Rickenbacker for Dummies

Rickenbacker for Dummies

 
   When 70 million Americans watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan that night in February, 1964, a couple of things happened. For one, the foreign-sounding-yet-built-in-Southern-California "Rickenbacker" guitar metamorphosed from elegant oddity to The Guitar That Every Teenager On The Planet Wanted.(Footnote: George's choice, a Gretsch, likewise sounded German, but wasn't.) Oh, the Lads would play Fenders and Gibsons soon enough, but it was John Lennon's Rickenbacker that stole the show that fateful night.
   Nearly fifty years later (Oy vey!), the Rickenbacker name still carries marquee value, never mind that the quantity of instruments they produced was comparatively small. While many vintage enthusiasts can name the year Fender put 5-way switches on Strats, and can give you a spiel on Gibson volutes, things can get a mite foggy when the subject turns to basic Ricky facts.
By focusing on just four iconic Rickenbacker guitars, a Mt. Rushmore of Jangle, much ground can be covered efficiently.

THE FRYING PAN

Properly, the "Electro Hawaiian", is generally agreed to be the first store-bought electric guitar. It was a creature of the early 1930's, when amplifiers were pretty worthless, but, still, there it is. A few Frying Pan bullet points:

*It's "Horseshoe pickup" (Two horseshoe-shaped magnets surround the strings) is still regarded as the best lap steel pickup, PERIOD. No less than the great Sol Hoopii was engaged to play a Frying Pan for a skeptical patent board, whose members considered the idea far-fetched. The pickup patent was promptly issued.

*The "Fretboard" is scalloped. Knock yourself out, Yngvie.

*The string-thru-body layout, slotted 6-string headstock, 1/4" jack, and that Horseshoe pickup make for an absolutely viable instrument. The one in the Hollywood Vintage Collection works just fine.

*The headstock logo reads "Rickenbacher", with an "H". Deemed too German-sounding in the later 1930's, the anglicized spelling was adopted.

THE BAKELITE, or MODEL B

The Frying Pan's aluminum body is said to have caused problems. Tuning? Maybe. Anyone who's worked with cast aluminum can tell you it's no picnic, and can show you some scars to prove it. Whatever. The first synthetic plastic , "Bakelite", became the material of choice for some years. Strong yet brittle, like thick glass, the Model "B" Bakelite Ricky is a beloved mainstay in the world of steel guitars. They really are wonderful. Just don't drop it.
The Vintage Collection recently restored a Model B with Doc Kauffman's motorized "Vibrola". Fewer than 90 of these belt-and-axle driven contraptions were ever built. To the delight of witnesses, it sounds cool as all get-out. Not something you're likely to run across at the gig tonight, though.

John Lennon's 325

So much has been written about this little (4/5 scale) refinished (black over honey) hollow (prototype-no holes) axe with swapped knobs and messed-up wiring, that, in the interest of brevity, the highlights of the best current analysis are presented here: The guitar America saw on the first Ed Sullivan Show (The guitar was promptly replaced) was a prototype 1958 that had extra knobs added at the factory, a Bigsby added at a Liverpool music store, was painted black, then stripped in the 1970's, and was ultimately used at the last "Double Fantasy" sessions. Whew.
Back to 1964: The fine folks at Rickenbacker gave John a new Jetglo 325 in time for his second American gig, and also presented George with:

The Twelve-string Rickenbacker 360/12

Prototyped in 1963, perfected in time for 1964 NAMM, the 360/12 sported a compact headstock, a reverse string pairing that resulted in downstrokes hitting the bass string first, and a sound the whole world would soon know. Not only "Ticket to Ride", etc., but The Byrds' Bob Dylan cover actually contained the words "Jingle Jangle".

We'll save Ric-O-Sound for another day...