Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California . Rickenbacker is the first known maker of electric guitars , with a steel guitar in 1932, and produces a range of electric guitars and basses .
123-569: Adolph Rickenbacher and George Beauchamp founded the company in 1931 as the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (Elect Ro-Pat ent- In struments) to sell electric Hawaiian guitars . Beauchamp designed his instruments in collaboration with Paul Barth and Harry Watson, who had been active in the National String Instrument Corporation . The Ro-Pat-In brand name would eventually transform into the 'Rickenbacher' brand, and ultimately
246-516: A Bigsby vibrato tailpiece and regularly changing the control knobs. Lennon played this guitar for the Beatles' 1964 debut on The Ed Sullivan Show (as well as for their third Sullivan appearance, pre-taped the same day but broadcast two weeks later). During Lennon's post-Beatles years in New York, he had this guitar restored to its original natural wood finish and the cracked gold pickguard replaced with
369-626: A deflationary spiral started in 1931. Farmers faced a worse outlook; declining crop prices and a Great Plains drought crippled their economic outlook. At its peak, the Great Depression saw nearly 10% of all Great Plains farms change hands despite federal assistance. At first, the decline in the U.S. economy was the factor that triggered economic downturns in most other countries due to a decline in trade, capital movement, and global business confidence. Then, internal weaknesses or strengths in each country made conditions worse or better. For example,
492-511: A luthier with a workshop in San Francisco, California. He continued to offer all eight models of the Rickenbacker flat top guitar line, building each instrument to order, until his license expired on February 1, 2013. Rickenbacker manufactures three pickups for their current standard models: high-gain single-coil, Vintage Toaster single coil, and humbucking . All three pickup designs share
615-418: A silver standard , almost avoided the depression entirely. The connection between leaving the gold standard as a strong predictor of that country's severity of its depression and the length of time of its recovery has been shown to be consistent for dozens of countries, including developing countries . This partly explains why the experience and length of the depression differed between regions and states around
738-512: A zero fret ). Along with McCartney, other early adopters of the 4001 were Roger Waters of Pink Floyd , John Entwistle of The Who, Pete Quaife of The Kinks , Chris Squire of Yes (who technically used the RM1999 British import) and Geddy Lee of Rush . The model 4003S ("standard") arrived in 1985, was discontinued in 2000, and relaunched in 2015. This was similar to the 4001S with its dot neck markers and no binding. From 1985 to 2002,
861-478: A Minnesota music store, presented Harrison with a second model 360/12 FG "New Style" 12-string electric guitar, distinguishable from Harrison's first 12-string by its rounded cutaways and edges. A television documentary produced by KSTP-TV in Minneapolis documents the event. Harrison used this guitar on the song " If I Needed Someone " and during the Beatles' 1966 tours. This 12-string's whereabouts are unknown, as it
984-464: A different feel. Known for their bright jangle and chime, early Rickenbacker guitars were often favored by folk rock , and British Invasion bands such as the Searchers , The Beatles and The Who . The early models were equipped with low-output toaster pickups. With the late-1960s advent of heavy rock, these were phased out circa 1969–70, and replaced by high-gain pickups with twice the output. Still,
1107-588: A former privately run bank, bearing no relation to the U.S. government (not to be confused with the Federal Reserve ). Unable to pay out to all of its creditors, the bank failed. Among the 608 American banks that closed in November and December 1930, the Bank of United States accounted for a third of the total $ 550 million deposits lost and, with its closure, bank failures reached a critical mass. In an initial response to
1230-459: A greater reduction in credit. On 5 April 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 making the private ownership of gold certificates , coins and bullion illegal, reducing the pressure on Federal Reserve gold. British economist John Maynard Keynes argued in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money that lower aggregate expenditures in the economy contributed to
1353-465: A lawsuit in 1929, with Dobro suing National for $ 2 million in damages. Problems within National's management, as well as pressure from the deepening Great Depression , led to a production slowdown at National. This ultimately resulted in part of the company's fractured management structure organizing support for George Beauchamp's newest project: development of a fully electric guitar. By the late twenties,
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#17328454146311476-502: A long-time Rickenbacker proponent. Cisneros's 4003AC model features a signature pickguard, green inlays on the fingerboard, and a removable thumb rest. The sound of Rickenbacker basses featured early on in the UK punk/ New wave music explosion of the late 1970s and early 80s and was used by: Glen Matlock ( Sex Pistols ), Paul Simonon ( The Clash ), Peter Hook ( Joy Division ), Bruce Foxton ( The Jam ), Paul Gray ( The Damned , Eddie &
1599-596: A modern industrial city handled shortages of money and resources. Often they updated strategies their mothers used when they were growing up in poor families. Cheap foods were used, such as soups, beans and noodles. They purchased the cheapest cuts of meat—sometimes even horse meat—and recycled the Sunday roast into sandwiches and soups. They sewed and patched clothing, traded with their neighbors for outgrown items, and made do with colder homes. New furniture and appliances were postponed until better days. Many women also worked outside
1722-402: A monetary contraction first-hand were forced to join the deflationary policy since higher interest rates in countries that performed a deflationary policy led to a gold outflow in countries with lower interest rates. Under the gold standard's price–specie flow mechanism , countries that lost gold but nevertheless wanted to maintain the gold standard had to permit their money supply to decrease and
1845-539: A patent on the so-called tri-cone guitar on April 9, 1927. Thereafter, Dopyera and his brothers made the tri-cone guitars in their Los Angeles shop, under the brand name National . On January 26, 1928, the National String Instrument Corporation opened, with a new factory located near a metal-stamping shop owned by Adolph Rickenbacher and staffed by experienced and competent craftsmen. The company made Spanish and Hawaiian style tri-cone guitars as well as four-string tenor guitars , mandolins, and ukuleles. Adolph Rickenbacher
1968-408: A prototype electric pickup that met their satisfaction, Beauchamp asked former National shop craftsman Harry Watson to make a wooden neck and body to hold the pickup. Somebody nicknamed it the "fry-pan" because of its shape, though Rickenbacker liked to call it the pancake. The final design Beauchamp and Barth developed was an electric pickup consisting of a pair of horseshoe-shaped magnets that enclosed
2091-563: A serious issue in the 1930s. Support for increasing welfare programs during the depression included a focus on women in the family. The Conseil Supérieur de la Natalité campaigned for provisions enacted in the Code de la Famille (1939) that increased state assistance to families with children and required employers to protect the jobs of fathers, even if they were immigrants. In rural and small-town areas, women expanded their operation of vegetable gardens to include as much food production as possible. In
2214-448: A similar tone to a Gibson mini-humbucker pickup, and comes standard on the Rickenbacker 650C and 4004 basses. Vintage reissue models, and some signature models, come with Toaster Top pickups, which resemble a classic two-slotted chrome toaster. Despite their slightly lower output, Toasters produce a brighter, cleaner sound, and are generally seen as key to obtaining the true British Invasion guitar tone, as they were original equipment of
2337-474: A small cadre of Labour, but the vast majority of Labour leaders denounced MacDonald as a traitor for leading the new government. Britain went off the gold standard , and suffered relatively less than other major countries in the Great Depression. In the 1931 British election, the Labour Party was virtually destroyed, leaving MacDonald as prime minister for a largely Conservative coalition. In most countries of
2460-648: A standstill agreement froze Germany's foreign liabilities for six months. Germany received emergency funding from private banks in New York as well as the Bank of International Settlements and the Bank of England. The funding only slowed the process. Industrial failures began in Germany, a major bank closed in July and a two-day holiday for all German banks was declared. Business failures were more frequent in July, and spread to Romania and Hungary. The crisis continued to get worse in Germany, bringing political upheaval that finally led to
2583-531: A white one. Rickenbacker made two new 325s for Lennon and shipped them to him while the Beatles were in Miami Beach, Florida, on the same 1964 visit to the United States: a one-off custom 12-string 325 model and an updated six-string model with modified electronics and vibrato. He used this newer six-string model on the Beatles' sequentially "second" appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Lennon accidentally dropped
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#17328454146312706-642: Is a consensus that the Federal Reserve System should have cut short the process of monetary deflation and banking collapse, by expanding the money supply and acting as lender of last resort . If they had done this, the economic downturn would have been far less severe and much shorter. Modern mainstream economists see the reasons in Insufficient spending, the money supply reduction, and debt on margin led to falling prices and further bankruptcies ( Irving Fisher 's debt deflation). The monetarist explanation
2829-427: Is associated with acts such as The Jam and R.E.M. The 4000 series were the first Rickenbacker bass guitars , introduced in 1957. They followed the 4000 with the 4001 (in 1961), 4002 (limited edition bass introduced in 1977), 4008 (an eight-string model introduced in the mid-1970s), 4003 (in 1979, replacing the 4001 entirely in 1986 and still in production in 2024), and most recently the 4004 series. They also made
2952-493: Is supported by the contrast in how the crisis progressed in, e.g., Britain, Argentina and Brazil, all of which devalued their currencies early and returned to normal patterns of growth relatively rapidly and countries which stuck to the gold standard , such as France or Belgium. Frantic attempts by individual countries to shore up their economies through protectionist policies – such as the 1930 U.S. Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and retaliatory tariffs in other countries – exacerbated
3075-476: Is the first instrument of any type to feature a hand-operated vibrato as standard equipment. It also marks Rickenbacker's first link to the unit's originator, Clayton Doc Kauffman , who would become a design collaborator for the company a couple of years later. In 1935, the company introduced several new models including the Model "B" Electric Spanish guitar, which is the first known solid-body electric guitar. Because
3198-432: Is the use of two truss rods to correct twists and curvature in the neck. Rickenbacker guitars typically have a set neck made of multiple pieces of wood laminated together lengthwise, while their basses have a one-piece neck that extends through the entire body . Rickenbacker instruments are known for narrower necks (41.4 mm versus 43 mm at the nut for most competitors) and lacquered rosewood fingerboards, giving them
3321-523: The 1932 election , Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt , who from 1933 pursued a series of " New Deal " policies and programs to provide relief and create jobs, including the Civilian Conservation Corps , Federal Emergency Relief Administration , Tennessee Valley Authority , and Works Progress Administration . Historians disagree on the effects of the New Deal, with some claiming that
3444-659: The Electro-Spanish Model B and the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts . Both models had been experimental, produced as early as 1931, and officially released in 1935. The Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts model was subject to a limited production of forty-six. There were several new design elements found on the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts. The instrument was the first of its kind to be named for an endorser. While most arch-top guitars had 14- fret neck joints,
3567-565: The New York Bank of United States – which produced panic and widespread runs on local banks, and the Federal Reserve sat idly by while banks collapsed. Friedman and Schwartz argued that, if the Fed had provided emergency lending to these key banks, or simply bought government bonds on the open market to provide liquidity and increase the quantity of money after the key banks fell, all the rest of
3690-525: The coming to power of Hitler's Nazi regime in January 1933. The world financial crisis now began to overwhelm Britain; investors around the world started withdrawing their gold from London at the rate of £2.5 million per day. Credits of £25 million each from the Bank of France and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and an issue of £15 million fiduciary note slowed, but did not reverse,
3813-494: The "Nationals" being produced by the National String Instruments Corporation, Rickenbacker was a highly skilled production engineer and machinist. Adolph Rickenbacker became a shareholder in National and, with the assistance of his Rickenbacker Manufacturing Company, National boosted production to fifty guitars a day. Unfortunately, National's line of instruments was not well diversified and, as demand for
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3936-447: The 1937 recession that interrupted it). The common view among most economists is that Roosevelt's New Deal policies either caused or accelerated the recovery, although his policies were never aggressive enough to bring the economy completely out of recession. Some economists have also called attention to the positive effects from expectations of reflation and rising nominal interest rates that Roosevelt's words and actions portended. It
4059-418: The 4003 and 4003S had black hardware and black binding options available. Later special editions included the 4003 Blue Boy, 4003 CS ( Chris Squire ), Blackstar, Shadow Bass, Tuxedo and 4003 Redneck. Rickenbacker basses have a distinctive tone. The 4001 and 4003 basses have neck-through construction. The 3000 series, made from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, were cheaper instruments with bolt-on 21-fret necks. There
4182-465: The 4005, a hollow-bodied bass guitar (from 1965 to 1984)—which did not resemble other 4000 series basses, but rather the new style 360-370 guitars . The 4001S (introduced 1964) was basically a 4001 but with no binding and dot fingerboard inlays. It was exported to England as the RM1999. However, Paul McCartney received one of the early 4001S instruments (his unit was left-handed, and later modified to include
4305-564: The 600 series. Neck Thru consists of a single wooden piece from the neck through the central body section. In 1958, Hall introduced prototype called "capris" (the same name of Hall family's cat from the pronunciation of the French noun for whim). In 1963, Rickenbacker developed an electric twelve-string guitar with an innovative headstock design that fit all twelve machine heads onto a standard-length headstock by mounting alternate pairs of machine heads at right-angles to each other. After including
4428-795: The British crisis. The financial crisis now caused a major political crisis in Britain in August 1931. With deficits mounting, the bankers demanded a balanced budget; the divided cabinet of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government agreed; it proposed to raise taxes, cut spending, and most controversially, to cut unemployment benefits 20%. The attack on welfare was unacceptable to the Labour movement. MacDonald wanted to resign, but King George V insisted he remain and form an all-party coalition " National Government ". The Conservative and Liberals parties signed on, along with
4551-517: The Depression. Businessmen ignored the mounting national debt and heavy new taxes, redoubling their efforts for greater output to take advantage of generous government contracts. During World War I many countries suspended their gold standard in varying ways. There was high inflation from WWI, and in the 1920s in the Weimar Republic , Austria , and throughout Europe. In the late 1920s there
4674-514: The Dow returning to 294 (pre-depression levels) in April 1930, before steadily declining for years, to a low of 41 in 1932. At the beginning, governments and businesses spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year, cut expenditures by 10%. In addition, beginning in
4797-540: The Electro String Company from Adolph Rickenbacker in 1953. Hall overhauled the business and began focusing on standard electric and acoustic guitars rather than the steel guitars the company pioneered. In 1956, Rickenbacker introduced two instruments with the " neck through body " construction that became a standard feature of many of the company's products, including the Combo 400 guitar, the model 4000 bass, and, later,
4920-457: The Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts fingerboard joined the body at the 17th fret allowing much greater access to the higher frets, creating a full 25-1/2" inch scale. This addition made the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts the first production full-scale (25-1/2") electrified guitar. Another new feature on the Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts is the stock Kauffman Vib-rola tailpiece, the world's first patented tremolo ( U.S. patent 2241911A ). The Ken Roberts
5043-480: The Federal Reserve did not act to limit the decline of the money supply was the gold standard . At that time, the amount of credit the Federal Reserve could issue was limited by the Federal Reserve Act , which required 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes issued. By the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve had almost hit the limit of allowable credit that could be backed by the gold in its possession. This credit
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5166-442: The Great Depression is right, or the traditional Keynesian explanation that a fall in autonomous spending, particularly investment, is the primary explanation for the onset of the Great Depression. Today there is also significant academic support for the debt deflation theory and the expectations hypothesis that – building on the monetary explanation of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz – add non-monetary explanations. There
5289-639: The Great Depression. According to the U.S. Senate website, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act is among the most catastrophic acts in congressional history. Many economists have argued that the sharp decline in international trade after 1930 helped to worsen the depression, especially for countries significantly dependent on foreign trade. Most historians and economists blame the Act for worsening the depression by seriously reducing international trade and causing retaliatory tariffs in other countries. While foreign trade
5412-505: The Hot Rods ), Tony James ( Generation X ), Michael Bradley ( The Undertones ), Youth ( Killing Joke ) and in the U.S., Mike Mills ( R.E.M. ) and Kira Roessler ( Black Flag ). Brazilian bassist Alex Malheiros from Azymuth used a 4001 bass during the band's early years (most notably between 1972 and 1977). His very rich approach to samba, jazz and funk has some echoes of Chris Squire and Paul McCartney these genres can be tackled by
5535-575: The Lansing Manufacturing Company designed the speaker in the Rickenbacker professional model. During the early 1940s, Rickenbacker amps were sometimes repaired by Leo Fender , whose repair shop evolved into the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company . George Beauchamp was a vaudeville performer, violinist, and steel guitarist who, like many acoustic guitarists in the pre-electric-guitar 1920s,
5658-473: The New Deal prolonged the Great Depression, as they argue that National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and National Labor Relations Act of 1935 restricted competition and established price fixing. John Maynard Keynes did not think that the New Deal under Roosevelt single-handedly ended the Great Depression: "It is, it seems, politically impossible for a capitalistic democracy to organize expenditure on
5781-459: The Rickenbacker brand, many sixties guitarists adopted them, including John Fogerty ( Creedence Clearwater Revival ), Paul Kantner ( Jefferson Airplane ), and John Entwistle and Pete Townshend of The Who . As both the British Invasion and the 1960s wound down, Rickenbacker guitars fell out of fashion for a time. Rickenbacker basses, however, remained popular through the 1970s and beyond. In
5904-537: The Ro-Pat-In company's name was changed to Electro String Instrument Corporation and its instruments were labeled simply as "Electro". In 1934 the name of "Rickenbacker" was added in honor of the company's principal partner, Adolph Rickenbacker. During the early production of the A-22 Fry-Pan, Beauchamp and Rickenbacker would experiment with wooden-bodied Spanish guitars and solid body prototypes; ultimately giving birth to
6027-540: The U.K. economy, which experienced an economic downturn throughout most of the late 1920s, was less severely impacted by the shock of the depression than the U.S. By contrast, the German economy saw a similar decline in industrial output as that observed in the U.S. Some economic historians attribute the differences in the rates of recovery and relative severity of the economic decline to whether particular countries had been able to effectively devaluate their currencies or not. This
6150-485: The U.S. unemployment rate down below 10%. World War II had a dramatic effect on many parts of the American economy. Government-financed capital spending accounted for only 5% of the annual U.S. investment in industrial capital in 1940; by 1943, the government accounted for 67% of U.S. capital investment. The massive war spending doubled economic growth rates, either masking the effects of the Depression or essentially ending
6273-678: The United States, agricultural organizations sponsored programs to teach housewives how to optimize their gardens and to raise poultry for meat and eggs. Rural women made feed sack dresses and other items for themselves and their families and homes from feed sacks. In American cities, African American women quiltmakers enlarged their activities, promoted collaboration, and trained neophytes. Quilts were created for practical use from various inexpensive materials and increased social interaction for women and promoted camaraderie and personal fulfillment. Oral history provides evidence for how housewives in
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#17328454146316396-543: The United States, remained on the gold standard into 1932 or 1933, while a few countries in the so-called "gold bloc", led by France and including Poland, Belgium and Switzerland, stayed on the standard until 1935–36. According to later analysis, the earliness with which a country left the gold standard reliably predicted its economic recovery. For example, The UK and Scandinavia, which left the gold standard in 1931, recovered much earlier than France and Belgium, which remained on gold much longer. Countries such as China, which had
6519-632: The Wall Street crash, after which the slide continued for three years, which was accompanied by a loss of confidence in the financial system. By 1933, the U.S. unemployment rate had risen to 25 percent, about one-third of farmers had lost their land, and about half of the country's 25,000 banks had gone out of business. Many people, unable to pay mortgages or rent, became homeless and relied on begging or charities to feed themselves. The U.S. federal government initially did little to help. President Herbert Hoover , like many of his fellow Republicans , believed in
6642-417: The band and their manager, and gave Harrison a model 360/12 (the second electric twelve-string built by Rickenbacker). This instrument became a key part of the Beatles' sound on their LP A Hard Day's Night and other Beatles songs through late 1964. Harrison played this guitar sporadically throughout the remainder of his life. On August 21, 1965, during a Beatles concert tour, Randy Resnick of B-Sharp,
6765-455: The banks would not have fallen after the large ones did, and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did. With significantly less money to go around, businesses could not get new loans and could not even get their old loans renewed, forcing many to stop investing. This interpretation blames the Federal Reserve for inaction, especially the New York branch . One reason why
6888-465: The behavior of housewives. The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II . Many economists believe that government spending on the war caused or at least accelerated recovery from the Great Depression, though some consider that it did not play a very large role in the recovery, though it did help in reducing unemployment. The rearmament policies leading up to World War II helped stimulate
7011-458: The collapse in global trade, contributing to the depression. By 1933, the economic decline pushed world trade to one third of its level compared to four years earlier. While the precise causes for the occurrence of the Great depression are disputed and can be traced to both global and national phenomena, its immediate origins are most conveniently examined in the context of the U.S. economy, from which
7134-475: The crash was a mere symptom of more general economic trends of the time, which had already been underway in the late 1920s. A contrasting set of views, which rose to prominence in the later part of the 20th century, ascribes a more prominent role to failures of monetary policy . According to those authors, while general economic trends can explain the emergence of the downturn, they fail to account for its severity and longevity; they argue that these were caused by
7257-449: The creation of Ro-Pat-In (ElectRo-Patent-Instruments), later renamed Electro String, the producer of guitars under the brand name Rickenbacker. Rickenbacker who was a significant investor in the guitar businesses was given the title of president, Paul Barth vice president, and George Beauchamp secretary-treasurer. In 1934 he, along with George Beauchamp, filed a patent application for an "electrical stringed musical instrument". They received
7380-620: The crisis, the U.S. Congress passed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act on 17 June 1930. The Act was ostensibly aimed at protecting the American economy from foreign competition by imposing high tariffs on foreign imports. The consensus view among economists and economic historians (including Keynesians , Monetarists and Austrian economists ) is that the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff had, in fact, achieved an opposite effect to what
7503-633: The decade. The Depression had devastating economic effects on both wealthy and poor countries: all experienced drops in personal income , prices ( deflation ), tax revenues, and profits. International trade fell by more than 50%, and unemployment in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities around the world , especially those dependent on heavy industry , were heavily affected. Construction virtually halted in many countries, and farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by up to 60%. Faced with plummeting demand and few job alternatives, areas dependent on primary sector industries suffered
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#17328454146317626-408: The depression. Not all governments enforced the same measures of protectionism. Some countries raised tariffs drastically and enforced severe restrictions on foreign exchange transactions, while other countries reduced "trade and exchange restrictions only marginally": The gold standard was the primary transmission mechanism of the Great Depression. Even countries that did not face bank failures and
7749-435: The domestic price level to decline ( deflation ). There is also consensus that protectionist policies, and primarily the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act , helped to exacerbate, or even cause the Great Depression. Some economic studies have indicated that the rigidities of the gold standard not only spread the downturn worldwide, but also suspended gold convertibility (devaluing the currency in gold terms) that did
7872-402: The drop in demand. Monetarists believe that the Great Depression started as an ordinary recession, but the shrinking of the money supply greatly exacerbated the economic situation, causing a recession to descend into the Great Depression. Economists and economic historians are almost evenly split as to whether the traditional monetary explanation that monetary forces were the primary cause of
7995-431: The early 1960s onward. From about 1959 through 1994, very few Rickenbacker acoustic guitars were made. In 1995, an effort was made to re-introduce Rickenbacker acoustics, with factory production beginning in their Santa Ana manufacturing facility in 1996. Four models of flat top acoustic Rickenbackers were depicted in factory literature (maple or rosewood back and sides, jumbo or dreadnaught shape). Each of these four models
8118-514: The early models were viewed by Pete Townshend as pivotal in his refinement of feedback techniques and the eventual development of the Marshall sound. Since the 1960s, a diverse cross-section of artists have played Rickenbacker guitars. In 1979, Tom Petty and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers used vintage 1960s models to attain that toaster-pickup jangle. The high-gain pickup sound
8241-427: The economies of Europe in 1937–1939. By 1937, unemployment in Britain had fallen to 1.5 million. The mobilization of manpower following the outbreak of war in 1939 ended unemployment. The American mobilization for World War II at the end of 1941 moved approximately ten million people out of the civilian labor force and into the war. This finally eliminated the last effects from the Great Depression and brought
8364-411: The effect was a growling, grinding, "concrete mixer" tone that continues to be admired and emulated. In the hard rock vein, Deep Purple 's Roger Glover was a prominent Rickenbacker aficionado. Geddy Lee of Rush used a Rickenbacker on the band's earlier material. Another enthusiast was Metallica bassist Cliff Burton , whose heavily modified 4001, red with white hardware and trim, debuted during
8487-576: The end of the month. A large sell-off of stocks began in mid-October. Finally, on 24 October, Black Thursday , the American stock market crashed 11% at the opening bell. Actions to stabilize the market failed, and on 28 October, Black Monday, the market crashed another 12%. The panic peaked the next day on Black Tuesday, when the market saw another 11% drop. Thousands of investors were ruined, and billions of dollars had been lost; many stocks could not be sold at any price. The market recovered 12% on Wednesday but by then significant damage had been done. Though
8610-515: The era. In addition to the standard pickups, vintage reissue bass models are equipped with Horseshoe wrap-around style pickups, very similar to the pickups on the earliest Rickenbacker Frying Pan models. Rickenbacker are known for their efforts to prevent the sale of counterfeits of their instruments. 33°41′43″N 117°52′04″W / 33.695250°N 117.867835°W / 33.695250; -117.867835 Adolph Rickenbacher Adolph Rickenbacker (April 1, 1887 – March 21, 1976)
8733-618: The expensive and hard-to-manufacture tri-cone guitars began to slip, the company realized that it would need to produce instruments with a lower production cost to remain competitive. Dissatisfaction with what John Dopyera felt was mismanagement led him to resign from National in January 1929. He subsequently formed the Dobro Manufacturing Corporation, later called Dobro Corporation, Ltd, and began to manufacture his own line of resonator-equipped instruments ( dobros ). Patent infringement disagreements between National and Dobro led to
8856-494: The explanations of the Keynesians and monetarists. The consensus among demand-driven theories is that a large-scale loss of confidence led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending. Once panic and deflation set in, many people believed they could avoid further losses by keeping clear of the markets. Holding money became profitable as prices dropped lower and a given amount of money bought ever more goods, exacerbating
8979-503: The few women in the labor force, layoffs were less common in the white-collar jobs and they were typically found in light manufacturing work. However, there was a widespread demand to limit families to one paid job, so that wives might lose employment if their husband was employed. Across Britain, there was a tendency for married women to join the labor force, competing for part-time jobs especially. In France, very slow population growth, especially in comparison to Germany continued to be
9102-501: The first week of June, 540 million in the second, and 150 million in two days, 19–20 June. Collapse was at hand. U.S. President Herbert Hoover called for a moratorium on payment of war reparations . This angered Paris, which depended on a steady flow of German payments, but it slowed the crisis down, and the moratorium was agreed to in July 1931. An International conference in London later in July produced no agreements but on 19 August
9225-440: The gatefold sleeve of Four Wheel Drive . In the 1970s, the Rickenbacker bass became a staple of progressive rock , as exemplified by British bassists Mike Rutherford ( Genesis ) and Chris Squire ( Yes ). Squire was one of the first to run a Rickenbacker in stereo by splitting the signal, sending the signal through both a guitar amp and a bass amp. Combined with his aggressive picking technique on Rotosound roundwound strings,
9348-599: The government tried to reshape private household consumption under the Four-Year Plan of 1936 to achieve German economic self-sufficiency. The Nazi women's organizations, other propaganda agencies and the authorities all attempted to shape such consumption as economic self-sufficiency was needed to prepare for and to sustain the coming war. The organizations, propaganda agencies and authorities employed slogans that called up traditional values of thrift and healthy living. However, these efforts were only partly successful in changing
9471-428: The group's Kill 'Em All era. Also noteworthy was Motörhead vocalist/bassist Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister , for whom Rickenbacker produced a 60-bass run of "Lemmy Kilmister" signature basses: the 4004LK, fitted with three pickups, gold hardware, and elaborate wood carving in the shape of oak leaves. In 2019, the company produced a 420-bass run of Al Cisneros signature basses honoring the prominent Sleep and Om bassist,
9594-519: The home, or took boarders, did laundry for trade or cash, and did sewing for neighbors in exchange for something they could offer. Extended families used mutual aid—extra food, spare rooms, repair-work, cash loans—to help cousins and in-laws. In Japan, official government policy was deflationary and the opposite of Keynesian spending. Consequently, the government launched a campaign across the country to induce households to reduce their consumption, focusing attention on spending by housewives. In Germany,
9717-677: The idea for electrified string instruments had been around for some time, and experimental banjo, violin, and guitar pickups had been developed. George Beauchamp had experimented with electric amplification as early as 1925, but his early efforts, which used microphones, did not produce the effect he desired. Beauchamp also pursued the idea, building a one-string test guitar out of a 2X4 piece of lumber and an electric phonograph pickup. As problems at National became more apparent, Beauchamp's home experiments became more rigorous, and he began to attend night classes in electronics and collaborate with fellow National employee Paul Barth. When they finally developed
9840-514: The initial crisis spread to the rest of the world. In the aftermath of World War I , the Roaring Twenties brought considerable wealth to the United States and Western Europe. Initially, the year 1929 dawned with good economic prospects: despite a minor crash on 25 March 1929, the market seemed to gradually improve through September. Stock prices began to slump in September, and were volatile at
9963-439: The instrument; it is not only a rock bass and, in the right hands, can be good fit for many genres. Rickenbacker has produced a number of uniquely designed and distinctively trimmed acoustic guitars . Although a small number of Rickenbacker acoustics were sold in the 1950s and were seen in the hands of stars like Ricky Nelson and Sam Cooke , the company concentrated on their electric guitar and western steel guitar business from
10086-543: The lack of an adequate response to the crises of liquidity that followed the initial economic shock of 1929 and the subsequent bank failures accompanied by a general collapse of the financial markets. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped from 381 to 198 over the course of two months, optimism persisted for some time. The stock market rose in early 1930, with
10209-423: The late 1970s and early 1980s, Rickenbacker guitars experienced a renaissance as new wave and jangle pop groups turned to them for their distinctive chime. Demand is particularly high among retro groups influenced by the sound and look of the 1960s. Some Rickenbacker models feature a stereo "Rick-O-Sound" output socket, allowing each pickup to be routed to different amplifiers or effects chains. Another feature
10332-512: The market entered a period of recovery from 14 November until 17 April 1930, the general situation had been a prolonged slump. From 17 April 1930 until 8 July 1932, the market continued to lose 89% of its value. Despite the crash, the worst of the crisis did not reverberate around the world until after 1929. The crisis hit panic levels again in December 1930, with a bank run on the Bank of United States ,
10455-414: The mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U.S. Interest rates dropped to low levels by mid-1930, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment remained low. By May 1930, automobile sales declined to below the levels of 1928. Prices, in general, began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930. Then
10578-408: The modern 'Rickenbacker’ was adopted. Early examples bear the brand name 'Electro'. The early instruments were nicknamed "frying-pans" because of their long necks and small circular bodies. They are the first known solid-bodied electric guitars , though they were a lap-steel type. They had a single pickup with two magnetized steel covers, shaped like horseshoes, that arched over the strings. By
10701-423: The monetary base and by not injecting liquidity into the banking system to prevent it from crumbling, the Federal Reserve passively watched the transformation of a normal recession into the Great Depression. Friedman and Schwartz argued that the downward turn in the economy, starting with the stock market crash, would merely have been an ordinary recession if the Federal Reserve had taken aggressive action. This view
10824-496: The most to make recovery possible. Every major currency left the gold standard during the Great Depression. The UK was the first to do so. Facing speculative attacks on the pound and depleting gold reserves , in September 1931 the Bank of England ceased exchanging pound notes for gold and the pound was floated on foreign exchange markets. Japan and the Scandinavian countries followed in 1931. Other countries, such as Italy and
10947-427: The most. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 ended the Depression, as it stimulated factory production, providing jobs for women as militaries absorbed large numbers of young, unemployed men. The precise causes for the Great Depression are disputed. One set of historians, for example, focuses on non-monetary economic causes. Among these, some regard the Wall Street crash itself as the main cause; others consider that
11070-568: The need to balance the national budget and was unwilling to implement expensive welfare spending . In 1930, Hoover signed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act , which taxed imports with the intention of encouraging buyers to purchase American products, which worsened the Depression because foreign governments retaliated with tariffs on American exports. In 1932, Hoover established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation , which offered loans to businesses and support to local governments. In
11193-427: The original aluminum Fry-Pans were susceptible to tuning problems from expansion of the metal under hot performing lights, they made many of the new models from cast Bakelite , an early synthetic plastic used in bowling balls . Rickenbacker continued to specialize in steel guitars well into the 1950s, but with the advent of rock and roll , F.C. Hall, owner of Radio & Television Equipment Co. (Radio-Tel), purchased
11316-456: The patent in 1937 and developed an electric guitar for the mass market. Adolph Rickenbacker died from cancer in Orange County, California in 1976 at the age of 88. This United States musical biography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period
11439-483: The physical volume of exports fall, but also the prices fell by about 1 ⁄ 3 as written. Hardest hit were farm commodities such as wheat, cotton, tobacco, and lumber. Governments around the world took various steps into spending less money on foreign goods such as: "imposing tariffs, import quotas, and exchange controls". These restrictions triggered much tension among countries that had large amounts of bilateral trade, causing major export-import reductions during
11562-566: The pickup coil and completely surrounded the strings. At the end of 1931, Beauchamp, Barth, Rickenbacker and several other individuals banded together and formed the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (elekt RO - PAT ent- IN struments) to manufacture and distribute electrically amplified musical instruments, with an emphasis on their newly developed A-25 Hawaiian Guitar, often referred to as the "fry-pan" lap-steel electric guitar, as well as an Electric Spanish (standard) model and companion amplifiers. In
11685-477: The policies prolonged the Depression instead of shortening it. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%; in the U.S., the Depression resulted in a 30% contraction in GDP. Recovery varied greatly around the world. Some economies, such as the U.S., Germany and Japan started to recover by the mid-1930s; others, like France, did not return to pre-shock growth rates until later in
11808-455: The political situation in Europe. In their book, A Monetary History of the United States , Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz also attributed the recovery to monetary factors, and contended that it was much slowed by poor management of money by the Federal Reserve System . Chairman of the Federal Reserve (2006–2014) Ben Bernanke agreed that monetary factors played important roles both in
11931-525: The popularity of his second cousin , America's top flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker . The World War I ace himself had felt pressure to change the spelling of his name because of the wave of anti-German sentiment caused by the war, in an effort to "take the Hun out of his name." Eddie was already well known at the time, so the change received wide publicity. "From then on", as he wrote in his autobiography, "most Rickenbachers were practically forced to spell their name in
12054-502: The promo film for " Hello, Goodbye " and in the Magical Mystery Tour film. A year or so later, someone sanded off the finish. A second, over-zealous sanding in the early 1970s removed the "points" of the bass's cutaways. McCartney used the Rickenbacker bass during his time with Wings and through his '80s solo career. He continues to record with it to this day. Partly because of the Beatles' popularity and their consistent use of
12177-513: The same footprint, so they can retrofit into most current or vintage models. The tone varies from one style to the next, partially because of the types of magnets used but also due to the amount of wire wound around the pickup's bobbin. Most contemporary models come with single-coil high-gain pickups as standard equipment. Many post-British-Invasion players such as Peter Buck , Paul Weller , and Johnny Marr have used instruments with these pickups. Rickenbacker's HB1 humbucker /dual coil pickup has
12300-434: The scale necessary to make the grand experiments which would prove my case—except in war conditions." According to Christina Romer , the money supply growth caused by huge international gold inflows was a crucial source of the recovery of the United States economy, and that the economy showed little sign of self-correction. The gold inflows were partly due to devaluation of the U.S. dollar and partly due to deterioration of
12423-557: The second 325 model during a 1964 Christmas show, breaking the headstock. While it was being repaired, Rickenbacker's UK distributor Rose Morris gave Lennon a model 1966 (the export version of a 325, available exclusively in a red finish and with an F-hole ). Lennon later gave the 1966 to fellow Beatle Ringo Starr . Beatles guitarist George Harrison bought a 420 during a brief visit to the United States in 1963. In February 1964, while in New York City, F.C. Hall of Rickenbacker met with
12546-570: The summer of 1932, Ro-Pat-In began to manufacture cast aluminum production versions of the Fry-Pan as well as a lesser number of standard Spanish Electrics also known as "Electro-Spanish" models, built from wooden bodies similar to those made in Chicago for the National Company. These instruments constitute the origin of the electric guitar by virtue of their string-driven electro-magnetic pick-ups. In 1933
12669-461: The time they ceased producing the "frying pan" model in 1939, they had made several thousand units. Electro String also sold amplifiers to go with their guitars. A Los Angeles radio manufacturer named Van Nest designed the first Electro String production-model amplifier. Shortly thereafter, design engineer Ralph Robertson further developed the amplifiers, and by the 1940s at least four different Rickenbacker models were available. James B. Lansing of
12792-539: The twelve-string guitar in the Rickenbacker 300 Series . In the 1960s, Rickenbacker benefited tremendously when a couple of Rickenbacker guitar models became permanently intertwined with the sound and look of The Beatles . In Hamburg, in 1960, Beatles guitarist John Lennon bought a Rickenbacker 325 , which he used throughout the early days of The Beatles. He eventually had the guitar's natural alder body refinished in black, and made other modifications, including adding
12915-483: The way I had..." Rickenbacher manufacturing Company produced parts for the National String Instrument Corporation, manufacturer of John Dopyera's Resonator guitars. Of particular importance was his ability to form guitar bodies with one of the largest deep drawing presses available. Rickenbacker held the title of Engineer at National. In October, 1931 he joined George Beauchamp and Paul Barth in
13038-471: The world, recovery from the Great Depression began in 1933. In the U.S., recovery began in early 1933, but the U.S. did not return to 1929 GNP for over a decade and still had an unemployment rate of about 15% in 1940, albeit down from the high of 25% in 1933. There is no consensus among economists regarding the motive force for the U.S. economic expansion that continued through most of the Roosevelt years (and
13161-659: The world. The financial crisis escalated out of control in mid-1931, starting with the collapse of the Credit Anstalt in Vienna in May. This put heavy pressure on Germany, which was already in political turmoil. With the rise in violence of National Socialist ('Nazi') and Communist movements, as well as investor nervousness at harsh government financial policies, investors withdrew their short-term money from Germany as confidence spiraled downward. The Reichsbank lost 150 million marks in
13284-778: The worldwide economic decline and eventual recovery. Bernanke also saw a strong role for institutional factors, particularly the rebuilding and restructuring of the financial system, and pointed out that the Depression should be examined in an international perspective. Women's primary role was as housewives; without a steady flow of family income, their work became much harder in dealing with food and clothing and medical care. Birthrates fell everywhere, as children were postponed until families could financially support them. The average birthrate for 14 major countries fell 12% from 19.3 births per thousand population in 1930, to 17.0 in 1935. In Canada, half of Roman Catholic women defied Church teachings and used contraception to postpone births. Among
13407-633: Was a Swiss-American production engineer and machinist who, together with George Beauchamp , created the first electric string instrument, and co-founded the Rickenbacker guitar company, also with Beauchamp. Rickenbacker was born in Basel , Switzerland as Adolf Rickenbacher. He immigrated in 1891 to the United States with older relatives after his parents died, settling in Columbus Ohio and later southern California. He Anglicized both his own name, and that of his company's brand, to Rickenbacker to capitalize on
13530-639: Was a scramble to deflate prices to get the gold standard's conversation rates back on track to pre-WWI levels, by causing deflation and high unemployment through monetary policy. In 1933 FDR signed Executive Order 6102 and in 1934 signed the Gold Reserve Act . The two classic competing economic theories of the Great Depression are the Keynesian (demand-driven) and the Monetarist explanation. There are also various heterodox theories that downplay or reject
13653-478: Was a small part of overall economic activity in the U.S. and was concentrated in a few businesses like farming, it was a much larger factor in many other countries. The average ad valorem (value based) rate of duties on dutiable imports for 1921–1925 was 25.9% but under the new tariff it jumped to 50% during 1931–1935. In dollar terms, American exports declined over the next four years from about $ 5.2 billion in 1929 to $ 1.7 billion in 1933; so, not only did
13776-459: Was also a glued-in "set neck" 4000 version in 1975-76 (neck set like a Gibson Les Paul ), which featured a 20-fret neck, dot inlays, no binding (similar to the 4001S) and only a single bridge-position mono pickup. Fred Turner of Bachman-Turner Overdrive used the 4000 extensively on the Not Fragile album, as seen in a promotional clip for " You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet ." This bass also appears on
13899-466: Was also available in both six- and twelve-string configurations, yielding a range of eight distinct instruments. (The 760J "Jazzbo", an archtop model, was only built as a prototype, with three examples known to exist.) It is estimated that fewer than 500 Rickenbacker acoustic guitars were built before the factory shut down the acoustic department in mid-2006. In late 2006, Rickenbacker gave a license to build Rickenbacker-branded acoustics to Paul Wilczynski,
14022-532: Was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1887 and emigrated to the United States to live with relatives after the death of his parents. Sometime after moving to Los Angeles in 1918, he changed his surname to "Rickenbacker". In 1925, Rickenbacker and two partners formed the Rickenbacker Manufacturing Company and incorporated it in 1927. By the time he met George Beauchamp and began manufacturing metal bodies for
14145-478: Was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty; drastic reductions in liquidity , industrial production, and trade; and widespread bank and business failures around the world. The economic contagion began in 1929 in the United States , the largest economy in the world, with the devastating Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929 often considered the beginning of the Depression. The Depression
14268-474: Was endorsed in 2002 by Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke in a speech honoring Friedman and Schwartz with this statement: Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression, you're right. We did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again. The Federal Reserve allowed some large public bank failures – particularly that of
14391-426: Was given by American economists Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz . They argued that the Great Depression was caused by the banking crisis that caused one-third of all banks to vanish, a reduction of bank shareholder wealth and more importantly monetary contraction of 35%, which they called "The Great Contraction ". This caused a price drop of 33% ( deflation ). By not lowering interest rates, by not increasing
14514-491: Was in the form of Federal Reserve demand notes. A "promise of gold" is not as good as "gold in the hand", particularly when they only had enough gold to cover 40% of the Federal Reserve Notes outstanding. During the bank panics, a portion of those demand notes was redeemed for Federal Reserve gold. Since the Federal Reserve had hit its limit on allowable credit, any reduction in gold in its vaults had to be accompanied by
14637-446: Was intended. It exacerbated the Great Depression by preventing economic recovery after domestic production recovered, hampering the volume of trade; still there is disagreement as to the precise extent of the Act's influence. In the popular view, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff was one of the leading causes of the depression. In a 1995 survey of American economic historians, two-thirds agreed that the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act at least worsened
14760-596: Was looking for some way to make his instrument cut through an orchestra. He first conceived of a guitar fitted with a phonograph-like amplifying horn. He approached inventor and violin-maker John Dopyera , who made a prototype that was, by all accounts, a failure. Their next collaboration involved experiments with mounting three conical aluminum resonators into the body of the guitar beneath the bridge. These efforts produced an instrument that so pleased Beauchamp that he told Dopyera that they should go into business to manufacture them. After further refinements, Dopyera applied for
14883-523: Was preceded by a period of industrial growth and social development known as the " Roaring Twenties ". Much of the profit generated by the boom was invested in speculation , such as on the stock market , which resulted in growing wealth inequality . Banks were subject to minimal regulation under laissez-faire economic policies, resulting in loose lending and widespread debt. By 1929, declining spending had led to reductions in manufacturing output and rising unemployment . Share values continued to rise until
15006-412: Was stolen at some point after the band ceased touring. After the Beatles' 1965 summer tour, Paul McCartney frequently used a left-handed 1964 4001S FG Rickenbacker bass rather than the lightweight Höfner basses he had used previously. The instrument became popular with other bassists influenced by McCartney's highly melodic style. In 1967, McCartney gave his 4001 a psychedelic paint job, as seen in
15129-464: Was the rollback of those same reflationary policies that led to the interruption of a recession beginning in late 1937. One contributing policy that reversed reflation was the Banking Act of 1935 , which effectively raised reserve requirements, causing a monetary contraction that helped to thwart the recovery. GDP returned to its upward trend in 1938. A revisionist view among some economists holds that
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