1968 Rickenbacker 366/12 Convertible
Rickenbacker started working on their electric 12-string guitar sometime in 1963, just as the folk music boom of the early 1960s started to wane. The 12-string guitar was an important part of the Great Folk Scare, as the era is sometimes called, and guitarists in other genres were starting to experiment with them. Rickenbacker felt that there might be a market for an electric 12-string and set about designing one. An employee named Dick Burke came up with the idea of mixing right angle tuning machines and a slotted headstock with rear facing tuning machines to reduce the weight of the peghead. Rickenbacker built three prototypes based on the six-string 360 model, one of which wound up in the hands of George Harrison, who promptly put it to use in the movie A Hard Day’s Night. After seeing that movie Roger McGuinn fell in love with the sound of the guitar and went out and bought a Rickenbacker 12-string of his own, which he used on The Byrds’ version “Mr. Tambourine Man,” thus creating the new genre of folk rock.
In 1966 Rickenbacker developed an mechanical device that consisted of a metal comb that you could use to pull the octave strings out of the way of your picking hand which would basically turn your 12-string into a six-string. Dubbed the 366/12, this variation of the 12-string didn’t really catch on and it was discontinued in 1974. This lovely 1968 version of the 366/12 is finished in natural, a style Rickenbacker called Maplego. (They called their sunbursts Fireglo and their black guitars Jetglo.) Rickenbacker 366/12s are fairly rare guitars and I’ve only played one of them over the years. The comb device actually worked pretty well and I didn’t think that it was too much in the way when it was engaged but it made bending string pretty much impossible. I can sort of see that Rickenbacker was going for a “two guitars for the price of one” thing but every guitarist I know would rather just have two guitars. If you’d like own this interesting detour in guitar history, just send $4500 to the good people at Gruhn Guitars and they would be happy to help you on your journey.
Roger McGuinn is not playing a 366/12 here but the 360/12 is basically the same model without the de-12-stringing device.
