'64 360/12 in action

randyz · Post by **randyz** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:30 pm

I reviewed some video tonight. I have a recent DVD set of Ed Sullivan appearances, and on Gerry's performance of 'Ferry Cross The Mersey' from April '64, it isn't possible to make out the missing paint on the headstock. The shape looks wrong, like he cut it at an odd angle. Earlier footage from January '64, filmed in London with Brian Epstein for Hullabaloo, shows the guitar with a normal headstock shape. I still need to dig out Gerry's Shindig performance from '65. I think it's the one where the end of the headstock looks bare. In the Everly Brothers shot, that headstock looks butchered to me. I think he took a saw to that guitar before heading to the USA in 1965...

larrywassgren · Post by **larrywassgren** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:38 pm

No, that's not chopped off. If anything, it looks like somebody added more to it. That is the normal shape of a Rick 12-string headstock, although they could all be a little different back then as they were hand-made. We went over this somewhere before and a nice guy from New Zealand even posted photos of the group that ended up with Gerry's old guitar. In those photos you could see the headstock was cut straight across the top. Gerry didn't take much of it off, just straigtened the end. It certainly wasn't enough to cut off some of the tuners and part of the nameplate.

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:58 pm

Hee hee, looks totally cut off to me. Even the Everly Bros. are running for cover. Ha ha!

larrywassgren · Post by **larrywassgren** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:07 pm

From pages 115-16 of Gerry's autobiography -
I astounded Derek with one of my examples of 'woodwork'. In the 1960's, John Lennon and I were presented with specially made guitars by the Rickenbacker company, because they knew how much we admired the model. Only two of this particular design were made and I'd kept mine proudly for about fifteen years. Then, just before I was going off on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, Derek said to me, "You'd better make sure you get some new flight cases for those guitars of yours, because the ones you've got are battered and they'll fall to pieces on the plane."

I replied, "I'll make one specially for the Rickenbacker."

So I built this case for my priceless guitar of sentimental value, and then the day before I was due to fly to Australia, I went to put the instrument in my carefully constructed new wooden case... and, of course, the case was too small. Impulsively, I sawed the neck of the guitar off. With any guitar, this would be considered an outrageous act, but this Rickenbacker was like a rare gem. It was custom made and had a unique, beautifully shaped neck. I didn't realize the enormity of what I was doing until the deed had been done. Then I phoned Derek and told him.

"You've done WHAT?" he asked, staggered. He couldn't believe it. I knew, then, the extent of damage in every sense. The Rickenbacker couldn't be the same again, so I took it on tour with me and traded it in in New Zealand for a different guitar. So, someone, somewhere, has a guitar with quite a history: one of only two in the world, but with its neck sawn off, a perfect example of my ham-fistedness.

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:14 pm

" I sawed the neck of the guitar off."

Uh, right.

larrywassgren · Post by **larrywassgren** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:57 pm

Gerry's lead towards the end sure sounds great on that Rickenbacker 12. I saw The Everly Brothers in Ashland at Northland College in 1968(went because of their influence on The Beatles) and they were playing those two Gibsons, totally cool guitars. They were fantastic. Alvin Lee was playing lead for them on a Gibson Firebird. They said something like 'this guys mother has a fortune into his guitar lessons, so we have to let him do this'. And by himself he played this amazing classical piece on that Gibson Firebird. Man that guy can play. Back to the topic.....

I can't see anything wrong with the headstock on that Marsden 12 in this video!!

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 3:04 am

I've seen stills from the NZ video long after Gerry got rid of it, and he didn't cut it down to the point where it would mess with the nameplate.

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 3:06 am

After re-watching the video and seeing the front of the headstock, I'm with Larry on this one. The "Butcher of Liverpool" had not hacked the headstock...yet.

BobKat · Post by **BobKat** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:44 pm

So Gerry is not to be relied on for any solid info on this...