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The joy of jingle jangle guitar

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This record makes me sob for the lack of a Rickenbacker. Post your fave Byrds favourites here, and the best Lovin Spoonful, and Stonr Roses. What IS IT with that guitar sound?

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    • Special sound indeed, but maybe indefinable.
      A collection of the look of the guitar, the tone, the way it rings. Something to do with the partially hollow body perhaps?
      I dunno – makes a great noise, whether plucked, strummed or thrashed.

      • Speaking of which, during that same 1965 UK tour by the Byrds, a lawsuit was filed by Ron Wood’s band The Birds claiming ownership of the name.

        It was a speculative publicity stunt by The Birds’ management of course and was a non-starter legally.

        In May 1965, the girls running The Birds fan club began receiving letters from individuals who had been asking record shop staff for The Birds latest single but instead were being sold Mr Tambourine Man, the US group’s first single release for the CBS label. As Ronnie explains: “All the fans were being sold that instead of our own and it had a really serious effect on sales.”

        Birds manager Leo de Clerk immediately undertook legal action, claiming the British group had ownership of The Birds name. A confrontation took place on the tarmac of Heathrow Airport when The Byrds landed to begin a massive tour of Britain. Seven writs had been declared in the Arrivals Hall claiming The Byrds had no right to use the name, that they were causing The Birds loss of money through lack of sales of their single, and had stalled “Leaving Here” in the lower rungs of the British charts. The legal action failed amidst a flurry of national press and television coverage. “I asked Roger McGuinn about all that years later”, Ronnie stated. “I caught him in LA and said, ‘Do you remember when you first came to London?’ And he said yes he did, so I said, ‘Well, do you remember those blokes slapping writs on you at the airport?’ And he looked at me and says, ‘You bastard, was that you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, great!’ “

    • You couldn’t take that photo now. Not since the disease-riddled rats of the sky have been banished from Trafalgar Square.

      (Reader’s voice) What a mean spirited post! And it’s a little unfair on Roger McGuinn and the boys!

  11. As the owner of a rick 12 for a dozen or so years, here is my disection. The sound comes from a relative lack of sustain caused by a short neck/body joint. This gives a relatively ‘plunky’ sound that seems to suit 12 strings. With normal sustain, it sounds too messy and ‘clangy’, as I found when I traded my Rick a few years ago for a different 12. I had it back within a week.
    Two other factors: flatwound strings are almost a neccessity, and they also contribute to the lack of clangy overtones. Also, the neck is ridiculously narrow which promotes a certain style of playing with lots of sus4s and sus2s, the classic Rick sound.

    • I think a big part of it is compression, which gives a 12 string* bite and clarity. Roger McGuinn has a built-in compressor on his signature Ricky, I use a Boss CS3 with my Daisy Rock 12, as I’m on a budget. Still sounds good to my ears, and the best way of cheering myself up after a shit day at work I know.

      * Compression also works a treat on other guitars, particularly Fenders – listen to the solo on ‘Nowhere Man’ and much early Big Star for maximum jangle.

  20. Immeadiately thought of The Hollies Look Through any Window but then realised that Tony Hicks is playing a Vox 12 string and not a Rickenbacker so a slight variation in jingle jangle perhaps due to how each set of strings is paired up?

    • Ricks have the lower strings in each pair on top, which emphasises the octave strings on up strokes. The norm in other brands and acoustics is to have the thinner string below, which puts the emphasis on the down stroke.

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