Electric Xii Building Info/Specs (How To Guide)
Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 6:01 pm
Building an xii
It has been really hard for me to find a lot of this information. I've been doing a lot of research to build an xii. So why not make a thread with as much information as possible for anyone who wants to build an Electric Xii? With this thread anyone should be able to finally make their dream of owning an Xii come to life. (Without paying a fortune for a vintage one) Alright... Where to start...
Step 1. The Bridge:
The absolute hardest thing to find for an Xii build is the bridge. There are four options here for a vintage look...
1. Use a vintage bridge (fixed 7.25 radius)
2. Use a Venus/strat Xii bridge (fixed 7.25 radius or 9.5 radius. Still not sure. But it positively will work with a 7.25 radius neck)
The difference between these two bridges are The Venus bridge is screwed to the body with five screws. The vintage EXII with six. the Venus bridge is missing the middle rear screw hole, the one under the intonation screws. There are also minor differences in measurements but it is close enough to be a drop in replacement.
These two aren't the easiest options since they are both extremely hard to find so here are two more vintage looking options...
3. Buy a Gotoh 12 string bridge and use one of Kevin James's custom cut bridge surrounds. It gives the bridge the same shape as the original bridge. This bridge can work with any radius neck. Link: http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/p ... ates-10317
4. Use a toronado bridge and the saddles from a gotoh 12 string bridge. You have to make the 6 holes in the bottom of the toronado bigger to do this. But this is another good alternative that looks similar to the vintage bridge just smaller. This bridge can also work with any radius neck.
Options 1 and 2 should have the string ferrule back plate. If not you will have to use 12 back ferrules. Options 1 and 2 only need 6 back ferrules.
Step 2. The Neck:
As of right now I know of three places to get an xii hockey stick neck made. But only one of them I'm positive makes them with vintage specs. Let's start off with the specs of a vintage neck...
A vintage Xii hockey stick neck is as follows...
-Maple back
-Rosewood board
-25.5" scale
-7.25 radius
-21 fret
-2-3/8" Heel Width
-1-5/8" Nut Width
-Drones on Top
-F cased Tuners
-Thin fret wire (late 60's)
-Pearl Dots or White pearl block with white binding
Now this slightly varies from a Venus Xii neck which has...
-2-5/16" Heel Width
-1-3/4" Nut Width
-Still not completely positive of the neck being a 7.25 radius or a 9.5 radius
Your 3 options for getting a neck are
1. Warmoth. This is a great option but won't work with a vintage xii or venus xii bridge. They have a standard strat neck heel, which is narrower and calls for option 3 or 4 (gotoh bridge) Also, you can not get one in 7.25 radius from them like a vintage neck. And you can not get binding on a 21 fret neck.
2. Paul Rhoney. He is on the OSG forum and can also be found with a google search. As far as I know he can make a neck like Warmoth with a standard strat heel. But he does tons of custom work so I don't see why he couldn't make you a vintage spec one. He built a Marauder replica for crying out loud.
3. Cross Guitars. He is also on the OSG forum. Look for him under CROSS_Guitars. He can make any of these necks. He is making me a vintage spec one. He just can't do block binding at the moment.
Step 3. The Body
There are also three options here.
*Quick note* the original bodies were made out of 3 piece Alder and 1-5/8" deep. 8.5 lbs.
1. Warmoth. They don't sell an actual xii body but you can get one of their jazzmaster bodies which is close. Only get the lower control route. You will need a custom guard made from pickguardian and will have to route the control area a bit more for the input jack, as well as the rest of your routes since Warmoth never likes to do custom things...
2. Paul Rhoney. OSG forum. He has a wonderful template that is as close as he could get to an original Xii. The template is for a strat sized neck heel like a warmoth neck but like I stated before I'm sure he could make a vintage spec one.
3. Richard Oliver. Aka the legendary shortscale body maker and builder known as "cooterfinger" found on Shortscale or OSG forums. I bought the template from Rhoney and gave it to him so he can do the same. Vintage spec or strat heel.
Step 4. The guts and such!
You already have or know where to find the bridge so let's move on...
-Control Plate. You can get a replica xii control plate from Kevin James as well.
Link: http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/p ... ates-10317
-Pickups. You could use vintage ones, Venus xii ones, or Curtis Novak makes exact copies of them with either black or white covers.
Link: http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/xii-v.shtml
-Pickguard. Paul Rhoney and Cooterfinger both have the template for one. And _____ forget his name from pickguardian has one for a warmoth jazzmaster body.
-Pots, Jack, witchhat knobs... You can find about anywhere with a google search.
-Selector switch and knob. Both can also be easily found by searching "xii selector switch" and "xii selector knob" the switch is a 4 way rotary switch.
Here's a link to the knob on Angela: http://angela.com/dakawarechocolatebrow ... hknob.aspx
-String tree. As of now the only place I know to get one is Angela.
Link: http://angela.com/stringtreeforfenderelectricxii.aspx
-Tuners. The tuners were F cases tuners like on the 70's fenders. I'm sure you could use a lefty set and a righty but I don't think they face the same as a vintage xii would. You could use 12 string kluson style strings or gotohs as well.
-Logo. Ask.
Step 5. Wiring
Here's the wiring diagram.
Link: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/ ... iagram-jpg
Step 6. Paint time!
There are two really great places I can recommend for paint.
1. Paul Rhoney. OSG forum. He does top notch work and is willing to work with you!
2. Rowyco. Simply google him. I've never used him but I have heard great things about him and have seen his work. It is phenomenal.
There you have it. You should be able to build an Electric Xii now. I will add more info when ever I get any. I think I covered everything. Everything important at least.
It has been really hard for me to find a lot of this information. I've been doing a lot of research to build an xii. So why not make a thread with as much information as possible for anyone who wants to build an Electric Xii? With this thread anyone should be able to finally make their dream of owning an Xii come to life. (Without paying a fortune for a vintage one) Alright... Where to start...
Step 1. The Bridge:
The absolute hardest thing to find for an Xii build is the bridge. There are four options here for a vintage look...
1. Use a vintage bridge (fixed 7.25 radius)
2. Use a Venus/strat Xii bridge (fixed 7.25 radius or 9.5 radius. Still not sure. But it positively will work with a 7.25 radius neck)
The difference between these two bridges are The Venus bridge is screwed to the body with five screws. The vintage EXII with six. the Venus bridge is missing the middle rear screw hole, the one under the intonation screws. There are also minor differences in measurements but it is close enough to be a drop in replacement.
These two aren't the easiest options since they are both extremely hard to find so here are two more vintage looking options...
3. Buy a Gotoh 12 string bridge and use one of Kevin James's custom cut bridge surrounds. It gives the bridge the same shape as the original bridge. This bridge can work with any radius neck. Link: http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/p ... ates-10317
4. Use a toronado bridge and the saddles from a gotoh 12 string bridge. You have to make the 6 holes in the bottom of the toronado bigger to do this. But this is another good alternative that looks similar to the vintage bridge just smaller. This bridge can also work with any radius neck.
Options 1 and 2 should have the string ferrule back plate. If not you will have to use 12 back ferrules. Options 1 and 2 only need 6 back ferrules.
Step 2. The Neck:
As of right now I know of three places to get an xii hockey stick neck made. But only one of them I'm positive makes them with vintage specs. Let's start off with the specs of a vintage neck...
A vintage Xii hockey stick neck is as follows...
-Maple back
-Rosewood board
-25.5" scale
-7.25 radius
-21 fret
-2-3/8" Heel Width
-1-5/8" Nut Width
-Drones on Top
-F cased Tuners
-Thin fret wire (late 60's)
-Pearl Dots or White pearl block with white binding
Now this slightly varies from a Venus Xii neck which has...
-2-5/16" Heel Width
-1-3/4" Nut Width
-Still not completely positive of the neck being a 7.25 radius or a 9.5 radius
Your 3 options for getting a neck are
1. Warmoth. This is a great option but won't work with a vintage xii or venus xii bridge. They have a standard strat neck heel, which is narrower and calls for option 3 or 4 (gotoh bridge) Also, you can not get one in 7.25 radius from them like a vintage neck. And you can not get binding on a 21 fret neck.
2. Paul Rhoney. He is on the OSG forum and can also be found with a google search. As far as I know he can make a neck like Warmoth with a standard strat heel. But he does tons of custom work so I don't see why he couldn't make you a vintage spec one. He built a Marauder replica for crying out loud.
3. Cross Guitars. He is also on the OSG forum. Look for him under CROSS_Guitars. He can make any of these necks. He is making me a vintage spec one. He just can't do block binding at the moment.
Step 3. The Body
There are also three options here.
*Quick note* the original bodies were made out of 3 piece Alder and 1-5/8" deep. 8.5 lbs.
1. Warmoth. They don't sell an actual xii body but you can get one of their jazzmaster bodies which is close. Only get the lower control route. You will need a custom guard made from pickguardian and will have to route the control area a bit more for the input jack, as well as the rest of your routes since Warmoth never likes to do custom things...
2. Paul Rhoney. OSG forum. He has a wonderful template that is as close as he could get to an original Xii. The template is for a strat sized neck heel like a warmoth neck but like I stated before I'm sure he could make a vintage spec one.
3. Richard Oliver. Aka the legendary shortscale body maker and builder known as "cooterfinger" found on Shortscale or OSG forums. I bought the template from Rhoney and gave it to him so he can do the same. Vintage spec or strat heel.
Step 4. The guts and such!
You already have or know where to find the bridge so let's move on...
-Control Plate. You can get a replica xii control plate from Kevin James as well.
Link: http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/p ... ates-10317
-Pickups. You could use vintage ones, Venus xii ones, or Curtis Novak makes exact copies of them with either black or white covers.
Link: http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/xii-v.shtml
-Pickguard. Paul Rhoney and Cooterfinger both have the template for one. And _____ forget his name from pickguardian has one for a warmoth jazzmaster body.
-Pots, Jack, witchhat knobs... You can find about anywhere with a google search.
-Selector switch and knob. Both can also be easily found by searching "xii selector switch" and "xii selector knob" the switch is a 4 way rotary switch.
Here's a link to the knob on Angela: http://angela.com/dakawarechocolatebrow ... hknob.aspx
-String tree. As of now the only place I know to get one is Angela.
Link: http://angela.com/stringtreeforfenderelectricxii.aspx
-Tuners. The tuners were F cases tuners like on the 70's fenders. I'm sure you could use a lefty set and a righty but I don't think they face the same as a vintage xii would. You could use 12 string kluson style strings or gotohs as well.
-Logo. Ask.
Step 5. Wiring
Here's the wiring diagram.
Link: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/ ... iagram-jpg
Step 6. Paint time!
There are two really great places I can recommend for paint.
1. Paul Rhoney. OSG forum. He does top notch work and is willing to work with you!
2. Rowyco. Simply google him. I've never used him but I have heard great things about him and have seen his work. It is phenomenal.
There you have it. You should be able to build an Electric Xii now. I will add more info when ever I get any. I think I covered everything. Everything important at least.
