1964 Rickenbacker 12-string registry / info thread

Early years of Rickenbacker Guitars prior to and including 1972

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randyz
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Post by randyz »

I was watching The Who's performance from the 1965 Richmond Jazz Festival last night. Pete was playing an RM1993 during 'Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere' (and the band sounded horrible). Near the end of the number, following a little feedback, he stabs his AC100 speaker cabinet a couple times, and then tosses the guitar over the amp. He seemed surprised at the way the guitar fell or landed like "Uh oh!" and then reaches for an RM1997 or RM1998 that's in front of the amp. After a quick tune-up he's back playing again. I'm wondering if he threw the guitar to a roadie who missed the catch or if he saw the guitar break when he didn't mean to damage it. That may have been the end of an RM1993!
scala
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Post by scala »

hi ya john, sorry its taken me a while to get to doing this but i have been so busy since the start of this thread. i no longer own this guitar but did so from about 1987 - 1993. it was purchased in birmingham uk for about £1000 in 1987. it travelled a lot with me and was used as a tool rather than a collectors piece, (if only i knew then what i know now !!!) unfortunately as i said in other posts, the neck was broken in a couple of accidents. rickenbacker did fix it for me after it was taken to see mr Hall. the story gets worse as once again a roadie dropped the guitar and the headstock received a crack.
the guitar was refixed and was eventually sold(not by me i must add,,,,,, its a long story)
to someone in the los angeles area.
ive searched high and low for more photos of the guitar, but at the moment these are the only ones i can find, im still looking in my attic.
the one with the broken neck was taken at rickenbacker on the day we met Mr Hall.

serial number was dl*** i will email you the number off forum with more info.
thanks Paul.

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leftybass
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Post by leftybass »

Paul, thanks for chiming in. By all means feel free to e-mail me the rest of the number of your 12-string. My own 360/12 from '64 is also a DL numbered guitar, it will be interesting to see how close they are in sequence.
scala
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Post by scala »

email sent john.yes it will be interesting to see how close they are.
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studiotwosession
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Post by studiotwosession »

Another '64 450/12 appeared on ebay. Looks like a refin as all that were made that year were supposedly FG. Also looks like a non-original nut. And there's something between the guard and the body that does not appear to be stock:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1964-Rickenbacker-450-12-string-mapleglow_W0QQitemZ110131736033QQihZ001QQcategoryZ41439QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
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jwilli
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Post by jwilli »

I like how writes about "little line" on the back of the neck. In other words, the crack in the neck. Lol. You can look at the routes in the headstock and tell it wasn't originally MG. The pickguard is non original. The plating on the pickups doesn't match. The heel has been sanded a bunch. Nice strap button on the heel too. Oh well, another '64 12 string for the books.
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leftybass
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Post by leftybass »

I think the tuners may be original on this one for they are single-line Klusons. All of the other 450/12s we've seen from '64 have the open-back style, but these are what Rickenbacker was using on a lot of stuff in '64. Glenn and Jwilli----whatcha think...?
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jwilli
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Post by jwilli »

Single line Klusons disappeared in either December of '63 or '64. A mind is a terrible thing to waste........
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leftybass
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Post by leftybass »

They were being used on guitars up in to the middle of '64 from what I can recall. With what we're seen on the other guitars concerning tuners, these could have been bought from another source if the parts were scarce...
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studiotwosession
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Post by studiotwosession »

The conjecture above makes sense to me. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for more of these to surface. Two have in the past three months or so.
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larrywassgren
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Post by larrywassgren »

Maybe we should include the 1964 round-top six strings in this discussion?
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leftybass
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Post by leftybass »

Larry: Well, there haven't been too many that have surfaced yet...and according to Smith's figures there weren't many of those made either, approx. 85 guitars.

We might as well collect data on these as well. By all means we should discuss them, at the very least.

JWilli's 365/6 is the earliest round-top I know of with a date of April '64, and he may have more info on these. There was one made with an f-hole around May '64 IIRC...
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studiotwosession
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Post by studiotwosession »

I think if there's a '64 registry, there should be one exclusively for 12s. However, I don't think it's a bad idea to have a separate one for the first year of six strings with like body style.
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leftybass
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Post by leftybass »

Glenn: Yes, that has been my point of view as well concerning the 12-strings. All 1964 production 12s will be as one registry no matter what the body style or model, but it's cool to see how many round-top '64 six strings we can uncover as time goes on...
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studiotwosession
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Post by studiotwosession »

Indeed, a separate "first year new style," category?
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