Celebrity Rickenbackers

[Ontario_RIC_fan]

Yes... I am pleased about this new feature too..

[route66guitars]

I noticed that McCartney’s bass is listed as right handed in the Register. Surely an admin can sort that out.

Also, the images of McGuinn’s 1966 370-12 (BYRD) are © me. Please make sure you ask before using other people’s images. I don’t mind non-commercial use, which is why I post these things to my own site, but would rather not run across them being used without being asked first. Common courtesy, don’t you know… I do have images of McGuinn’s ’64 360-12 and 341-12SF light show, and CG725 (the Suzi Arden 12) If the admins want to add them to their Registry listings please get in touch with me.

I have the serial numbers for Led Zeppelin’s guitars and tour-used Transonics, the rest of The Byrds instruments, all 67 of the vintage instruments that were completed by the factory in 1989 & 1990 and sold by us, and most of the guitars pictured in the 1994 Bacon book. I will post them to the Registry as time permits.

I have also posted the serial number for the 1961 460 stolen from us in 1994 following the photo shoot for Tony Bacon’s book. (It’s the 460 across pages 22 − 23)

[gibsonlp]

Hello Scott,
These images were collected from a Heritage Auction and they contained no copyright note, if you want me to remove them, please tell me.

[route66guitars]

Hello Scott,
These images were collected from a Heritage Auction and they contained no copyright note, if you want me to remove them, please tell me.

No, you can leave them. It’s a non-commercial usage.

That auction was put on by me and my ex through Heritage in 2004. All of the celebrity instruments and all of the auction images were mine. Heritage always assumes they own copyright to anything they auction.

[Ontario_RIC_fan]

I have the serial numbers for Led Zeppelin’s guitars and tour-used Transonics, the rest of The Byrds instruments, all 67 of the vintage instruments that were completed by the factory in 1989 & 1990 and sold by us, and most of the guitars pictured in the 1994 Bacon book. I will post them to the Registry as time permits.

I have also posted the serial number for the 1961 460 stolen from us in 1994 following the photo shoot for Tony Bacon’s book. (It’s the 460 across pages 22 − 23)

Scott:

That is truly awesome!

Thanks very much for sharing the data!! Also the lovely images.

I hope that your stolen 460 shows up one day.. This site has been useful in the past for tracing stolen instruments....

All the best

[route66guitars]

I have started entering celebrity info into the Register, but have hit a couple of snags. I’m posting the info here for everyone to see until I can figure out what I’m doing wrong...

I received several database error messages when entering these instruments, so they may not have posted:

Led Zeppelin 4001 JetGlo #HL1789 w/case (un-numbered Rickenbacker invoice, made out to their NY management company, dated Jan 7, 1969. Signed for and picked up at the factory.)

Led Zeppelin 4001S JetGlo #GK4603 w/case (Listed as a 4001S on ‘loan’ endorsement agreement, and as a 4000 on the schedule of items not returned under the ‘loan’ agreement, and instead purchased by the band. I believe the loan agreement is more likely to be accurate here.)

Led Zeppelin 360-12 (w/white binding on both sides) JetGlo #GJ4274 w/case (Listed on their ‘loan’ endorsement agreement, and on the schedule of items not returned under the ‘loan’ agreement, and instead purchased by the band.)

Led Zeppelin 625 FireGlo #GK4452 w/case (Listed on a supplement to their ‘loan’ endorsement agreement, but NOT on the schedule of items not returned under the ‘loan’ agreement. It’s reasonable to believe that this guitar was returned under the loan agreement.)

Led Zeppelin 615 MapleGlo #GD2033 w/case (Listed on a supplement to their ‘loan’ endorsement agreement, but NOT on the schedule of items not returned under the ‘loan’ agreement. It’s reasonable to believe that this guitar was returned under the loan agreement.)

It’s interesting to note that most of the instruments sent to the band were almost 2 years old. None were recent production, meaning none were custom ordered by the band, but pulled from existing inventory. (These are also great examples of instruments that would not have appeared in known shipping totals, due to their method of documentation.)


There is no listing in the pull down for this amp model…

Led Zeppelin Model E-8 Electro Amplifier #3229 (un-numbered Rickenbacker invoice, made out to their NY management company, dated 12/24/68. Signed for and picked up at the factory.)



I’m working on getting all of the Led Zep invoices together to start listing the Transonics. They went through quite a few, and the listings are not consistent on the invoices. Some were picked up at the factory, others shipped to various airports in care of Led Zeppelin. Some were returned, others purchased and kept by Jimmy Page (as witnessed in the documentary “It Might Get Loud.”)


Much more celebrity stuff to come, as well as the data on the John Hall collection. I haven’t been through some of this paperwork in 15 years.

[route66guitars]

I did some more research online and found a few more serial numbers..

5) McGuinn’s rare 1966 Jest Glow Rickenbacker Model 370Byrd 6-string Serial # FB 545
retired from Byrds duty and sold at a major Hollywood music store • November 1966

The original information about this guitar came from my sharing a copy of the original February 28, 1966 Radio & Television Equipment Co. invoice with a couple of collectors back in the late 1980s. I know there has been much debate over this guitar, including whether it was JetGlo or ‘walnut’ as the invoice lists, but I’ve never heard the story that it was sold to a 'major Hollywood music store.’

Where did this info come from? Roger’s custom 1966 370-12 WAS sold to Guitar Center in Hollywood by him sometime in the 1970s, but I’ve never heard this story applied to the 370-6. I recently reviewed the section on McGuinn’s guitars for the new Bacon book, and this would have been welcome information to include, if it could be verified.

The fact that both ‘Jim’ McGuinn and one other person signed the invoice when they picked up the guitar (along with the accurately described 325, and the installation work performed on the 1964 360-12) makes it unlikely that such an error wouldn’t have been caught at the time and noted on the invoice. I’ve seen thousands of instruments on original Radio Tel and Rickenbacker invoices, and I don’t remember ever seeing one with an incorrect color attribution. Overwrought descriptions to explain a custom finish, yes, but never one that was plain wrong (I’m talking invoices, not markings inside control cavities…).

I would really appreciate it if you could point me to the reference material on the 370-6.

Thanks in advance.

[route66guitars]

More celebrity instruments. These are ones we sold to the artist, and the information provided is taken from the original invoices.

Mike Anthony (Van Halen)

1957 4000 Natural #B7102 (Third 4000 bass built.)

[gibsonlp]

Scott: can you please send me the error messages via a private message?

Thanks.

[admin]

Scott: Thanks for these additions. There is great history here. The McGuinn 370/6 is a mystery and one I hope that is solved with further digging. We generally request that serial information be posted directly to the register and not identified with owners for security reasons.

[headbanger]

Scott,

I for one am pleased to see you on the forum and updating the register. If ever there was a man who knows his Rick's it's you.

[leftybass]

According to Henry (of Manny's Music fame), Jimi Hendrix ordered (and assumedly bought) 3 Rickenbackers from Manny's around 1969: a 6-string, a 12-string and a bass...all left-handed.

Source: Guitar Player magazine interview with Henry about Manny's ca. 1975....

[route66guitars]

Scott: Thanks for these additions. There is great history here. The McGuinn 370/6 is a mystery and one I hope that is solved with further digging. We generally request that serial information be posted directly to the register and not identified with owners for security reasons.

Sorry, I thought the point of the thread was to identify serial numbers for celebrity instruments. What didn’t I understand? The group has already posted the serial numbers of stolen or missing celebrity instruments. The ones I have posted are all safely in working collections, or storage.

As I stated, in a post that has since been redacted, the Register threw up error messages for every field in which I entered data when I clicked to submit. I did this a half dozen times before giving up, so I posted it for the forum members directly.

In light of the editing I think I’ll stop here, as the admins have removed several hours worth of my work. I was simply trying to share factual data. It’s not my loss, as this information will remain in my file cabinets.

[admin]

Scott: The error messages would help us explain any difficulty you had with the adding of information. The most common difficulty people have with adding information to the Register is that the serial of the instrument is already in the database and as a result it will not allow for another entry. I do not know if that may have been the reason in your case without the error message.

Entering information into the Register allows for a serial number and pertinent information but it does not identify the owner and potentially the location of the instruments. Posting this information as a description on the Forum is another matter especially when instruments, their serials and owners are identified together. That was the difficulty with the information that was removed. I am sorry for any time that was wasted in this regard and I apologize.

I hope that this information, at least in some small measure, provides you with an explanation for the frustration that you have experienced.

[scotty]

I really enjoyed reading that cheers Brian much appreciated.