Carl Wilson's Favorite Electric Twelve-String Guitar.

1967 Epiphone Riviera E360-TD12C.

This all original Epiphone Electric Twelve-String guitar weighs just 8.40 lbs. Sixteen-inch wide, one and three-quarter inch thick laminated maple body with a maple central block. One-piece mahogany neck with a nut width of 1 9/16 inches, a standard Gibson 24 3/4 scale length and a medium profile. Black-faced 'long' headstock with inlaid pearl "Epiphone" script logo and pearl vertical 'cloud' inlay. Two-layer, black over white plastic truss-rod cover with  stylized "E" logo, secured by two screws. Serial number "897511" stamped in blind on back of headstock. Kluson Deluxe 'double-line' strip tuners with oval metal buttons.Rosewood fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and single-parallelogram pearl inlays. Two mini-humbucking pickups with outputs of 7.46k and 6.92k, each with a black rectangular label on the underside with "Patent No. / 2,737,842" in gold. Four layer, white over black plastic pickguard with silver and black Epiphone "E." Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Black plastic ribbed-side conical-shape "Witch Hat" control knobs. Gibson Tune-O-Matic (retainer) bridge with metal saddles and specific trapeze tailpiece. Inside the bass 'f' hole is the pale-blue rectangular Epiphone, Kalamazoo label with 'style' "E-360 TD 12" and serial number "897511" stamped in black. The 'custom-color' sparkling burgundy metallic finish has slightly faded and there is some light finish checking on the back of the body. There are two very small surface chips on the back of the neck, one behind the second fret (3/16 x 1/8 inch) and the other just by the fifteenth fret (3/16 x 1/4 inch). The original jumbo frets show very little sign of wear and this forty-nine year old guitar plays and sounds just as it should. We are pleased to give this fine instrument a strong (9.00) exceptionally fine rating. Housed in a slightly-later (seventies) Gibson five-latch, black shaped hardshell case with burgundy plush lining (9.00).

Introduced in 1965, the Riviera 12-String was Epiphone's equivalent of the Gibson ES-335-12 and had the same maple central block. Sunburst and Cherry were the two standard colors offered at the time. The main difference between these two Kalamazoo models was the use of 'Mini Humbuckers' for the Epiphone brand and regular humbuckers on the Gibson. This Epiphone model was made in fewer numbers than its Gibson counterpart with just 519 examples being produced between 1965 and 1969 as compared to 2,062 Gibson's. According to Epiphone's records, this 'custom' Sparkling Burgundy Metallic finish was only offered by special order from 1966 to 1967.

"Carl Wilson's favorite electric 12-string guitar was an Epiphone Riviera E-360TD. He loved the full sound that his Epi 12 brought to the Beach Boys songs on-stage. He would use the Riviera 12 on songs that he had recorded with a six-string. 'Surfer Girl' and 'God Only Knows', for example, had six-string guitar on the recordings but on stage Carl always played his Riviera 12."