History: Guitar Gallery • Pasadena • 1990
February 02, 2009 @ 01:37 PM |
Guitar Gallery. Old Town Pasadena, California. Prior to the name change.Here are a couple of shots I found in a drawer. I do not know the exact date they were taken, but based on the instruments it is sometime in 1990.
This was my favorite shop of the four I was involved in. It was the closest to my need for a space that works as function integrating form. It was featured in Japanese magazines (an article of which I will post as soon as I can get a translation,) and in some Japanese tour books for the L.A. area. There is some pride there...
Top Image: The front instrument is the first Rickenbacker 12 string, built in July of 1963, 5 months before the one acquired by George Harrison was completed. We sold it for the original owner, Suzi Arden, who was a friend of Rickenbacker’s owner F. C. Hall. She headlined a western review in Las Vegas at the time, and Rickenbackers were featured prominently in her act. At the time these images were taken we restored for her what was likely the first 4001 bass produced, replicating the original headstock, grafting the new one to the instrument, and matching the original FireGlow finish. (I still have the original headstock around here somewhere.)
The instrument on the bottom right is Roger McGuinn's (The Byrds) slant fret(!) 'Light Show' 12-string - designated as a model 341-12SF - which our tech restored for Rickenbacker prior to it's return to Roger. The body was severely cracked at the tailpiece bracket, back seam, and neck/headstock. The back of the headstock was veneeered and blended in to the neck to make it stable. Our guy, Tom Smith, did an amazing job. Contrary to another web site’s history of this instrument, it was not refinished to JetGlo. The finish applied to the repaired areas was painstakingly matched to the original BurgundyGlow. This guitar is now on display in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum.
The three lefties are unsold stock from 1967, purchased new by me for my own collection, from the CEO of Rickenbacker, John Hall, in 1989. The one on the left is BurgundyGlow, not black (JetGlow) as it appears in this shot. All three of these instruments feature the internal routing consistent with a ‘Convertible’ model, although no lefty 366-12s were ever produced.
The center instrument is a beautiful 1958 Combo 600 model in Cloverfield Green, also unsold stock from the Rickenbacker factory warehouse.
I have additional images in the archives of all of these instruments, with the exception of the combo model. I will be posting entries on each of them in the future.
Bottom Image: This shot contains vintage Vox amps, Rickenbackers (including a Banjoline and a 456-12), Fenders (notice the lefty 1966 Electric XII,) etc. We were a PRS dealer at the time. This was before he made lefties (don’t get me started on Paul Smith.)
There we have it for today’s look into the past.
Scott
URL Links: Roger McGuinn • Rickenbacker • Rock Hall • Suzi Arden