(acoustic guitar playing)
- Oh hey there.
My name's Gregg Foreman.
We're sitting here today with the beautiful
Fender Villager 12 string guitar.
We're gonna be running it through an electric guitar amp,
some pedals, playing it clean, and try and maybe
change your idea of what a 12 string is, and can do.
So let's have a look.
My first interactions with 12 strings
were on, like, a lot of post-punk records,
things like Bauhaus and The Cure.
We wanted to really figure out how to get those sounds,
but when we would get our hands on a 12 string,
they were often really thick, clunky, big body,
hard to press a chord down,
and when you could get a chord down,
of course, it sounded like Christmas Eve.
The beauty of this guitar,
is it's got a Newporter auditorium-style body.
It's slimmer.
You can pull it closer.
It's actually just easier to maneuver.
It's easier to play,
and makes me want to pick it up and actually play it.
You'll notice that the lows are lower,
and the highs are clearer and chimier.
You get a more dynamic feel and sound,
and it's just funner to play.
The next thing I wanna talk about is
the short-scale mahogany neck.
12 strings can be difficult to play.
and what Fender has done here, is lowered the action,
so actually forming chords is more like an electric guitar.
The neck being short-scale,
and mahogany being a better sounding acoustic neck,
it takes away the barrier between me and the instrument,
and makes it more fun to play.
With the 11 gauge strings, I can form chords easier.
It's just more fun,
and I feel way more creative with the instrument, honestly.
That's one of the reasons why I love this guitar so much.
So now I wanna play a little bit of the guitar
in its clean, mic'd sound,
for those of you who wanna hear and play
a traditional 12 string sound.
(acoustic guitar playing)
I know what you're thinking.
A 12 string guitar.
How am I gonna tune this thing,
let alone bring it on stage, and play it live.
Well Fender's thought of that.
They added the Fishman pickup, preamp, and tuner.
You dial off some bass, add some highs.
It's got a great built in pickup
for a great out of the box sound,
and the tuner allows you to bypass the pickup,
so you can tell your most intimate tour stories
from the coffee house to Radio City Music Hall.
It's got a small footprint, and it's pretty low profile,
so it doesn't even get in the way,
and you will barely notice it.
It's super convenient,
and again makes me not afraid to play a 12 string live.
So you've seen the demo.
Now you're gonna see us do what we're gonna do.
One, two, three, four.
(rock band playing)
Well, thank you for checking out this
Fender Villager 12 string guitar.
We hope you have changed your mind
about what a 12 string is, and can do.
Now it's your turn to get out there
and play something different.
(rock band playing)