Adolph Rickenbacker began a successful Los Angeles, California, tool-and-die business in the 1920s, which eventually provided metal parts for guitar companies like National. Together with two former National employees, George Beauchamp and Paul Barth, Rickenbacker designed and marketed the first electrified “frying pan” lap-steel guitar.
Three toaster-style single-coil pickups provided a wider range of sonic possibilities on the 375 compared to the more budget-conscious Rickenbackers of the day.
F.C. Hall, owner of Radio and Television Equipment Company (Radio-Tel), purchased Rickenbacker’s Electro String Instrument Corporation from Adolph Rickenbacker in 1953. Hall revamped the business and focused on electric standard guitars, rather than steels. In early 1954, German guitar maker Roger Rossmeisl was hired, and his unique European-inspired designs gave Rickenbacker guitars the distinctive appearance that continues today.
This guitar’s bound maple neck boasts a gloss-finished rosewood fretboard with large mother-of-pearl triangular inlays. And the neck pickup sits tight against the fretboard.
This look can be seen on the series of guitars that debuted in 1958 and eventually evolved into some of the company’s most famous models. This line of semi-acoustic guitars was initially known as the Capri series. The method of construction devised by Rossmeisl for these instruments was very unusual compared to the traditional techniques used by other companies. The bodies started as a solid block of wood, which was then hollowed out, to some extent, from the underside, and a separate back was later attached. To complete the unique look, a graceful depression was carved in the lower front for the tailpiece. The series consisted of 12 models: the small-bodied, three-quarter-sized 310; the 315, 320, and 325; the standard full-sized 330, 335, 340, and 345; and the deluxe full-sized 360, 365, 370, and 375. Models ending in zero had no vibrato, while those ending in the number 5 had one. The vibrato-equipped models began using Accent vibratos in 1961, replacing the unreliable Kauffman units used previously.
The Rick’s headstock seems barely touched by wear and time, signaling the guitar’s overall excellent condition.
By 1964, two years after Rossmeisl left the company, the body carve of the 360 to 375 series changed considerably. The guitar’s top edge was rounded, and binding was applied only to the back. Hall described the new look: “The smooth roundness avoids all that is harsh and yields flowing lines for smooth, easy playing.”
On this Deluxe full-sized model, the Accent vibrato base replaced the standard “R” tailpiece generally
associated with Rickenbackers.
The 375 model pictured is dated 1966 and has the features most often associated with classic Deluxe Rickenbacker models of the 1960s. These include a bound maple neck, a gloss-finished rosewood fretboard with large mother-of-pearl triangular inlays, three “toaster” single-coil pickups, a maple body with checkerboard binding on the back, and a bound slash soundhole. The guitar plugs in with the choice of either a Rick-O-Sound stereo output jack or a standard jack. And, of course, this 375 came outfitted with an Accent vibrato rather than a standard “R” tailpiece. The 1966 list price was $494.50. The current value for one in excellent all-original condition is $3,500.
Sources for this article include: Rickenbacker Electric 12-String: The Story of the Guitars, the Music, and the Great Players by Tony Bacon, The Complete History of Rickenbacker Guitars by Richard R. Smith, and The Rickenbacker Book: A Complete History of Rickenbacker Electric Guitars by Tony Bacon and Paul Day.
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Guitarist Brandon Seabrook, architect of fretboard chaos, and his trusty HMT Tele.
It’s a heady, thrilling idea—but no one who’s followed his zigzagging career will be surprised at the gumption. As he’s cycled through various projects (including the acclaimed power trio Seabrook Power Plant), he’s become a resident chaos architect within the Brooklyn avant-garde scene—exploring everything from jazz-fusion to brutal prog to other untamed strains of heavy rock, typically wielding his trusted 1928 tenor banjo and a modified “heavy metal Telecaster” acoustic-electric from 1989.
But Object of Unknown Function, his first solo album since 2014’s Sylphid Vitalizers, became his own real-life choose-your-own-adventure—a process of rejuvenation by playing with new toys. Along with his usual gear, Seabrook’s main compositional tools this time were a 6-string 1920 William O. Schmick Lyric guitar banjo and a 1998 Jerry Jones Neptune electric 12-string—both of which became vibrant “new relationships,” even if, at first, he felt like he was “stepping out on his guitar.”
“My other guitar [his Telecaster] is the only thing I’ve been playing for the past 25 to 27 years,” he says, laughing. “I was so afraid to try something else: ‘I can’t play another guitar because it’s like an extension of my arm. I know the topography of this neck so well. It’s my sound.’"
Brandon Seabrook's Gear
Seabrook’s 1989 Fender HMT Thinline Telecaster has seen enough wear to rival Willie Nelson’s Trigger.
Photo by Scott Friedlander
Instruments
- 1928 Bacon & Day Silver Bell tenor banjo
- 1920 William O. Schmick Lyric guitar banjo
- 1989 Fender HMT Thinline Telecaster with Sheptone Pickups
- 1998 Jerry Jones Neptune 12-string electric
Amps
- 1962 Magnatone Custom 450
- 1971 Traynor YGM-3
Pedals
- Arion SAD-1 Stereo Delay
- Jam Pedals Dyna-ssoR compressor
- Jam Pedals Rattler distortion
Strings and Picks
- D’Addario XL Nickel Wound 10's
- Dunlop Tortex .88 mm
Accessories
- TASCAM PORTA 3 4-track cassette recorder
But Seabrook fell in love “right away” with the Jerry Jones, and new ideas started flooding out. “The 12-string is such a magic sound, and the Jerry Jones holds the intonation so well that you can detune some of the double-strings to make different intervals, kind of like a built-in harmonizer,” he says. “When you play chords on that and they ring; it’s some sort of majestic, angelic sound—or it can be.” Photo by Scott Friedlander
Seabrook found the 6-string banjo at Brooklyn shop RetroFret Vintage Guitars, intending to shop for a mandolin. He was struck by William Schmick’s construction (“It uses slightly heavier strings, and the neck is wide”) and, more crucially, the surprising intensity it harnesses: “It just sounded so metal to me or something,” he recalls. “So deep and rich and ominous, but beautiful.” These discoveries came at a pivotal time: “I don’t know what happened last year, but I felt the need to get some new instruments. And that opened up a new sound world.”
He eventually linked up with two key collaborators, producer David Breskin (John Zorn, Bill Frisell) and engineer Ben Greenberg (who plays guitar in noise-rock band Uniform), at the small Brooklyn studio Circular Ruin. That setting was ideal for the physical experience he hoped to capture: “I used contact mics on the guitar, and [sometimes on my body], to have a subtle sound design. It’s in there—you can kinda hear it [on the album] sometimes.”
One reason for that impact: This is, by and large, the most intimate record of Seabrook’s career—a downshift from the wall-to-wall wildness that has defined so much of his work. That said, make no mistake. Almost no one else could create the pogoing guitar madness of “Perverted by Perseverance,” which sounds like ’80s King Crimson being subjected to water torture. (“I actually was revisiting the ’80s King Crimson stuff while I was making this album,” he says. “I just came back to it after years of not hearing it. That’s straight-up Telecaster prepared with some alligator clips, and then I use my radio tape recorder on the pickups.”)
Object sometimes leans into a more traditional “solo” vibe, like on the dissonant, highly improvised banjo piece “Unbalanced Love Portfolio”; at other points, it piles instruments into towering overdub soundscapes, like on “Gondola Freak,” a heart-accelerating swirl of harmonized 12-strings.
Object of Unknown Functionis the guitarist’s first solo record since 2014’s Sylphid Vitalizers.
“I’ve been playing a lot of solo things over the past 10 years, and that’s on banjo and guitar,” Seabrook says. “I was kinda hesitant to make an album of that stuff, although some pieces are totally stripped-down to just me. But I thought I could make a more compelling studio listening experience now that I have a little more of a palette that these instruments are offering. The solo album I did 10 years ago had lots of layers, but I wanted to be a bit more vulnerable on this record and have some songs stripped-down and some full.”
The resulting project is a “blender” of all the things Seabrook loves, thrown together in a way that sparks his imagination. “I’m just trying to sound like the influences I have, whether it’s ’80s King Crimson or Eugene Chadbourne or Van Halen or Joni Mitchell—all these things I hear certain fragments of, and maybe it’s only for a measure or a section,” he says. “I guess I am conscious of messing with form. I love the juxtaposition of certain things.”
Seabrook is a long-time mainstay of the Brooklyn jazz and avant-garde scene, where, in addition to leading his own ensembles, he’s worked with a wide range of artists that includes Nels Cline, Anthony Braxton, Mike Watt, and Mostly Other People Do the Killing.
Photo by Luke Marantz
“I used to be even more of a hailstorm on the audience psyche,” he continues. “I just recorded a new album with this quartet of synthesizer, violin, bass, and guitar, and I want to bring more lyricism and less feeling of intentional surprise. I’m getting there slowly. A lot of the music I listen to is really lyrical, like folk music or soft rock. I try to put elements of that in here. I guess I do want to make weird twists and turns, but I do put a lot of thought into how to weave them and make them coherent.”
It’s not like Seabrook has suddenly recorded an Eagles album, but these more refined moments signal a desire to keep challenging himself—and his audience. “I think it’s getting older and being more vulnerable, more confident in your choices,” he says. “When I was younger, I never wanted one second of space. Now I just want to be more connected to the things I truly love. It’s a journey. I never want to think somebody wants to hear a certain thing from me.”
YouTube It
Video Caption: In this mind-melting performance of “brutalovechamp,” captured May 20th, 2023 at Brooklyn’s Public Records, Seabrook is joined by the epic proportions octet, including everything from cello to recorder.