lol, your description of the beginning is exactly right. My office/studio is a spare bedroom and I clicked on the mic and noodled about. Man, you have good ears, Barry.
It does sound like there is a wandering cymbal in there. I have a very difficult time with high frequencies and I wouldn't have noticed it without you mentioning it. I'm embarrassed that I couldn't tell that the guitar is out of tune, doh! It's not actually a 12 string, it's a Martin D16X that I went back and doubled in places with my trusty Strat into S-Gear with a very clean setting.
Thanks for your feedback!