Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

There actually was such a guitar, the specials made for RCA. I think Bill Henschel has one of the 12-stringers. I believe these predate the 380L and there were some basses, too, which predated the 4004C. I'd like to get photos of the bass for the book. There are reports of a special double-neck, too.

Sean, thanks. I am hoping to get some really good photos of all 3 "NONE MORE BLACK" Rics this weekend. I have another Ric (silver w/bt) but it won't be invited to the picture party. haha. it's just not black enough plus it's for sale, so no need to drag it around.

I have one of the RCA 12-strings. Got a great deal from Bob Belloff. Absolutely beautiful guitar (looks, playability and tone-wise), though I later swapped out the Hi-Gains for Toasters.

The RCA did predate the 380L, and has neither gold hardware or the 660-12 neck width.

Any idea how many RCA's were made? That's always been on my Rick wish list.

I think the story is that a dozen 12-strings were special ordered by RCA for their country music artists whose records sold platinum.

For future model guitars, would it be beyond the pale to offer a simplified control layout, with master VOL, master TONE, and BLEND? And a pickup selector. I adjust the blend knob all the time and I like what it does, but I hardly ever mess with VOL or TONE because on these guitars I use both pickups much more often than I do on, say, a Gibson. If you have the blend control, you don't really need individual volumes. I think in practice this would be fast and easy and I'd happily give up 4 million possible settings or whatever for a practical volume control that worked the same way regardless of pickup selection.

Another approach would be to have preset section, like a Jazzmaster, only less weird! Then you could have things a super rolled-off tone of something which you could get to quickly with a switch. Modern electronics could be used here to give a lot of control in a discreet layout. But I wouldn't want this without the aforementioned straight ahead setup, too.

Nothing weird about a Jazzmaster's tone circuit. I couldn't think of a better way without having all six controls on the same panel, which would be confusing as heck.

I hereby once again nominate Mitch for the next signature model, since he's outlined his right here. Sounds like some practical suggestions.

Paul, could you shed some light on the Jazzmaster, then? (veering wildly off-topic...) The one we have here is 43 years old, which may explain the following: The "secondary" circuit is capable of more output and a generally more open sound than the "primary" circuit. Which can lead to certain sense of "awww...", when you go back to the primary circuit. This just seems, you know, weird. Or backwards. But maybe it's normal? Despite my confusion I remain a total Jazzmaster enthusiast!

I know that it's only been in the last 10 years that people like me (now in my mid-50s) had the disposable income, and arguably, the TIME to finally go after those guitars we lusted after back in the 60s.

You see all the companies doing it, not just RIC. Gretsch's whole comeback has been built on the strength of their reissues of rockabilly, George and Chet. Fender and Gibson have been doing reissues for years (although I have NO idea what's different from my 2002 Strat and Buddy Holly's 50s Strat, but I'm just showing my ignorance).

It would seem to me that part of what contributes to any corporation's success is getting the brand name in front of the public. Maybe some of us old guys picking up a C63 or a C58 or a 4001 will catch the eye of a son or daughter or neighbor kid who might wonder about that strange looking guitar and a seed is planted.

In the 3+ years I've been hanging out around here, I've seen discussions and suggestions about changes RIC could make to their models. And we've seen things like headstock and neck shapes change (including the fairly radical change to the routing channels in modern 12-string headstocks). That seems to be the sign of a company that's moving forward, trying to change things to either meet a demand or improve a product -- as well as, to be fair, increase profitability.

It makes me smile these days when my wife (who loves music but is not a musician in any sense) will come across a concert on TV and call me in and ask me, "What is that guitar? Is that a Rick?" Pretty good brand name recognition -- and the fact that I have 4 of them (3 of them bought in the last 3 years) contributes to that.

And I do see more and more of today's musicians playing Gretschs and Ricks and Guilds (Oh my). TJ Tunstall did a "Today Show Outdoor Concert" last week and she used 2 Gretschs and her lead guitar player used one. Without the reissue market, who knows if Gretsch could ever have come back?

And RIC has the distinction of never having gone out of business. They've been pumping out superior quality instruments for (almost) 76 years. And they can't make enough fast enough. I wish MY company had that problem. Seems to me that RIC knows what it's doing in the reissue AND modern-era instrument arenas.

As far as the RCA-SPC 12 string models, I have heard that there were 12 made but RIC did not confirm that when I inquired a few years ago.

I have owned two including the one Steve has. They both came equipped with HB1 Humbucking pickups. The only RIC 12 string I recall seeing with those pickups.

Here they are together:

Steve's is on top in the photo.

Nice pair!

Ah, HB1 Humbuckers, not Hi-Gains. Thanks Kevin, I stand corrected.

Quote: :I know that it's only been in the last 10 years that people like me (now in my mid-50s) had the disposable income, and arguably, the TIME to finally go after those guitars we lusted after back in the 60s."

Bingo ... Jerry hit the nail on the head ... another vote for RETRO!