This is my dad's 1964 Rose Morris model 1996 (British export of the Rickenbacker 325) that he recently gave to me.
Said I may as well have it due to being the only other person in the family that's ever picked up a guitar.
Now prepare yourself for a big wall of text as I unload a Antique Roadshow style story of how this guitar came to be in the family. Feel free to skip.
[STORY START]
He bought this guitar 2nd hand in the mid 70s at a music shop called Reno's back in Manchester (UK).
At the time he was in a band that played the pub scene and wanted to upgrade from his Egmond Lucky 7.
At first he got a 2nd hand Gibson Stereo but ultimately found the neck too wide for his hands. So at the band's suggestion he headed down to Reno's on Oxford Rd and spoke to the owner (Jimmy Reno) about getting a trade.
Now Jimmy Reno was something of a local celebrity at the time but my dad remembers him as "A tight Scottish git!".
I don't know if he was actually Scottish but apparently he had an accent that sounded a bit further north than Manchester.
Perhaps there was a widely held belief that anything north of Manchester may as well be in Scotland? I don't know.
Anyway Jimmy recommended the Rickenbacker 1996 from his 2nd hand stock as it had a thinner neck and shorter scale.
My dad found the Ricky far easier to play than anything else he tried but was not too keen on the jangle. But as the best option available he went with it.
Reno agreed to a part-ex on the Gibson (which reduced the price on the Ricky to something like £20) and a deal was almost made. Almost because Reno then said "Now lad. Let's talk about the price of the hardcase."
This was where Reno was being a bit dodgy as he was trying to charge extra for the hardcase that came with the Ricky from the factory.
Fortunately my dad wasn't fooled and said that if the Ricky's hardcase isn't thrown in he was going to keep the Gibson's hardcase and put the Ricky in that.
Reno was like "No No! Don't do that! Are you mad?"
In the end Reno relented presumably because didn't want to be lumped with trying to sell a used Rickenbacker hardcase and a Gibson Stereo without a case.
Eventually my dad left the band around 1979 and got a job on the North Sea oil rigs.
He needed the money as he'd married my mum that year and had a kid on the way (my sister).
Couple of years later I'm born and later the whole family immigrates to Australia in 1985 bringing the guitar with us.
In the early 90s (when mortgage interest rates in Australia were going through the roof) he almost pawned the Ricky off at a music shop trying to raise some extra money.
The guy at the shop didn't really know what he was looking at.
Basically just said it was definitely from the 60s but that it wasn't worth very much.
I'm glad my dad decided not to sell it at whatever low ball price they were offering.
So yeah this guitar has been in my family for around 50 years or so and now he's handing it to me.
[STORY END]
TLDR: Dad acquired guitar 2nd hand in the UK sometime in the mid 70's and kept it every since.
It would have been cool to know who bought it new but that's obviously lost to time.
The serial number on it (DA06) has been a nightmare to decipher as it doesn't bring anything up in Rickenbacker's online serial checker.
After much research from various online sources (but mostly from posts in this forum and the Rick register) I've come to believe that "DA" means January 1964 and "06" means 6th off the line. Or rather the 6th Rickenbacker that Rose Morris put a plate on.
Should I be completely mistaken I'm hoping someone here might put me in the right direction as there isn't much info out there about 60's era RoMo serials.
