Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

She still has beautiful eyes. I wish there existed video of the Suzi Arden Show during the halcyon/Rickie days. Cheers, Noel

For anyone who might be interested, Suzi's "Live at the Mint" album is being advertised for sale on e-Bay at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2588205781

It is nice to see this topic. I met Suzi in 1990 when she brought me her prized 12 string to sell for her. She is a great lady. She's one of those people that you know the second you meet her that she's genuine. I'll try to find one of the shots we took of her with the guitar in front of the shop and post it here.

There was a question about the Rick bass she still owns. She had her original 1963 FireGlow 4001 when I met her. It had suffered a nasty break at the headstock. She sent it to us and my guy grafted a reissue headstock blank on to the bass for her. I still have the original headstock around somewhere...

It was also asked why she sold her 1963 360-12. Here's what I remember of the story:

John Hall called me one day in 1990 to tell me to expect a call from the owner of the first Rickenbacker 12 string, as she was looking to possibly sell the guitar and wanted to find someone she could trust. Suzi called and we discussed the instruments and it's possible value and she said she would consider sending it ot me. Less than a month later Suzi Arden walked into my shop in Pasadena, California with THE guitar and introduced herself. A customer in the store at the time offered her his brand new Jaguar for the guitar, and was promptly escorted from the shop by Jeff, my shop manager. Thankfully for me she didn't need a new car...

She told me that she had been contacted by Jeffrey Foskett, then a sideman with The Beach Boys. He had inquired about buying the guitar from her and had offered her $5,000. Not knowing the value of the instrument she considered the offer, until she found that he was offering the instrument around for over $25,000. She wasn't happy about that, and called John Hall for advice, which brought her to me.

Surprisingly, it took us nearly 3 years to find the right buyer for the guitar, but the current owner finally came along and appreciated it's historical significance.

Thank you to Carole for posting information on Suzi, and I am very glad to hear that she is doing well.

Scott

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the bit of history. Very interesting story. Do you think the person who owns the guitar now would ever sell it? Wonder what the value is today?

Here's a picture of Suzi Arden Syme and her husband, Dr. Robert Syme. Bob is one of the nicest men I've ever known. He is also a Bishop in the Mormon Church.

Scott: Thanks for this history. After many years, this thread is finally writing the history of the first Rickenbacker 12 string.

Carole: Thanks for your continued contribution to this most interesting topic. It would be very nice to hear how it was received when it was first introduced on stage. If Suzi is reading this thread, perhaps she could let us know her impressions of the impact of this instrument on the audience and other artists who heard it for the first time.

To Suzi, thanks for these photos and allowing Carole to pass on comments.

Peter: Suzi is not very knowledgeable with computers. She lost the icon of her ISP on her laptop and doesn't know how to get it back again. I haven't corresponded with her since she got back home in Virginia. When she was in California, she sat down with me and read all the comments on this website. Personally, I find your questions very interesting and also would like to know her answers. In my opinion, the 12-string Ric was not the main feature of her show. Suzi was. She is a fantastic fiddle player, yodeler, and all-around singer. The audience always enjoyed themselves.

Scott,
I was the customer that offered Suzi my Jaguar for the guitar. You must understand where I was coming from and my motive why I offered her the car for the guitar. My father had recently passed away, in 1989, and he was a car collector. My mother had no need for all his cars, she sold most of them and she gave one each to her stepsons and one to myself. I had no need for a Jaguar and it just wasn't my type of car. Furthermore it was 1989 XLS made by Ford and really had no collector value to it.

On that day I happened to be in your shop and someone told me that Suzi was going to be in and offering the prototype Rick for sale. All of a sudden I felt very excited to be seeing a part of history and a guitar that I truly love, just as you were excited in seeing and going through representing the sale of the guitar.
When the case was opened and the guitar revealed , my heart started pumping and my brain thought....how the hell can I get this quickly. Here's where logic was thrown out the window. Well, selling the Jaguar through normal channels and getting cash would take forever, so why not ask Suzi for a trade. Well a couple of things that I didn't think about, due to the excitement of the moment. 1) I was cutting in on your deal and jeopardizing it and 2) It was in your shop.

I remember the look she gave me. Kinda incredulous, but sort of what you said. Glad she didn't need a car.

Jeff ( Veicht if that's who it was, great photographer btw) pulled me aside and asked to talk outside. He then, and had every right to as I would have done the same, admonished me on the to above mentioned errors of my way. Boy, did I feel ****** at that moment. I realized I let my heart rule my head, but I'm sure a lot of the people on this website would have done the same, given the opportunity and circumstance. I do hope you remember that the next day I called and left a message of apology on your answering machine. I wanted to leave things on a good note because I felt your shop a very desirable place to shop due to your representation of Rickenbacker and other guitar equipment that I personally love and share a similar interest.

Phillip: Thanks for your comments.

I say again, that this thread has added so much to the history of the first 12 string Rickenbacker.

People have done far worse things for cash. I remember a friend in the 1960s who missed a mortgage payment because he purchased a number of rare Beatles' 45s. As you might expect it didn't go over well.

As many of these stories go, "You had to be there to truly appeciate the circumstances."

Ouch...

I did end up selling the car and applying the money for down payment on a house...so things do happen for a reason sometime. I think Scott and I, in this circumstance, made out well then.

Phil,

I didn't remember it was you this story referred to... I'm still laughing from reading your post.

I don't remember being told Suzi was coming in that day. It was a total surprise to me. Who told you?

Jeff Veitch was the person in question. He did a very good job over the years of protecting my interests, on top of being the best photographer around. Unfortunately for me he has moved back to the U.K. Some of his shots are on his web site, www.veitch.net.

Scott

Some fascinating posts lately!

Hey Scott,

It was a surprise as well for me. I don't remember who told me. I was just drooling over the Rick wall in the store that you had at the time, and someone in the store told me something to the effect that Suzi Arden was coming in with the first 12 string. Well I knew about the guitar from the Richard Smith book, so I hung around.

It is a funny story, not at the time, but over the years. Especially when I see that particular Rick being mentioned and Harrison's and people say to me "Hey that's a Rickenbacker, your favorite, right" and I reply "So you wanna hear a good story?"

Sorry to hear about Jeff. Interesting enough, I thought about him yesterday at Borders as I was perusing a Guitar player special edition on Marshall amps and saw some of his photos in there.

Good stuff.

I know from Voxtalks of some of your representations lately, so it sounds like you're getting in the guitar biz again, although in a different form than the retail end. So, you want to trade Paul Weller's 330 for a 1995 Lincoln Mercury Marquis ?

Cheers

I seem to have come out of retirement.

I was involved with the auction of George Harrison's Rosewood Tele. I was approached by that auction house to put on a real instrument auction, which is what we are currently working on. It'll be at the Dallas Guitar Show this year. Should be the biggest turnout they've ever had.

This is more fun than running a shop. At least for now.

I have neither Paul Weller's 330 nor a 1995 Lincoln Mercury Marquis, but would happily broker the deal...

Peter, Suzi called yesterday to let me know her brother, Roy, passed away. He enjoyed the two-month long trip he was on with Suzi and entered the hospital two days after returning to Virginia. Anyone who is interested may read the memorial for him at:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8374251