12/11/2023 0 Comments 12 string guitar in spanish“I was head of the woodshop at that time, and we worked it different ways. He asked – could we come up with a configuration to make it not much bigger than a regulation six-string head? So I drilled around, and I came up with what we’ve got today. Mr Hall wanted a 12-string, but he wanted the head short, a compact head – he didn’t want six keys and another six keys. “We brought in our 12-string somewhere around ’64. If Francis Hall wanted something, Roger would put it on paper, a small sketch of it, and try and come up with something. Roger was likeable – I worked with him for about four years – and he was responsible for a lot of the designs Rickenbacker still has today. “I started at Rickenbacker in March 1958, reporting to Roger Rossmeisl and to Ward Deaton, who was the manager then. Double pickup Model 7020 $210.” Developing the Rick 12 Dick Burke They evoke the mysterious charm and flavor of remote times and places, yet are easily played using familiar guitar technique. “These 12-string instruments are designed by Danelectro from original concepts of Vincent Bell. $475.” Danelectro c.1963 catalogue, Bellzouki model Image: Nigel Osbourne / Redferns “A completely new and exciting instrument … the Double-12 combines the conventional six-string guitar neck with a 12-string neck – six strings double-strung which can be tuned either in thirds or an octave apart for reinforced resonance and unusual tone effects. Played and recommended by Jimmy Bryant, West Coast radio, television, and Capitol recording artist. Melodies played on the 12-string neck sound like multiple recording. Allows the standard guitar player to play double-string lead as fast as he would ordinarily play single string-lead. Toggle switch for cutting in one neck at a time or both. An almost unlimited field of different tunings for the 12-string neck. “Excitingly new! Astonishingly different! The guitar of tomorrow … today! The only twin-necked standard guitar on the market today: one six-string neck and one 12-string neck. The tenth was Dick Burke, who the factory manager had written up very favourably.” Image: Steve Catlin / Redferns Electric 12-string – Pre-Rickenbacker Stratosphere c.1955 catalogue, Twin model, first electric 12-string “As I recall there were 10, and the factory manager was railing that nine of them weren’t worth a damn, or were creating problems, whatever – and Semie Moseley was one of those nine. So all his assistants had been hired that he was supposed to train and to delegate to do the different jobs. “Roger really liked to work alone, he was a real loner, and he wanted to do everything himself, and that just didn’t work well in a production environment. The soundhole shape is very northern German, and the fingerboard inlays – the shark’s tooth or whatever you want to call ’em – are very definitely Roger. In particular, the way that the tops are carved, not only the German carve as on the 381 series, but the carving at the tailpiece, which is quite unique to Rickenbacker, and the idea that you’re essentially making a guitar from the front. “A lot of little stylistic elements that Roger brought with him from his father, and his grandfather, are still with Rickenbacker today. He seemed, at least in the factory, a little eccentric perhaps in that he pretty well liked to be hands-on and do his own thing, and be left alone to do his own thing. I was young, and we’d get together socially, Roger and his son. “He seemed like a fairly decent family man at that time, he had a very young son. Come Christmas, I could guarantee that Rossmeisl’s gift was always the best, it would be educational, always interesting. He was the only person I knew at that time who drove a sports car – he’d often take me round the block in his sports car, top down, a lot of fun. “I thought Roger was a very warm and interesting sort of guy. My dad designed the circuits, and I think there must have been somebody else involved in some of the mechanical aspects – I can’t quite picture Roger designing the bridge assemblies. “He was brought in specifically by Paul Barth to do the design work. I can’t tell you how many prototypes or whatever they were or what they even looked like, but Rossmeisl certainly came up with the body styles and the body shapes. And without question Roger Rossmeisl was responsible for that. “When my dad bought Rickenbacker in 1953, it began the transition from a Hawaiian guitar company into a more mainstream Spanish guitar company. Roger Rossmeisl & new-look Ricks John Hall
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