A Classic Solidbody 12-string Rick for the Modern Guitarist
Behold the Rickenbacker 660/12. Direct from Rickenbacker’s California workshops to Sweetwater’s Guitar Gallery, this gorgeous, luthier-built 12-string solidbody electric guitar is a stunner. With its classic body shape and shark fin fingerboard inlays, there’s no mistaking it for anything else. And then there’s the sound: from the Beatles to the Byrds, you’ve heard the inimitable jangle of a 12-string Rick on countless classic recordings. When you think “Rickenbacker 12-string,” the image that comes to mind is likely the company’s iconic semi-hollowbody. But semis, of course, are not for everyone. The Rickenbacker 660/12 offers you the unmistakable sound of a 12-string Rick in a sleek, feedback-immune solidbody electric guitar. Lastly, the 660/12’s all-maple construction and Toaster Top single-coil pickups deliver the legendary tone that goes hand in hand with the Rickenbacker name.
A fabled lineage
Introduced in 1998, the 660/12 design harkens back to the 1960s, specifically a ’63 prototype 625/12 famously seen in the hands of Tom Petty on the cover of Damn the Torpedoes. That 1979 album was responsible for reigniting the popularity of 12-string Ricks, which had brought the jangle and shimmer to many hits of the ’60s but had since fallen out of favor. The instrument on the cover was actually Mike Campbell’s guitar, but Petty finally got his own limited-edition signature model in the early ’90s. The 660/12 is an evolution of the 660/12 TP without some of the late singer/songwriter’s highly personalized features.
All-maple construction for a bright tonal foundation
Everything but the Rickenbacker 660’s fingerboard is made from high-grade maple. Rickenbacker hand-selects “charactered” maple for the body, and it looks incredible. Maple’s density is partly responsible for the 660/12’s famous sustain and top-end shimmer. Maple is also very stable, aiding in maintaining the structural integrity of the neck. The thick rosewood fingerboard adds a further touch of warmth and harmonic richness to this otherwise bright instrument, which, fitted with single-coils, famously cuts through thick arrangements like a hot knife through butter. Finally, pearloid triangle inlays add a distinctive visual touch.
Toaster Top pickups deliver a broad range of tones
The heart and soul of all Rickenbacker guitars are their proprietary electronics. In the 660/12 12-string, you’ll find a dynamic duo of vintage-style high-gain Toaster Top single-coils. These pickups deliver the spank and sparkle of many other single-coils, but with hotter overdrive characteristics and an aggressive edge that cuts through the track like a hot knife through butter. Plus, a 5-knob control layout with a blend knob gives you a wide range of sounds to play with.
Rickenbacker 660/12 Features:
- Legendary custom shop 12-string solidbody electric guitar
- Charactered maple “Cresting Wave” solid body
- Maple set neck contoured for increased playing comfort
- Bound rosewood fingerboard adds warmth and harmonic richness
- Iconic pearloid triangle (shark fin) inlays
- Vintage-inspired Toaster Top single-coil pickups
- 3-way selector, per-pickup tone volume controls, and Blend knob
- Gotoh vintage-type tuning machines
- Hardshell case included
- Handcrafted in the US
