Welcome to the latest Squire newsletter where we introduce the latest member of Squire, and visit the Rickenbacker exhibition!
First of all thank you to everyone who has entered the ‘The Place I Used To Live ‘ single white label test pressing competition! There is still time to enter as Chanel will be choosing the winner next weekend so have a look at last weeks newsletter here or on the picture below to find out what the competition question is - and how to enter!
At the heart of the Squire sound lies the Rickenbacker guitar and specifically the 12-string version. Last year we did a special newsletter contrasting the many Rickenbackers that have appeared on Squire songs with examples of the sounds. You can read it here by clicking below!
The 12-string sound was first introduced on ‘My Mind Goes Round In Circles”, and remains the iconic sound, ringing throughout the repertoire, and is the main ‘on stage’ live guitar.
So it was a pleasure to visit the recent Rickenbacker exhibition in London, and special Q&A session with Rickenbacker CEO John Hall at Shapero Rare Books that followed last years launch of the book “Rickenbacker Guitars - Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fireglo”, written by musicians and filmmaker brothers Martin and Paul Kelly (also of Heavenly Records Films & St Etienne etc - very prolific and talented!). You can get the book direct from Phantom Books or Amazon etc. It is excellent.
And we also got to meet and talk to John Hall - the Rickenbacker owner! Anthony and John seen here together in black and blue!
John described many interesting stories about Rickenbacker, in particular being a young boy witnessing the famous meeting between The Byrds and the Beatles in August 1965, at 2850 Benedict Canyon, the Zsa Zsa Gabor house in the Hollywood Hills they had rented during the Beatles US tour, and besieged by fans outside!
It was his job to present Paul McCartney with the left handed Rickenbacker bass! He remembers being otherwise unimpressed by the ‘grown ups’ misbehaving and drug taking! Years later he recalled Roger McGuinn of The Byrds asked him to describe the days events - as he had absolutely no memory of it! The meeting is famous as the event that the bands 'dropped acid' together and the day's incidents inspired the Lennon song 'She Said, She Said', written for the Revolver album.
The guitars on display at the exhibition included some excellent models. Some early guitars,
A collection of 12-string models such as the Roger McGuinn 12-string with the customised volume / tone control configuration, and the ‘Lightshow’ 331 guitar,
and the ‘Weller’ 330 guitars from a collector's personal and very extensive collection - he said he had over 380 Rickenbackers! Yikes!
The next few Squire live dates are coming soon and there is a special change to the line up. Instead of the iconic blue Rickenbacker, Anthony is changing to a newly acquired black 12-string model! The blue ’Azureglo’ 12-string guitar was relatively new back in 1980, it was made in 1976, but is now a rare, much loved and treasured vintage guitar and so safety comes first! Nevertheless, the black ‘Jetglo’ model sounds and plays exactly the same and it's a fun change around. Alongside will also be the first outing of the other ‘new’ Rickenbacker, a 620 6-string in Midnight Blue colour. So there will be a blue guitar on stage!
This 620 solid body model also complements a more power pop sound than the usual semi acoustic 330 model normally seen with Squire. And as it was used in the studio for some of the recently recorded tracks on September Gurls and Get Ready To Go LPs, there’s a hint - perhaps new songs in the set!
Chanel is busy guarding the new guitars until the next rehearsal, and don’t forget next week we will announce the winner of the competition!
Good luck and Happy Easter!