I play electric 12-string electric guitar quite a lot. Love the chime. I've been searching for an electric 12-string for years and I've played every one I could get my hands on including every commercially available Ric. There is a shop in town that stocks most of them. Although I love the tone of the Rics and appreciate the quality, I simply found them very difficult to play. The neck widths are very thin. I have relatively small to average sized hands and still struggled to play them. I even tried the 660/12 which has a wider neck. It was wider but also fatter in the feel of the back of the neck. I didn't like it either. Now, this is all relative of course, because if you have huge hands, there are probably some chord voicings you could play with a Ric that wouldn't be possible with other guitars. Here is something else I didn't like. Every Ric I've tried, despite the innovative headstock design all felt neck heavy and tended to droop. Most electric 12-strings have this issue, some worse than others. I know people love Rics and that's great. I am also aware of some folks that can't stand them. My advice is to try one or as many as you can.
In my search for 12-string electrics, I started with an Ibanez AR112 that I scored on ebay awhile back. I've played Ibanez guitars my entire musical life so it seemed like a reasonable choice. I love the sound of this guitar; thick and bright. The neck scale is 24.75 inch, is thin in the back and feels comfortable. However, this guitar is incredibly heavy. In fact, it has to be the heaviest guitar I own. It is also very neck heavy and unbalanced. It has an absurd tendency to flop down, particularly so when played standing up with a strap. I picked up a used Schecter CSH12. This guitar has a 25.5 inch neck scale and is very comfortable to play. The neck width felt great and the back was just a tad thicker than the Ibanez. The guitar is a hollowbody and as such lighter. It is very well balanced. The neck never droops when played with a strap. The downside is the stock pickups are garbage. I replaced them almost immediately with Duncan P-rails. This made a tremendous difference in sound. I think for the money (you can still find the CSH12 used for $400 to $600) these are an excellent value with the understanding that you will most likely desire to change the pickups. However, I still wasn't satisfied. The Schecter CSH112 still had a kind of midrange darkness, warmth or for lack of better words "insufficient clarity" to the tone I didn't feel was optimal for me. I prefer a bright crisp and full tone with clarity. Yes, I'm picky. LOL! The Schecter is a good instrument I have used for playing live and for recording. It works fine in these contexts. You can hear both of these guitars on the song "Strange New World" from my solo album. The Schecter was used for the rhythm tracks and the Ibanez AR112 was used for the 12-string guitar solo. I recorded the guitar direct with an AXE-FX Ultra. Here's the link.
Music - Timelight
Awhile back I had the chance to play a Carvin DC127-12 in a shop in San Francisco. I noticed immediately that it was by far the easiest to play. It also had the clarity and fullness I wanted. The neck width is wide and the back of the neck is flat. The stock electronics were ideal as I like to split pickups to single coils, mix and match with humbuckers and also run sometime out of phase. The Carvin can do all this. Stock. I decided to order a DC127-12 from Carvin with exactly the woods, pickups, fretboard, frets, hardware, finish, etc. I desired. I received the guitar last week. It sounds fantastic and the build quality is superb. The neck is the most comfortable 12-string I've ever played, even better than the one I tried in the shop. The neck doesn't droop. Perfect. I am completely happy with this instrument and it is now my main 12-string electric. Hope this helps.
