Fender Electric XII patent #s

Discussion of vintage Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Bass VIs, Electric XIIs and any other offset-waist instruments.
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bessieboporbach
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Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by bessieboporbach » Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:09 am

I don't know how interesting this is going to be to anyone here, and it probably won't come as news, but I just looked up the patent numbers on the original Fender XII headstock decal. It turns out the numbers refer to:

1. Round-lam fingerboard (illustrated with a Musicmaster, including bridge cover), dated 1963
2. Offset body design (the famous "seated player" illustration; depicted guitar has what looks like a J-bass pickup in the neck, something else in the bridge, a covered vibrato and otherwise resembles a Strat), dated 1958
3. Split-coil pickup -- interestingly, a 4+2 design (not the 3+3 used on the guitar -- illustrated by what looks like a J bass!), filed 1961.

+, underneath, "PAT. PEND."

The new Alternate Reality XII omits the 3rd number, and instead offers another patent # -- a design revision to #2, this time depicting a normal Jazzmaster, dated 1958.

I, at any rate, found this interesting.

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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by Pacafeliz » Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:26 am

Thank you COVID :P
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by bessieboporbach » Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:54 am

Pacafeliz wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:26 am
Thank you COVID :P
lol, true

That being said, I found the round-lam patent most interesting of all. The application implies that the reason for the heel adjustment (as opposed to the neck adjustment used by competitors was because Leo thought the truss rod should NEVER need to be adjusted by the purchaser.

The dude may have been the greatest genius in the history of modern guitar design, but he sure did keep getting truss rods wrong...

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FEXII
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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by FEXII » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:59 am

Where do you look up patent numbers?

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bessieboporbach
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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by bessieboporbach » Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:24 am

FEXII wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:59 am
Where do you look up patent numbers?
Google Patents lets you look at a lot of original materials. Here's the offset body patent:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US2960900A/en

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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by BoringPostcards » Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:06 pm

bessieboporbach wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:54 am
Pacafeliz wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:26 am
Thank you COVID :P
lol, true

That being said, I found the round-lam patent most interesting of all. The application implies that the reason for the heel adjustment (as opposed to the neck adjustment used by competitors was because Leo thought the truss rod should NEVER need to be adjusted by the purchaser.

The dude may have been the greatest genius in the history of modern guitar design, but he sure did keep getting truss rods wrong...
Heel adjust doesn't bother me at all. The necks on my Fenders only need occasional adjustments, and I use that time to take off the neck to oil, clean and check on other things.
Det er mig der holder traeerne sammen.

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Embenny
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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by Embenny » Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:15 pm

Yeah, I humidify my guitar room during the winter and since I don't change string gauges, I find my guitars easily go a half decade or longer without needing adjustment to the relief once they're acclimated and set up (I don't bother doing a full setup until I've had a guitar at least a month or two, to make sure it's fully acclimated).
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by algeriet » Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:10 am

bessieboporbach wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:54 am
The dude may have been the greatest genius in the history of modern guitar design, but he sure did keep getting truss rods wrong...
Heel or bust. 😎

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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by bessieboporbach » Wed Oct 21, 2020 4:29 am

algeriet wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:10 am
bessieboporbach wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:54 am
The dude may have been the greatest genius in the history of modern guitar design, but he sure did keep getting truss rods wrong...
Heel or bust. 😎
It is really interesting that very few other manufacturers did it this way on electric guitars, and pretty much nobody does it this way anymore. Leo simply did not want the customer adjusting the truss rod and felt he had no business doing so; heck, he didn't even think a truss rod of any kind was necessary at first, let alone an adjustable one.

Leo's idea (according to the patent) was that the guitar should be set up at the factory -- with flatwound 12s, of course -- and then left that way.

I believe the Harmony Stratotone guitars, and others of that type during that time, either did not have truss rods or didn't allow adjustment, so Leo wasn't the only one with this prejudice.

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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by algeriet » Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:01 am

bessieboporbach wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 4:29 am
algeriet wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:10 am
bessieboporbach wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:54 am
The dude may have been the greatest genius in the history of modern guitar design, but he sure did keep getting truss rods wrong...
Heel or bust. 😎
It is really interesting that very few other manufacturers did it this way on electric guitars, and pretty much nobody does it this way anymore. Leo simply did not want the customer adjusting the truss rod and felt he had no business doing so; heck, he didn't even think a truss rod of any kind was necessary at first, let alone an adjustable one.

Leo's idea (according to the patent) was that the guitar should be set up at the factory -- with flatwound 12s, of course -- and then left that way.

I believe the Harmony Stratotone guitars, and others of that type during that time, either did not have truss rods or didn't allow adjustment, so Leo wasn't the only one with this prejudice.
Very similar to how FC Hall refused to pay to license the truss rod design (was it Gibson?) and opted instead to utilize their own design which was the double truss rod that you need to loosen then adjust the neck by physically moving it and finally then tighten the truss rods. Anything to save a quarter!

Here's a cute pic of the boys in question:

Image

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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by bessieboporbach » Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:35 am

algeriet wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:01 am
bessieboporbach wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 4:29 am
algeriet wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:10 am


Heel or bust. 😎
It is really interesting that very few other manufacturers did it this way on electric guitars, and pretty much nobody does it this way anymore. Leo simply did not want the customer adjusting the truss rod and felt he had no business doing so; heck, he didn't even think a truss rod of any kind was necessary at first, let alone an adjustable one.

Leo's idea (according to the patent) was that the guitar should be set up at the factory -- with flatwound 12s, of course -- and then left that way.

I believe the Harmony Stratotone guitars, and others of that type during that time, either did not have truss rods or didn't allow adjustment, so Leo wasn't the only one with this prejudice.
Very similar to how FC Hall refused to pay to license the truss rod design (was it Gibson?) and opted instead to utilize their own design which was the double truss rod that you need to loosen then adjust the neck by physically moving it and finally then tighten the truss rods. Anything to save a quarter!

Here's a cute pic of the boys in question:

Image
That actually sounds like a decent system -- many manufacturers advise the user to "help" the neck in a similar way before locking down the setup. I just saw a video from Strandberg that gave that advice.

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Re: Fender Electric XII patent #s

Post by algeriet » Wed Oct 21, 2020 10:41 am

bessieboporbach wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:35 am
That actually sounds like a decent system -- many manufacturers advise the user to "help" the neck in a similar way before locking down the setup. I just saw a video from Strandberg that gave that advice.
Well it's terrible, and that's all I have to say about that! 😤

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