1965—MUSIC AND MY FIRST RICKENBACKER GUITAR
In March of 1965, one landmark happening occurred that would have a major effect on me, remaining in my memory to this day, and leading to my “October career”, many decades later.
I played my first Rickenbacker 12 string guitar.
A friend of Gil’s from the neighborhood named Guy, a kind of hippie type who lived on his own and was a bit older at 18, had bought a new ’65 Fireglo Rickenbacker 12 string guitar. At that point I had played Gus’ Telecaster on occasion, and Tom’s Gibson SG Junior, which I later realised did not have a proper setup. However, the Rickenbacker was another animal entirely. Guy, a really generous young man and a player whose abilities and repertoire were quite a bit beyond our own struggles to learn, practice, and perform, played the Rickenbacker a bit and then passed it around for us to try. Even plugged into Gil’s little Tolini accordion amplifier, which had a 10” speaker, something like 10 watts, and no effects like reverberation or compression, the Rickenbacker 12 sounded like a choir of angels to my ears. After it had been sampled by all the other band mambers except our drummer, Rich, it was finally my turn to play it!
I had never played anything so inspirational. I tried it both amplified and unplugged. Even unplugged, the resonance of the semi-hollow body gave it just enough volume and tone that it could be heard over the guys talking. Playability was the easiest I’d ever experienced. I reasoned that, since it was a twelve string instrument, it should be twice as hard to fret as a six string. The truth was just the opposite, I found out. It was the easiest and smoothest playing guitar in the world, I thought, in my limited experience. Utterly impressive and amazing. This brief experience stayed in my mind for decades, until I finally bought my own first Rickenbacker 12, in 2003!
(ABOVE) THE ARSENAL—Rickenbacker 360 12 string; Gibson Les Paul Junior; Fender Telecaster; Kay Bass.
Meanwhile, “our” group had migrated and changed personnel. I was out, despite the fact that I was the only band member who could actually sing.
Without any discussion, Gus decided to replace me with another local guy, Tom 2, who not only could sing, but also looked a bit like McCartney. He played no instruments, but who cared? Nobody really needed a keyboard player, anyway. I was unceremoniously out. I decided to switch to guitar.
Back to model cars, My interest and involvement continued to grow, as my creativity and craft both began to take hold, and new challenges arose. Primary among these challenges was a desire to create models of my original designs: subject matter that was unavailable in the marketplace.
This phase of my involvement with model cars would continue until roughly 1970, when my marriage and a need to earn a living began to demand 100% of my time and energy.