Existing comment:
360/12 Twelve-string, Old style (serial no. EJ 117)
ca. 1963
Rickenbacker, Inc.
After Rickenbacker introduced its Model 360/12 to the Beatles in 1964, the guitar's jangly, chiming sound became a signature of 1960s pop music. Twelve-string guitars feature six pairs of strings -- the four lowest are doubled an octave up and the two highest doubled in unison -- creating a sound that folk legend Pete Seeger described as like "the clanging of bells." Influential luthier Roger Rossmeisl electrified the instrument with modernistic flair, including a slash-shaped soundhole, an asymmetrical double-cutaway body, a slotted headstock that enables tuners to be mounted sideways or backward, and a stringing design in which the player strikes the lower string first. Rickenbacker produced only forty-three examples of the "Old Style" 360/12, from 1963 to 1968. |