The brand name of a range of guitars manufactured in California. Adolph Rickenbacker (b Basle, April 1886; d CA, March 1976), a tool and die maker, George Beauchamp, a guitarist and designer, and Paul Barth, all of whom had worked for the National String Instrument Corp. (maker of the ‘ampliphonic resonator’ guitar; see Resonator guitar), founded the firm Ro-Pat-In in 1931; the name was changed to Electro String Instrument Corp. in 1934. In 1932 the firm introduced two models of electric steel guitar, the Rickenbacker A22 and A25, designed to be played across the knees; they were nicknamed ‘frying pans’ because of their round bodies and long necks. Probably designed by Beauchamp in collaboration with Barth, these guitars were the world’s first commercially produced solid-bodied electric guitars with electro-magnetic pickups. The company also produced one of the first electric Spanish-style guitars, the Electro Spanish, in about 1935. During the 1930s and 40s they made mainly lap electric steel guitars (including instruments with a double neck) and free-standing electric Hawaiian guitars.
Rickenbacker sold the Electro company in 1954 to the Californian businessman F.C. Hall, who founded the sales company Rickenbacker Inc. in 1965. From the late 1950s the Rickenbacker name came to be associated with solid-bodied electric guitars and a more successful range of semi-acoustic electric and electric bass guitars. These instruments are visually very distinctive, having angled headstocks and often the scimitar-shaped f-holes that are unique to Rickenbacker guitars; some of the designs were created for Rickenbacker by the luthier Roger Rossmiesl, who later worked for the Fender company.
In 1956 Rickenbacker brought out one of the first neck-through-body guitars, the Combo 400. The following year they produced their first solid-bodied electric bass guitar, the Model 4000. One of their most original-sounding instruments is the electric 12-string guitar, introduced in 1963 and popularized by its use, soon afterwards, by Roger McGuinn on the recording by The Byrds of Mr Tambourine Man. The company continues to produce a series of acoustic, electric and electric bass guitars. In 1984 the firm’s name changed again to Rickenbacker International Corp.
T. Wheeler: American Guitars: an Illustrated History (New York, 1982)
R. Smith: The Complete History of Rickenbacker Guitars (Fullerton, CA,1987)
T. Bacon and P. Day: The Rickenbacker Book: a Complete History of Rickenbacker Electric Guitars (London, 1994)
TONY BACON