Short Takes: 1964 360S/12

The bridge from prototype to production

Suzi Arden, George Harrison, Mike Campbell…and then what? We all know about those first three Rickenbacker twelve-string guitars, but what exactly came next? How did the twelve-string make the leap from proof of concept/prototype to production?

The path is actually pretty remarkable…and amazingly quick. But to get there, we need to take a brief step back and talk for a minute about the Rose Morris contract.

Funnily enough, Rose Morris had begun conversations with Rickenbacker in mid-1962, well before they or the world had ever heard of four certain lads from Liverpool. Those talks went…nowhere.

A year later, Beatlemania was gripping the UK—with both John Lennon and George Harrison sporting Rickenbackers. In October 1963, Roy Morris reached back out to Rickenbacker to try and lock down UK distribution and capitalize on the opportunity.

In December, Morris and his partner Maurice Woolf flew to California with that goal in mind. The contract was signed December 30, 1963. Rose Morris would place an order for 300 guitars, spread over five models—none of which had twelve strings.

Remember that date—December 30, 1963. Now we’re going to jump ahead just a little over a month, to February 8, 1964 and F.C. Hall’s meeting with the Beatles in New York where he presented George Harrison with twelve string prototype number two—an instrument that had itself only been produced weeks earlier in December 1963.

Seeing Harrison’s response to the 360/12, Beatles manager Brian Epstein ordered another one on the spot for The Beatles’ stablemate Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers, and F.C. Hall commissioned a twelve-string 325 for John Lennon based on that same reaction (it didn’t get played much).

Gerry Marsden with his March 1964 360/12

But even at this point there was still no coherent “plan” to sell twelve-string guitars. Indeed, almost all of Rickenbacker’s energy in January and February—and for most of the first half of 1964 when you get right down to it—was building guitars to fill that Rose Morris order.

Upon The Beatles’ return to the UK in early March, Morris wrote to Hall to say:

“I have now been informed that the instruments you provided during their recent visit to the States were a Model 325 for John Lennon and, to my considerable surprise, a 12-string instrument for George Harrison. I was not even aware that you made such an instrument, and obviously it will be necessary for me to have full details immediately; there can be little doubt that we will receive some demand for this instrument.”

On April 14th, Hall arrived in the UK for the official launch of the new Rose Morris Rickenbacker line at the UK Music Trade Fair. He brought with him a twelve string guitar specifically built for Rose Morris’s feedback.

The factory designation for the guitar was 360S/12—“S” for “Special”. So what was it, exactly? Well, Marsden’s guitar was identical to Harrison’s apart from the new-for-1964 crushed pearl triangle inlays, and the 360S/12 was identical to Marsden’s…apart from having a Rose Morris-style f-hole. Thus the “Special”. I’d love to show you a good picture of that guitar today, but…

Pete Townshend with smashed Rickenbackers (360S/12 on far left)

The price Hall quoted was a thirty percent upcharge over the six string guitars Rose Morris was already buying. In an effort to lower that cost, Rose Morris asked that the deluxe neck binding and triangle inlays be dropped, but the body binding maintained to differentiate the twelve string model. Hall left the UK with a purchase order, Rose Morris added a sixth model, and the newly minted 1993 would begin production in July.

July 1964 1993

So let’s recap: Harrison prototype built and Rose Morris contract signed in December 1963. Harrison given the guitar in February 1964. Rose Morris expresses interest in March. Rose Morris prototype brought to the UK by Hall in April. Production of the 1993 begins in July—and probably would have sooner if the factory wasn’t so busy building OTHER Rose Morris guitars.

So how exactly did that first prototype 360S/12 end up in Pete Townshend’s hands? Well, he bought it on installment plan in September 1964 from Jim Marshall’s shop in London. We know that Rose Morris sold the guitar to Mairants Musicentre after the UK Music Trade Fair, but how it made it over to Marshall’s is lost to time. Townshend wasted no time putting it to work, both on stage…

Townshend with 1964 360/12 Export prototype

…and in the studio, where it can be heard on tracks like “I Can’t Explain” and “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”. Sadly the guitar came to its untimely end sometime in 1965.

Townshend with 1964 360S/12

So that’s all there is to say about the 360S/12, right? We could stop with Townshend’s guitar and call it a one-off. But it wasn’t.

Townshend’s was simply the first to surface. A small number followed—likely no more than four or five in total. We know one toured the U.S. trade show circuit in 1964. David Marks had one. John Hall custom ordered one as a teenager and paid it off by working in the warehouse. While they weren’t all built at the same time, the examples we can document share the same core features and construction. Except one other one (click to learn more)…but that one’s a topic for another day!

David Marks with 1964 360S/12

And once it had served its purpose—as the bridge from prototype to production—it quietly disappeared.

Want to learn more about…everything else? Like maybe the 1993Plus that was inspired in part by this guitar? Or the slightly different 360S/12 that was a detour on the road from prototype to production? Check out our newly redesigned site map to see what else we’ve covered!