7s' 2009 Rickenbacker 360 12C63 (Fireglo)

I was at Sam Ash Music on 48th Street in Manhattan, just playing around with another Rickenbacker 12 string when Steve Pisani asked if I wanted to see something really cool. He brings out this 360 12C63 and tells me that most people are waiting for 18 months to get one, but he just happens to have on available. I plugged it in and it was just amazing from the get-go. The classic Rickenbacker 12 strings sound from the Beatles albums all in one incredibly gorgeous package.

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The 12C63 is basically a replica of the one that Rickenbacker gave to George Harrison.  There is a great recounting of this story at http://rickbeat.com:

February 8th, 1964 was a day when Rickenbacker (read Francis C.Hall) really made a very powerful contribution to the sound of the sixties. That day Mr. Hall invited The Beatles (John, Paul and Ringo) to his hotel suite at the Savoy Hilton Hotel in NYC. There he showed them his newest "invention", the electric twelve-string. George Harrison, who was back at the Plaza Hotel, had the flu and stayed in bed. The other boys wanted to give him a chance to try out this new guitar, so off they went to his hotel. George, who was giving a telephone interview for the radio station WDGY in Minneapolis, tried out this new guitar. When he told the DJ about the guitar the radio station offered him the instrument as a gift.But Francis C. Hall had already decided to give away this instrument, and so he did. George Harrison appeared to be rather confused about the party from whom he received the gift. A further elaboration of this situation is discussed later in the article.  By introducing the Rickenbacker twelve string guitar Francis C. Hall added a dimension to the sound of the sixties that was adopted by a countless number of groups all over the world.  This brilliant business idea from Mr. Hall increased the popularity of his guitars enormously.  Both the Rickenbacker company and the many musicians were to benefit from the introduction of the first electric 12 string guitar.