1. The first ever Rick 12 was presented to Las Vegas country showband performer Suzi Arden, a then noted Rickenbacker user whose whole band used matching Rick guitars, bass and amps, in November 1963. It had the strings arranged with the octave strings above the standard ones, like every other manufacturer’s 12. All future Rick 12s would have the octave strings below the standard ones, which helps gives the Rick its distinctive “snotty” sound.

2. The first “name” player to use the Rick 12 was indeed George Harrison, who was presented with the second ever example on the Fabs’ tour of the States in 1964 – an advertising coup for the company, who were well aware of John Lennon’s longstanding exclusive use of a Rick 325 six-string and saw an opportunity to boost sales in Europe. The first recorded use of George’s new acquisition was on “You Can’t Do That”, the B-side of “Can’t Buy Me Love”. Listen for that chiming intro.

3. Roger McGuinn purchased his first Rick 12 after seeing George using his in the movie “A Hard Day’s Night”. McGuinn was already a seasoned 12-string player, having used a Gibson acoustic with an added DeArmond pickup since his Greenwich Village days. His famed arpeggio style owes much to his earlier roll-picking technique as a bluegrass banjoist.

4. In 1966 Rickenbacker introduced the 6/12 string converter, a device that screwed on to the face of the guitar and which, when engaged, used a comb-like arrangement to pull the octave strings downwards out of plectrum reach to allow standard six-string sounds, albeit with the burden of still fretting twelve strings at the neck. Players soon realised that carrying a second guitar would do the same job more easily, and examples of the converter are today rarer than hens’ teeth.

5. The curse of the Rick 12 (and of all other Rickenbacker guitars) has always been its very narrow fretboard, making open chords at the low end very cramped for players with large hands. When Tom Petty was granted a signature model in 1991 – the solid-body 660/12TP – he specified a unique wider fretboard which no other model has featured.

Most of the above: thanks to The Rickenbacker Book by Tony Bacon and Paul Day.