The night before the Beatles famed February 9, 1964 appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, Francis C. Hall, owner and president of Rickenbacker Guitars met with the Beatles at the New York City Savoy Hilton to introduce the group to several different models of their new guitars. One of the instruments Hall brought was a 1963 Rickenbacker 360/12 string prototype two.

George Harrison was under the weather with a bug and couldn’t attend, so Lennon tried out the 360/12. He immediately thought it would be perfect for Harrison. The Beatles arranged for their bandmate to check out the instrument which Harrison immediately took a liking to.

Harrison was quoted in Andy Babiuk’s Beatles Gear, “Straight away I liked that you knew exactly which string was which. 12-strings you spend hours trying to tune it, and you’re turning the wrong (tuner) those so many of them.”

Harrison took possession of the second Rickenbacker 360 12 string to come off the assembly line. It’s serial number, CM 107 puts its manufacture date to December 1963.

The guitar’s iconic look stemming from the resplendent flame of the “Fireglo” finish, the F hole cutout, and the distinctive Rickenbacker headstock specifically shaped to accommodate the 12 tuning pegs. Its hip aesthetic topped off by two sharp horns, double white pick guards and triangle inlays on the neck as well as a trapeze tailpiece.

Harrison’s guitar was a semi acoustic, with both mono and stereo “Rick-O-Sound” outputs. It featured two toaster top pick-ups, 21 frets, and a maple body with rosewood neck.

Lennon and Harrison were well familiar with Rickenbacker as Lennon’s instrument of choice was his 1958 solid body Capri 325, and Harrison owned a red solid body Rickenbacker 425 that he purchased while visiting his sister in America in September of 1963.

Harrison quickly assimilated his new instrument into the Beatles sound using it on a session just two weeks later. The first recording Harrison used his new 12 string on was “I Should Have Known Better,” recorded at Abbey Road on February 25, 1964. The guitars tone is immediately discernable during the ringing contrasts of the plucky guitar solo.

The entire A Hard Day’s Night album is peppered with the stringed glitter of the 360-12 guitar. It introduced itself on title track of the A Hard Day’s Night film and soundtrack with a distinctive metallic clang. Another valuable piece of information related to the original 1963 360/12 is that George Harrison got that “clang,” because of the instruments 0047 polyester cap that was connected to the bridge pickup. The purpose for the cap is to act as a high pass filter. This means it rolls off low end. It takes care of a lot of the frequencies below 250k. Current iterations and reproductions of the Harrison 12 string are missing this critical element of its sound.

The guitar instantly became a vital element in the Beatles sound. It collaborated with Lennon’s own Rickenbacker and gave the Beatles a chiming and luminous glow. The instrument became instantly associated with Harrison, undoubtedly his tool of the trade.

The guitar’s resonant ring can be heard on the 1964 songs, “Tell Me Why,” “Anytime at All,” “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You,” and “You Can’t Do That.” On the 1964 B-side, “I Call You Name,” you can the guitar’s brisk bite as it plays the song’s central  lick under the jangly rhythm of Lennon’s Ric.

Soon, albeit unintentionally, the instrument would influence a multitude of Beatles influenced folkies and rockers who added Rickenbacker guitars to their own groups. These musicians included Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane, Pete Townsend of the Who and most famously Roger McGuinn of the Byrds.

McGuinn told Guitar.com, ““One night, we all went down to the Pix Theatre in Hollywood to see A Hard Day’s Night. We carefully noted the brands and models of their instruments. John had a little black 325 Rickenbacker, Paul had Hofner bass, Ringo played Ludwig drums, and George had a Gretch six-string and a Rickenbacker that looked like a six-string – until he turned sideways. The camera revealed another six strings hidden in the back. I knew right then the secret of their wonderful guitar sound. It was a Rickenbacker 12-string!

Harrison continued to play both his Gretsch Tennessean and the Rickenbacker on the Beatles next record, 1964’s Beatles for Sale. But the Ric is easily recognizable and is heard on the hit single “Eight Days a Week,” rolling out the faded in introduction, and the album tracks “What Your Doing,” Every Little Thing,” and Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love.”

The guitar would also be a mainstay of the 1965 Help sessions and provide the epochal introduction to the Beatles 1965 smash single “Ticket to Ride.”

Soon, the radio waves were brimming with the sonorous sustain of the Rickenbacker 12 string guitar. The Rickenbacker rang the folk-rock bell that would influence an entire generation of musical artists. The aforementioned Roger McGuinn would run with the sound adding his own personality and make it the clarion call of folk rock genre.

George’s original Rickenbacker can be seen in most of the available Beatles footage from 1964 including the Hollywood Bowl and their legendary Shea Stadium performance from August 18, 1965.

On August 21, 1965 during the Beatles US tour Harrison was gifted his second Rickenbacker 12 string by a representative from “B-Sharp” music in Minneapolis during a press conference. This new 360/12 was a streamlined version of Harrison’s 1963 version. The cutaways are shortened and more rounded than on the 63’. It had an outlined cat’s eye F hole and a darker Fireglo shading. There were five silver control knobs on the front and a “R” tailpiece. The guitar contained a maple body and neck.

This new guitar made its recording debut on the Harrison track “If I Needed Someone,” recorded at Abbey Road on October 18, 1965. The instrument became one of Harrison’s on-stage guitars until it’s disappearance following the Beatles final concert the following year on August 29, 1966. George retired the original 63’ in the fall of 65 and the new Rickenbacker made its on-stage debut on December 3, 1965 at the Odeon theatre in Scotland.

The guitar can be seen in action during the Beatles final touring year via circulating footage from the Beatles 1966 appearances inJapan and Germany. As of the writing of this article the guitar is missing and its whereabouts are unknown. Though in a March 24, 2001 article in Billboard Maurice Gibb of the Bee-Gee’s said that Harrison gave him a 65 Rickenbacker guitar as a gift when the Beatles stopped touring. Soooo, who really knows?

In 1987 Harrison would break out the original 1963 Rickenbacker for his Cloud Nine album. He told Guitar Player in November of 1987, “’If I Needed Someone,’ was written in D nut position [capoed at the 5th fret]. The opening to ‘A Hard Days Night,’ is also that Rickenbacker 12-string. And in fact, on the new album, ‘Fish on The Sand’ is the Ricky 12-string.

He concluded in a later 1988 radio interview, “Yeah, well I´m pleased to say I still got that guitar, it´s a great classic guitar now, I think. I got it hanging on a wall at home and as I said I use it on “Fish On The Sand” which a few people have said, oh ,it reminds them of some Beatle tune, I don´t know, but that´s purely because the sound of it, that sound you just associate with those early sixties´ Beatle records. The twelve string Rickenbacker sound is a sound on its own. “