The 12 string acoustic guitar

When I was 14 years old I started listening to The Doors. Their power and dark moodiness blew me away (as it does most post-adolescents!), and I ended up plowing through their entire album collection. Almost everyone I’ve talked to has been through a “Doors” phase, and everyone finds something different about them to love. The inventiveness of the drumming, the all-around jazz/blues/rock fusion of the keyboards, and of course Jim Morrison’s voice and charisma usually top the list. And justifiably so.

I loved most of their songs, but the one that stood out to me then - and still does today - is Spanish Caravan. In it, guitarist Robby Krieger opens with the most beautiful guitar solo, which was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. "What kind of guitar," I asked myself, "makes that beautiful sound?"

It turned out Krieger was playing the 12 string acoustic guitar, and Spanish Caravan would go on to be the defining song of that instrument. Krieger was an underrated virtuoso who made his guitar evoke the mountains and mysteries of medieval Iberia, and I wanted to hear more. Not everyone was the biggest fan, but his music made me a believer.

 So I went on a quest to find other artists who used the 12 string acoustic guitar. It wasn't easy, since I grew up in a time when distortion and power chords were all the rage and the lyrical melancholy of the 12 string acoustic guitar was often overlooked.

But if you searched hard enough, you could find it. I discovered The Cure, where Robert Smith used the 12 string acoustic guitar's natural chorus effect to create darkly evocative songs. Same with Johnny Marr of The Smiths, whose guitar work near perfectly meshed with Morrissey's resonant voice.

On the American side of the pond, just about the only one to make use of the 12 string acoustic guitar at that time was Peter Buck of REM. Unlike The Cure or The Smiths, REM tended to play less in a minor chord and produced more upbeat music. Through this, Buck was able to show the range and diversity of the instrument, and REM became a musical force.

So look, and you shall find. The 12 string acoustic guitar isn't the most popular instrument out there, but it is out there. You may have to kick over a few stones and dig up a few old tracks to locate it, but the reward is more than worth the effort.