Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

J.C., that's just cruel

Did you notice on that list they had one of the 5 4005LS basses made?

Yup, and they had McGuinn's lightshow 12!

Cole

Back in '80, A dealer (Not a RIC guy and now out of business; can't remember his name--used to put out a monthly mailer--had McGuinn's LS for sale--for $1500.00. He claimed original, docymented, etc., but I did not check it out on approval.

I thought at the time: Wow. What a piece of history! But $1500!

Nobody bought it for about 3 months. Then he started reducing it $100 a month, and finally it sold for $1200.00, I believe.

I wonder if this is the same 341/12SF at the RRHOF? I had thought McGuinn had donated this one himself. Maybe they made another?

All those 4005/8,s with the frogfoot headstock...I'd have snatched the 60,s fretless in a second...where is that baby now??

I'm confused on the 341/12SF - McGuinn was on Letterman in the last year. He wasn't a guest, but was sitting in with the band. He was playing a lightshow for sure - I assumed it to be the 341, but didn't really look. Anyone remember?

Did he sell it and buy it back? Maybe he had more than one?

I bought a few things from Scott Jennings back in 1990 I think it was. When I was at the store, he let me play McGuinns 341/12sf. It was fantastic - but at the time he wanted $10,000 - a little out of my price range. Does anyone have the rest of the price sheets from this time?

Found them!!

http://aurs2.homestead.com/files/SJnote1.gif

http://aurs2.homestead.com/files/SJnote2.gif

Wish I had more money back then! It breaks my heart seeing the list now..........

More info on the 341/12sf.....................
Reportedly acquired at the end of 1970.
Slanted frets (SF) and slanted Hi-Gain pickups.
Originally had the two-toggle Byrd wiring harness.
Novelty stage guitar seldom used due to the heat gen-
erated by the lights embedded in the guitar body.  Used oc-
 casionally for psychedelic onstage encores of “Eight Miles High.”
This guitar reportedly suffered serious heavy damage in the late 1970s
as the result of being thrown across a stage.  Damage included a broken
body (cracked where the tailpiece mounts), a broken headstock (cracked
through), and the back had also separated (evidently from the heat of the
bulbs).  McGuinn reportedly traded the instrument to Rickenbacker for an
instrument at the factory, where the light show was then said to have lan-
guished for years and years until being entrusted to Scott Jennings to offer
for sale to the general public circa late December 1988.  The guitar was re-
stored and refinished Jetglo by Scott’s luthier, listed for sale, and displayed
at various guitar shows for a few years before eventually being reacquired
by McGuinn.  Somewhere along the way, the original 2-toggle Byrd wiring
circuit was altered with a knob replacing the upper toggle (pickup-select).
Guitar now a priceless museum piece at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The 341/12SF was at the RRHOF as of early August 2004, I saw it on display. The rebuilt 1970 370/12Byrd(#3) was not on display, dunno if was in the back room or out on loan to McGuinn, etc...

If a light show was ever made today, it could use high-intensity LEDs, a couple of batteries in the body would keep it alive for weeks, a microchip circuit would fit no problem, and it would be a player due to no heat problems!

Yep, like Kenny's 'phoenix' project 331. VERY cool.

Wow!

That list with the F's is killing me. Does anyone have pictures of those prototypes? What is a sunburst Rick?

Graham - is that where you got your proto?

Wow!