The first Rickenbacker 12 string prototype
was the Suzi Arden guitar with the serial number of CG725 and crafted in
July 1963. Apparently Mr. F. C. Hall asked Ms. Arden for her opinion of the
instrument shortly after it was made. After some discussion Suzi convinced Mr. Hall to
part with this prototype and received the instrument in 1963. Ms. Arden
owned this guitar until 1989 when the guitar moved to Route 66 Guitars. It was eventually
sold to Oyama Katsuyuki in 1992. Although the industry standard in the early 1960's, of particular interest today is the use of
conventional stringing on this first Rickenbacker electric 12 string. The harmonic
strings appear first and this is precisely the opposite in all subsequent Rickenbacker 12 Strings made.
The conventional Rickenbacker stringing after the Arden instrument had the main string first in the pairs followed by the harmonic string. It
appears that this now traditional stringing of Rickenbacker twelves was the idea of
Mr. J. C. Hall. The other revolutionary change to 12 strings introduced by Rickenbacker
was the unique design to the headstock. Mr. Richard Burke is credited with this
design who agreed to come back from his retirement in the fall of 1998 to be with
Rickenbacker International Corporation for a brief period. The pictures of the Arden
guitar displayed on this page show the instrument with the ledendary "R" tailpiece. The
guitar originally had the trapeze tailpiece which was modified by RIC sometime in 1964. This
"R" tailpiece is the first model developed and is apparently thinner and not as robust
as its later deveoped predecessor which is still in use up to the present day. |
