Troy Van Leeuwen Gets a Squier Signature Telecaster XII

Last week, we took a look at the latest additions to Squier’s Paranormal Series. Now there’s one more guitar joining the lineup—and this one deserves a closer look.

The new Squier Paranormal Troy Van Leeuwen Telecaster XII takes one of the most familiar electric guitar designs ever made and gives it a very Troy Van Leeuwen twist: twelve strings, a striking Copper Age finish, and a sound built around texture, depth and atmosphere.

For anyone familiar with Van Leeuwen’s playing, it makes a lot of sense.

A Guitar That Fits the Player

Troy Van Leeuwen has spent the last three decades adding his own voice to some of alternative rock’s most interesting bands, including Failure, A Perfect Circle, Queens of the Stone Age, Gone Is Gone and The Armed.

But it’s what he does within those bands that makes this guitar interesting. Van Leeuwen has always approached the guitar as more than a source of riffs. Layers, unusual tones and atmospheric parts have become a huge part of his sound.

That makes a 12-string electric a pretty natural fit.

Chords become wider and more complex, individual notes take on a natural shimmer, and even simple parts can occupy a completely different space in a mix. The Telecaster XII gives Van Leeuwen that expanded palette without abandoning the directness and attack of a Tele.

The Telecaster, Times Twelve

At first glance, there’s no mistaking what you’re looking at. The classic Telecaster body is still here, along with a pair of Fender Designed Alnico Telecaster single-coil pickups, a three-way selector, master volume and master tone.

Then you get to the headstock.

The custom Telecaster XII headstock accommodates all twelve tuners while giving the guitar a look that feels like it could have come from another chapter of Fender history.

The maple neck uses a familiar "C" profile with a 25.5" scale length, 9.5" fingerboard radius and 21 narrow tall frets. The Indian laurel fingerboard is paired with a 1.6875" nut, providing some extra room for twelve strings without making the neck feel enormous.

At the other end is a dedicated Telecaster 12-string bridge combining top-loading and string-through construction.

And Then There’s the Copper Age Finish

The finish might be our favorite part.

Squier calls it Copper Age, and paired with the four-ply tortoiseshell pickguard and chrome hardware, it gives the guitar an identity all its own. It doesn’t look like Squier was trying to make another vintage reissue, nor does it look overly modern.

It just looks like Troy’s guitar.

That distinction matters on an artist model. The best signature guitars aren’t simply existing models with somebody’s name attached to them. They tell you something about how that player approaches the instrument.

This one certainly does.

A Different Kind of Signature Guitar

The Paranormal Troy Van Leeuwen Telecaster XII isn’t built around hotter pickups, more gain or complicated switching. Its biggest feature is simply what happens when you add six more strings to a Telecaster.

For players who build songs around layers, alternate voicings and texture—or anyone who has wanted to add an electric 12-string to the arsenal—this is a particularly interesting addition to the Squier lineup.

And at $599.99, it puts a pretty specialized type of instrument within reach of a lot more players.

The Squier Paranormal Troy Van Leeuwen Telecaster XII in Copper Age is available now at Detroit Guitar.