Rickenbacker facts for kids
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| Private | |
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Founded | 1931 |
| Founder | Adolph Rickenbacker George Beauchamp |
| Headquarters | , |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Adolph Rickenbacker George Beauchamp |
| Products | Electric, acoustic, lap and console steel guitars, basses, amplifiers, electric violins, electric mandolins, electric banjos |
Rickenbacker International Corporation is a company that makes string instruments. It is based in Santa Ana, California. Rickenbacker is famous for making the first known electric guitars. This happened in 1932 with a special steel guitar. Today, the company makes many kinds of electric guitars and basses.
Contents
The Story of Rickenbacker Guitars
How Rickenbacker Started
Adolph Rickenbacher and George Beauchamp started the company in 1931. It was first called the Ro-Pat-In Corporation. They wanted to sell electric Hawaiian guitars. George Beauchamp worked with Paul Barth and Harry Watson to design these instruments. The company's name later changed to 'Rickenbacher' and then to 'Rickenbacker'.
The first instruments were called "frying-pans." This was because they had long necks and small, round bodies. They were the first solid-bodied electric guitars ever made. These were lap-steel guitars. They had a special pickup with two horseshoe-shaped magnets. These magnets went over the strings. By 1939, thousands of these "frying pan" guitars were made.
Electro String also sold amplifiers for their guitars. The first amplifier was designed by Van Nest. Later, Ralph Robertson improved the amplifiers. By the 1940s, Rickenbacker had at least four different amplifier models. James B. Lansing designed the speaker in the professional model. In the early 1940s, Leo Fender sometimes repaired Rickenbacker amps. His repair shop later became the famous Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
Early Ideas for Electric Guitars
George Beauchamp was a performer who played the violin and steel guitar. In the 1920s, he wanted his guitar to be louder than an orchestra. He first tried a guitar with a phonograph-like horn. This idea did not work well.
Next, he worked with John Dopyera, a violin maker. They tried putting three metal resonators inside the guitar body. This made a louder instrument. They started a company called the National String Instrument Corporation. Adolph Rickenbacher helped them make the metal parts for these guitars.
Adolph Rickenbacher was born in Switzerland in 1887. He moved to the United States. He was a very skilled engineer. He helped National make many guitars each day.
However, National faced problems. Demand for their expensive guitars slowed down. The Great Depression also made things harder. George Beauchamp then focused on making a fully electric guitar.
People had thought about electric string instruments before. But George Beauchamp wanted to make a better electric guitar. He experimented with a one-string guitar made from wood and an electric phonograph pickup. He worked with Paul Barth. They created an electric pickup with horseshoe-shaped magnets around the strings. Harry Watson made a wooden body for it. Someone called it the "fry-pan" because of its shape.
The "Fry-Pan" and Electro-Spanish Guitars
In late 1931, Beauchamp, Barth, and Rickenbacker formed the Ro-Pat-In Corporation. They made electric musical instruments. Their main product was the A-25 Hawaiian Guitar, or "fry-pan" lap-steel electric guitar. They also made an Electric Spanish (standard) model and amplifiers.
In 1932, they started making "Fry-Pan" guitars from cast aluminum. They also made some "Electro-Spanish" models from wood. These guitars were the start of the electric guitar because of their special pickups. In 1933, the company changed its name to Electro String Instrument Corporation. Their instruments were simply called "Electro." In 1934, they added "Rickenbacker" to the name to honor Adolph Rickenbacker.
While making the A-22 Fry-Pan, they also tried out wooden Spanish guitars. This led to the Electro-Spanish Model B and the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts. These were experimental at first but released in 1935. Only 46 of the Ken Roberts model were made.
The Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts had new features. It was the first guitar named after a famous player. Most guitars had necks that joined the body at the 14th fret. But the Ken Roberts joined at the 17th fret. This made it easier to reach higher notes. It was also the first full-scale (25-1/2") electric guitar.
Another new feature was the Kauffman Vib-rola tailpiece. This was the world's first patented tremolo system. It allowed players to change the pitch of notes with their hand. This was Rickenbacker's first connection to Clayton "Doc" Kauffman, who later helped design more instruments.
New Models and Ownership Change
In 1935, Rickenbacker released new models, including the Model "B" Electric Spanish guitar. This was the first known solid-body electric guitar. The early aluminum "Fry-Pans" sometimes had tuning problems in hot lights. So, many new models were made from Bakelite. This was an early plastic, like the material used for bowling balls.
Rickenbacker kept making steel guitars into the 1950s. But then rock and roll became popular. In 1953, F.C. Hall bought the Electro String Company from Adolph Rickenbacker. Hall changed the business. He started focusing on regular electric and acoustic guitars instead of just steel guitars.
In 1956, Rickenbacker introduced guitars with "neck through body" construction. This became a common feature for Rickenbacker. It means the neck and the middle part of the body are made from one piece of wood. Examples include the Combo 400 guitar and the model 4000 bass.
In 1958, Hall showed off a new guitar called "Capri."
In 1963, Rickenbacker made an electric twelve-string guitar. It had a clever headstock design. All twelve machine heads (tuning pegs) fit on a standard-length headstock. This was done by placing some tuning pegs at right angles. This twelve-string guitar was added to the Rickenbacker 300 Series.
Rickenbacker and 1960s Rock and Roll
In the 1960s, Rickenbacker became very famous. This was because some of their guitars were used by The Beatles. Their sound and look became linked to the band.
In 1960, Beatles guitarist John Lennon bought a Rickenbacker 325 in Hamburg. He used it a lot in the early days of The Beatles. He later changed its color to black and added a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. Lennon played this guitar on The Beatles' first TV show, The Ed Sullivan Show, in 1964. Later, he had the guitar restored to its original wood finish.
Rickenbacker sent two new 325s to Lennon in 1964. One was a custom 12-string 325. The other was an updated six-string model. He used this newer six-string on The Ed Sullivan Show again.
Lennon accidentally broke the headstock of his second 325 in 1964. While it was being fixed, he used a Rickenbacker model 1966. He later gave this guitar to Ringo Starr.
Beatles guitarist George Harrison bought a 420 in 1963. In 1964, F.C. Hall of Rickenbacker gave Harrison a Rickenbacker 360/12. This was the second electric twelve-string Rickenbacker ever made. This guitar became a key part of The Beatles' sound on their album A Hard Day's Night. Harrison played this guitar for many years.
In 1965, Harrison received another model 360/12 FG 12-string guitar. This one had rounded edges. Harrison used this guitar on the song "If I Needed Someone" and during the Beatles' 1966 tours. This guitar was later stolen.
After the Beatles' 1965 summer tour, Paul McCartney often used a left-handed 1964 4001S FG Rickenbacker bass. He used it instead of his lighter Höfner basses. This bass became popular with other bass players who liked McCartney's melodic style.
In 1967, McCartney painted his 4001. Later, someone sanded off the paint. McCartney used the Rickenbacker bass with his band Wings and in his solo career. He still records with it today.
Because of The Beatles' fame, many guitarists in the 1960s started using Rickenbackers. These included John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival), Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane), and John Entwistle and Pete Townshend of The Who. After the 1960s, Rickenbacker guitars became less popular for a while. But Rickenbacker basses stayed popular. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Rickenbacker guitars became popular again. This was thanks to new wave and jangle pop bands.
What Makes Rickenbackers Special?
Some Rickenbacker models have a stereo "Rick-O-Sound" output. This lets you send each pickup's sound to different amplifiers. Another special feature is having two truss rods. These rods help keep the neck straight.
Rickenbacker guitars usually have a neck made of several pieces of wood glued together. Their basses have a one-piece neck that goes all the way through the body. Rickenbacker instruments are known for having narrower necks. They also have lacquered rosewood fingerboards, which feel different.
Rickenbacker guitars are known for their bright, "jangle" sound. Early models were popular with folk rock and British Invasion bands like the Searchers, The Beatles, and The Who. These early guitars had "toaster" pickups. Later, in the late 1960s, they switched to high-gain pickups. These were twice as powerful.
Many different artists have played Rickenbacker guitars since the 1960s. In 1979, Tom Petty and Mike Campbell used old 1960s models for that "toaster-pickup jangle" sound. The high-gain pickup sound is linked to bands like The Jam and R.E.M..
Rickenbacker Basses
The 4000 series were the first Rickenbacker bass guitars. They came out in 1957. After that came the Rickenbacker 4001 (1961), 4002 (1977), 4008 (eight-string, mid-1970s), and 4003 (1979). The 4003 replaced the 4001 in 1986 and is still made today. The 4004 series is the newest.
They also made the 4005, a hollow-bodied bass (1965-1984). It looked more like the 360-370 guitars than other 4000 series basses. The 4001S (1964) was like a 4001 but without binding and with dot inlays on the fingerboard. Paul McCartney got one of the early 4001S basses. Other early players of the 4001 included Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, John Entwistle of The Who, Pete Quaife of The Kinks, Chris Squire of Yes, and Geddy Lee of Rush.
The 4003S model came out in 1985. It was like the 4001S with dot markers and no binding. It was stopped in 2000 but brought back in 2015.
Rickenbacker basses have a special sound. The 4001 and 4003 basses have neck-through construction. The 3000 series (mid-1970s to mid-1980s) were cheaper basses. They had bolt-on necks with 21 frets. There was also a 4000 version in 1975-76 with a glued-in neck. It had 20 frets, dot inlays, and one pickup. Fred Turner of Bachman-Turner Overdrive used the 4000 a lot.
In the 1970s, the Rickenbacker bass became popular in progressive rock. British bassists like Mike Rutherford (Genesis) and Chris Squire (Yes) used them. Chris Squire was one of the first to use a Rickenbacker in stereo. He sent the sound to both a guitar amp and a bass amp. This created a powerful, unique sound.
In hard rock, Deep Purple's Roger Glover was a big Rickenbacker fan. Geddy Lee of Rush used a Rickenbacker on his band's early songs. Metallica bassist Cliff Burton also used a changed 4001 bass. Motörhead's Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister had his own Rickenbacker signature bass, the 4004LK. In 2019, Rickenbacker made a special 4003AC bass for Al Cisneros.
Rickenbacker basses were also used in UK punk and New wave music in the late 1970s. Players included Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), Paul Simonon (The Clash), Peter Hook (Joy Division), and Bruce Foxton (The Jam). In the U.S., Kira Roessler (Black Flag) used one.
Alex Malheiros from the Brazilian band Azymuth used a 4001 bass. He showed that the Rickenbacker bass can be used for many music styles, not just rock.
Acoustic Guitars
Rickenbacker has also made some unique acoustic guitars. A few Rickenbacker acoustics were sold in the 1950s. Stars like Ricky Nelson and Sam Cooke played them. But from the early 1960s, the company focused on electric guitars.
From about 1959 to 1994, very few Rickenbacker acoustic guitars were made. In 1995, Rickenbacker tried to bring back acoustic guitars. They started making them in their Santa Ana factory in 1996. They offered four models of flat-top acoustics. Each model came in six- and twelve-string versions. It is thought that fewer than 500 Rickenbacker acoustic guitars were made before they stopped making them in 2006.
In late 2006, Rickenbacker let Paul Wilczynski build Rickenbacker-branded acoustics. He built each guitar to order until his license ended in 2013.
Guitar Pickups
Rickenbacker makes three main types of pickups for their guitars:
- High-gain single-coil: These are standard on most modern models.
- Vintage Toaster single coil: These look like classic chrome toasters. They have a brighter, cleaner sound. They are key to getting the "British Invasion" guitar tone.
- Humbucking: These are on models like the 650C and 4004 basses.
All three pickup designs fit in the same space. This means they can be swapped into most current or older models. The sound changes depending on the magnets and how much wire is wrapped around the pickup.
Besides the standard pickups, vintage bass models also have "Horseshoe" wrap-around pickups. These are very similar to the pickups on the first Rickenbacker "Frying Pan" models.
Protecting Their Designs
Rickenbacker is known for working hard to stop fake versions of their instruments from being sold. They want to protect their unique designs.
See also
In Spanish: Rickenbacker para niños
- List of Rickenbacker players
- List of Rickenbacker products
Images for kids
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Sketch of Rickenbacker "frying pan" lap steel guitar from a 1934 patent application.
