Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Does anybody know on which recordings George used his RIC 425?

Peter: A very good question indeed, I have given this question much consideration over the years. You can see the history of George Harrison's Model 425 on the No Reply site here. To this day I have seen no credible information that the Model 425, used in the Swedish and UK tours in late 1963, was used in the recording of any Beatle song.

This question is worth pursuing.

Some nice pictures on this site of George using the 425, you don't see them very often. Thanks for the link, Peter.
I read somewhere that George used it when they were recording I Want To Hold Your Hand, but no one seems to know if it's true or not.

Great article on George's 425 Peter, I really enjoyed rereading it. I always thought George got lucky to find any Rickenbacker in a small town in the Midwest back in '63. I can see why he wanted a black one to go with John's recently painted '58. Fentons Music Store really went out of their way to accomodate George. Wish I could have held that guitar in my hands back when George got it to see what kind of job they did respraying it. It seems it's held up well over the years. It would be cool if someone would take the pickguard off the guitar today and photograph the control cavity, I would think there should be quite a trace of that old fire-glo finish left there and behind the nameplate on the headstock.

Thanks Larry. Yes I quite agree that it would be nice to have detailed photos of the guitar today, inside and out! I would also very much like to talk with Red Fenton's family to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the store and this instrument.

The only song that I think that George could have ever possibly used it on was "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as the tonality of George's track sounds very close to that of a Ric than it does a Gretsch 6122 which he already owned in June of `63 and "Hand" was recorded on 17th of October `63 and George got the 425 in late Sept. of `63.

I always thought he was using a Gretsch for I Wanna Hold Your Hand, I could be wrong tho...