a rarity, along comes a 12-string version!

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $2,100.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

1950s Stratosphere Twin - doublenecked 12+6 string monster guitar!

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One thing that you can guarantee about this lumpen-shaped 1950s twin-necked behemoth is that were it being marketed today they certainly wouldn't be allowed to use the name "Stratosphere". A certain American guitar manufacturer would nip that in the bud with threatened legal action as soon as they heard about it.

Of course there is nothing "Strat"-like about it; the nearest it comes to any Fender is that the bolt-on maple necks are rather Telecaster-like aside from the design of the headstocks, of course. Incidentally, it's nice to see that the headstocks are slotted and fitted with rear-facing machine heads. One some doublenecks, the tuners on one neck get in the way of those on the other - and you can just forget about using a string winder!

The eBay seller tells us that Stratosphere guitars were:

...made by a pair or brothers in Missouri, there were probably less than 200 made and who knows how many remain, it is the guitar used by Jimmy Bryant to play and record "Stratosphere Boogie" in the mid 1950s, it was the first electric 12 string guitar, and most importantly, the 12 string neck is tuned in major and minor thirds, unlike a normal 12 string. It really is a rare piece of American History, albeit an obscure one.

This example is currently listed on ebay with a Buy It Now price of $15,000.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

1960s Greco Model GR-960 electric XII semi in Greenburst finish and with those wacky V-shaped pickups

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We've previously looked at these Greco semi-hollowbodies with crazy V-shaped pickups before on Guitarz (see here and here) but the example pictured above is all the more rarer for being a 12-string. This guitar differs from the 6-string Greco Shrike in that it doesn't have the same contoured - almost German carve - top, plus the pickup selector switch panel is located on the upper horn rather than on the lower bout. Note too the body and neck binding and proper f-holes rather than the Shrike's diamond-shaped soundholes.

I'm not sure if technically it is a "Shrike" - the eBay seller lists it as being a Greco Model GR-960. The neck plate of the guitar mentions that the pickup design is U.S. patent pending, SH0-42-12136. I do like the single volume control. I often think that's all you need.

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $1,595.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.