Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I don't know how many Forum members have heard this story before, but here's how it goes:

Gerry Marsden of Gerry And The Pacemakers fame received his first Rickenbacker twelve-string in 1964. It was special ordered for him by Brian Epstein (his business manager). It was a 360/12 FG 'old style' just like George Harrison's guitar. In preparation for an American tour in 1965, he built a heavy duty shipping case to protect the guitar. He finished the case just in time to get it sent on with the other band gear. When he tried to place the guitar in the case it was slightly too long. Since he didn't have time to modify the case, he sawed off the end of the headstock.

That's why if you look closely at his guitar in many pictures, you'll see that the headstock is short and has no finish on the end. For many years I wondered what had happened to the headstock, but then I read an interview where he told the story.

Last night I was watching an old BBC-TV 'Top Of The Pops' performance from 1965 that shows him miming 'Ferry Cross The Mersey' with the guitar before he chopped the headstock. If you look at any video of him playing on various American TV shows later that year, you'll see the modified headstock.

Gerry has no business working with power tools!

Randy:

LOL, you gotta wonder what was going on in Gerry's mind for sure...

The guitar has actually re-surfaced within the last ten years or so; Gerry gave the guitar away to a friend in New Zealand back in the 60's....it was being used by a guitar player in a NZ band in the mid 90's until it was left in a taxi while while shooting a video in NYC (!).....

It was Marsden's old 12-string FOR SURE, and had the shortened peghead plain as day----and the guy was using it as a 6-string...

John, I can't remember where I recently read the interview, but Gerry was wondering what he was thinking at the time too. Well, when that guitar shows up on Ebay, it won't be too hard to identify! Beware of fakes, all it takes to make one is a power saw and a very expensive guitar..

Yes Randy we have had some discussion about this on The Rickenbacker Forum before. A fascinating and to some extent unbelievable story. Here is the guitar in question. This is Gerry in New York after his handywork.

Peter, I saw the same picture today on Gerry's website. It said it's from a Murry The K concert at the Fox Theatre in Brooklyn. The damage isn't obvious because the bare wood isn't visible. The damage is very evident in a number of videos I've seen. I've started documenting all of my 60's music video that I've collected over the years. It takes a lot of repeated viewing and source checking, but there are lots of interesting details that I've noticed this time around.

Randy: If you look at the tuners on that guitar you will see that they are too close to the top of the headstock. To me, the lack of the top of the headstock on that 12 string is quite noticeable.

Peter: Yes, upon closer inspection, I see what you mean. I also think Gerry got the angle of the headstock slightly wrong. He's a great musician and performer, but somebody needs to take away his woodworking tools!

I'll bet if Gerry knew what he had back then, he wouldn't have taken a saw to the peghead, LOL...

This guitar is basically the same as George Harrison's O.S. 12-string, the exception being Gerry's has crushed-pearl inlay wheras George's guitar has solid 'linoleum' inlays, typical of many 1963 deluxe Rickenbackers.

Kinda funny that he damaged the guitar so it would fit into the case he built so it wouldn't get damaged.

Ronn: Yep, it's highly ironic (and more than a little moronic).

Can someone post a picture showing the end of the headstock, so that I can see the bare wood. The few photos I have seen are from the front and don't show the cut side. Thanks.

Benjamin: I don't know of a photo clearly showing the damage myself. It's very easy to see in black and white videos, when you get any kind of side angle view.

The only one I have seen is this one...same one Peter posted.

For comparison purposes.

Well, here is a pic of the guitar in action, circa 1995..taken off of the TV while the video was playing.



You can see the shortened peghead pretty clearly, and the hand-shaped TRC...like a fingerprint on these early 12-strings. I think the guitar went MIA not long after this video was made....