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Help me ID this old Rickenbacker (?) amp PLEASE!
Posted: Sat May 10, 2003 5:05 am
by mickrhodes
The guy I bought this from told me it was a Rickenbacker, but I'm not so sure. It has a 1953 Jensen P12R that looks original, 2 6v6s, the control plate has two interactive volume knobs and one tone knob (all chickenhead), a fuse, a light and a switch. It sure sounds great, but I'm just curious as to its origins.
Posted: Sat May 10, 2003 12:00 pm
by mickrhodes
And here's a back view.
Posted: Sat May 10, 2003 2:10 pm
by jwilli
How about a closeup pic of the controls?
Posted: Sun May 11, 2003 5:04 am
by mickrhodes
Here ya go John.
Posted: Sun May 11, 2003 10:44 am
by admin
Mike: If you email large photos to
peter@rickresource.com I will post them larger, with the use of a compression program, so that we can see them.
Posted: Sat May 17, 2003 3:05 am
by admin
Photos of Mike Rhodes
Honey Pie.
Posted: Thu May 22, 2003 9:09 am
by mickrhodes
Thanks Peter. I hope somebody out there can help ... And Honey Pie is a great nickname for this amp! I think I'll steal it!
Posted: Sat May 24, 2003 3:11 pm
by libratune
This doesn't look like any Rick amp I have ever seen. My best guess - based on overall appearance and in particular handle and backpanel layout - is that it's some kind of Gretsch or Gibson off-brand. [See the Japanese book "The Amplifier" by RittorMusic, pp. 45, 48 + 49.]
Posted: Sat May 24, 2003 4:28 pm
by admin
I agree Ron, but haven't been able to ID this one yet.
Posted: Tue May 27, 2003 5:10 am
by mickrhodes
Thanks Ron. I'll try and find that book!
Posted: Tue May 27, 2003 6:43 am
by jzu
Posted: Tue May 27, 2003 8:02 am
by mickrhodes
I just had a eureka moment! On the advice of another stumped amp expert, I cleaned the control panel with alcohol and viola, just barely visible if a take it outside in the sunlight and tilt it a certain way, in script lettering, is "Rickenbacker" !!! It's located on the left side toward the front end (the lettering is upside down when viewed from the front), and just below and to the left of it is another word, again in the same script, that begins with "E" and looks like it may say "Electra"??!? Anybody out there have any ideas? Thanks in advance ...
Posted: Tue May 27, 2003 10:27 am
by admin
Mike: That would probably be "Electro". I believe that Rickenbacker made an Electro line of amplifiers in the early to mid 1950s. John Hall will have to sort this out for us. An example of one Electro model made by Rickenbacker around 1954 is
here.
Posted: Tue May 27, 2003 2:02 pm
by mickrhodes
Thanks Peter ... I'll await John Hall's input.
Posted: Thu May 29, 2003 9:47 am
by johnhall
It doesn't look like anything I'm familiar with. It's certainly not the styling we used anytime from the 1950's on forward.
There's also an ad that we did a little more than 20 years ago that had photos of amps all the way back to the first in 1931 and it doesn't look like any of those either.
But I guess it could have been a private label model of some kind that I'm not aware of.