Musician’s Muse: The 12-String Guitar

Artists like Glen Campbell created unforgettable moments with the underrated instrument.

A 12-string guitar, which has 12 strings in six courses, produces a fuller, more harmonically resonant tone tone than a standard six-string guitar. thunder-st/Shutterstock

In the mid-1970s, country performer Glen Campbell found another signature song to add to his live show. During a performance, he took a break from playing hits like “Gentle on My Mind” and “Rhinestone Cowboy” and floored the audience with a live rendition of a famous classical work, Gioachino Rossini’s “William Tell Overture.”

Many grew up hearing it on a weekly basis as the theme song to “The Lone Ranger,” a popular Western TV show airing from 1949 to 1957. The fast-paced number played over an opening scene of the masked vigilante riding his galloping horse, Silver.