Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The other day I saw a "biopic" of the Beach Boys called "Summer Dreams"... to me, it wasn't very good but there was an interesting moment.

In one scene, Al Jardine was playing a Ric. All that was shown was the head and a flash of the neck/upper body.

I always thought the Beach Boys were strictly Fender. Is this just a faux pas by the art director or did one of the Beach Boys play a Ric?

Carl Wilson played a Ric on many of their songs. (Listen to the "The Beach Boys Today!" album that came out in 1965)
I have tried to find detail on the web without success. Does anyone have any links on the subject?

If you go to the Artists section of this webpage, you can see some pics of Carl Wilson and his Ricks. As far as I've seen he played at least three: a 330S/12, a 360/12 (new style) and a 360/12 O.S. (the only photo of which I've seen is on the back of Pet Sounds). All were fireglo. I've never seen a shot of Al Jardine playing a Rick, although I'm sure he must have on occasion. I too would like to see more on the web on this topic.

I bought a 360/12CW a while back, and it's a fantastic guitar. Carl would be proud! IMHO, these are some of the nicest Rickenbackers around.

To rate a signature model Ric you pretty much have to be known for playing them.
On a related topic, I saw Brian Wilson perform "Smile" last night. Amazing.

Since it was just a "passing shot" with the focus on the guy playing Mike Love, I couldn't tell who it was supposed to be.

I don't doubt it was Carl. Thanks for the info... I knew I could get an answer here

Chronictown, I agree with you on the Carl Wilson 12 string. I tried one recently and it was sweet. Much easier to play than my 1979 360/12; wish I had the funds.

Carl Wilson got a rick 12 in early '64 (a 360 DB with dot markers). He had both new and old style 360 twelves. Twelve strings are all over the place on the B-B '64-'66 releases. The best car show-case IMHO on the 12 is on the capital 2-fer : Beach Boys Today & Summer Days/Summer Nights. Besides Brian, Carl was really the only other BB to play an instrument on Pet Sounds / Smile.

There is a Pet Sounds annectdote in which Brian had one of the studio musicians (aka the Wrecking Crew)go out and buy a 12-string guitar, but, from what I have read, the musician bought a Fender twelve string.

I believe that Carl had both JG & FG 12s and I "assume" that he used sixes as well.

Ofcourse, he used Fenders before '64 and in the seventies had an Epiphone 12 string (riviera/casino ?) and used a Gibson 335 or something like it with a bigsby.

I read in a Vintage Guitar add recently (past two years) that one of CW's 12s was purchased by James Honeyman Scott of the Pretenders' first line-up. It was up for auction, but I don't know any of the particulars.
This year I saw Brian Wilson in Paris where jeff foskett used a Fender 12-string in a strat-like model. Foskett, whose Ric collection is all over Richard Smith's Ric book, surprisingly did not use ricks, but rather strats and gibsons (335 & a reverse firebird). Also, in MA this summer I saw the "beach boys band" -mike love & bruce johnson in which the lead guitarist played a Hamer 12-string which looked like a Monoco with p-90s.

My CW six is my favorite guitar, it really stands out.

Carl purchased his because he wanted to get the sound the Beatles had, and since the Beach Boys were controlled by Capital Records (along with the Beatles), the record company was very supportive of this. Or so I have read. By the way, Carl also played a sixties 360/6 Fireglo, and it is shown on the Limited Edition poster. UNLESS that was faked by Rickenbacker.

The picture used in the poster is given this attribution on the CW page at the factory website:

Photo © 1986 Margaret Dowdle-Head

I would conclude that it is a real photo, otherwise I think it would be indicated as "image" or something other than "photo".

Carl had perfect pitch and good taste in guitars. I still mourn his loss.

Somewhere (probably in the booklet with the 'Good Vibrations' box set) I know I've seen a picture with Al playing a Rickenbacker (presumably Carl's).

I've seen a couple of pictures of Al playing a Rick. I've always assumed it was one of Carl's because I've never seen a picture with them both playing Ricks at the same time. I've also seen pictures of Al playing a white Jaguar, which I also always assuemd was Carl's.

Yup, Carl was cool.

there's also a very cool picture of Brian Wilson showing Van Dyke Parks cords on a FG 360-12 during the Smile sessions of late '66 early '67.

What a nice thread. I'm a BB's & Rick fan too, and is great to read about them and Carl Wilson.

I would like to comment that in the Keith Badman book (from Backbeat Books) about the BB's, there's a bunch of great photos from 64'-67' period where you can see Carl with his Ricks. But after reading it, I've been thinking about a question on Carl's 330S/12, and I wonder if any of you can help.

Richard Smith says in his Rick book that this 330S/12 is a 1964 (page 119), and yes, the Badman BB's book shows a picture from September 27th, 1964, Ed Sullivan show for "Wendy", where you can see Al playing this guitar (while Carl plays Jaguar).

At the end of the Richard Smith book, is said that only one 330S/12 was made in mid 1964 (Smith says: "twelve string sample"), and two only in 1965.

So then I have to believe that the 330S/12 that Carl owned was the first made by Rickenbacker, and the only one made in 1964. But it seems strange that I never read anything about this.

Is this OK?
Or is there something I'm missing?