Doesn’t get much cooler than this - Rare Historic Ric

Jerome Hawkes · Post by **Jerome Hawkes** » 4 Feb 2024 7:15 am

All I can say is wow…
Never seen anything like this before- plus a bonus famous owner

https://reverb.com/item/78744825-histor ... ate-estate

Noah Miller · Post by **Noah Miller** » 4 Feb 2024 9:44 am

The D-16 is not a particularly rare model (and this is not a DC-16); without the McAuliffe association this would be worth about 1/3 of the asking price.

Joe Cook · Post by **Joe Cook** » 4 Feb 2024 9:48 am

If it is the real thing, it is a piece of steel guitar history! I'm not doubting it's provenance. I would love to own it! I have a D16 from a little later and the back neck is considerably thinner. I love it's tone and playability, but it's really heavy. I'll bet this weighs a ton.

Bill Groner · Post by **Bill Groner** » 4 Feb 2024 11:54 am

Geez, there's more metal in that thing than they put in a new car!

Daniel Nissle · Post by **Daniel Nissle** » 5 Feb 2024 5:20 am

Hey guys, I’m the seller of the guitar. I bought her back in 2013 and feel kind of sorry for her just laying there and not being used anymore…
I figure it’s a D16 instead of a DC16 as I initially thought and changed that in the ad. Also, I think I remember having a picture of Leon with the guitar somewhere, I just can’t find it… I’ll post it once I do.
Have a good day everyone!

Tony Oresteen · Post by **Tony Oresteen** » 5 Feb 2024 9:00 am

Humm. Just when I thought I had everything I wanted in my steel guitar arsenal, I see this. Crap.

I am glad it is $4k. Way beyond my budget. And as badly I play, Leon would not want me touching this Rickenbacker.

I hope someone gets this Rick and gigs out with it.

David DeLoach · Post by **David DeLoach** » 5 Feb 2024 11:47 am

RumbleSeat Music in Nashville had one of these awhile back and I almost bought it. But someone had drilled holes in it for some type of string pulls and I passed on it.

Daniel Nissle · Post by **Daniel Nissle** » 5 Feb 2024 1:12 pm

Noah Miller wrote:The D-16 is not a particularly rare model (and this is not a DC-16); without the McAuliffe association this would be worth about 1/3 of the asking price.

I did a little research on that as it's pretty interesting stuff -
The standard D-16 isn't that rare indeed, but to my understanding there were only very few "Thick neck Old Ugly" models built.

Apparently, for a year or so in the 1930s, they had made a guitar with a motorized vibrato in the body, which had a thicker body than other Rickenbackers to accomodate that motor. Later on at some point they used some bodies they had left to build a few guitars. In one interview, Leon had complained about the necks being on the same level, so maybe that's why they built it that way:

"Although I had two necks with eight strings each, they were both on the same level, and I had to raise my arms in an uncomfortable position, or I would hit the first neck when I played the second. I sent a letter back to them, and explained that they should step the second neck up to eliminate this problem, and they did. I tuned one to A and the other to E. This was great, because now I didn’t have to swap guitars for different songs."

It's really fun digging into this stuff

Joe Cook · Post by **Joe Cook** » 5 Feb 2024 1:23 pm

That's interesting, Daniel. I wonder if there are any out there with the funtioning vibrato? Thanks for posting.

Noah Miller · Post by **Noah Miller** » 5 Feb 2024 3:37 pm

Daniel Nissle wrote: In one interview, Leon had complained about the necks being on the same level, so maybe that's why they built it that way:

That wouldn't have been a Rickenbacker, then; these had the necks at different elevations right from the start, and Rick wasn't making other consoles yet in the early '40s.

Joe Cook wrote:I wonder if there are any out there with the funtioning vibrato? Thanks for posting.

They're out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXB7dmTiZLU.

Jerome Hawkes · Post by **Jerome Hawkes** » 5 Feb 2024 5:35 pm

Nearly all of the D16s I have seen were like the one joe posted - I’ve never seen one exactly like this…certainly an earlier design

Seems I read Herb Remington used a D16 like this with Wills - recall he said grey metal double neck with Bakelite necks - heavy as hell - was a long time ago I read that….so…

And of course Leon was probably the most famous steeler at that time with SGR & Panhandle Rag - who knows this could be the Panhandle Rag guitar

Very cool

-

I wonder if the “Take it Away Leon” Bigsby has surfaced and still around

Here is the level neck variant mentioned

Georg Pfeiffer · Post by **Georg Pfeiffer** » 15 Apr 2024 4:54 am

Daniel Nissle wrote:Hey guys, I’m the seller of the guitar. I bought her back in 2013 and feel kind of sorry for her just laying there and not being used anymore…
I figure it’s a D16 instead of a DC16 as I initially thought and changed that in the ad. Also, I think I remember having a picture of Leon with the guitar somewhere, I just can’t find it… I’ll post it once I do.
Have a good day everyone!

Hi fellas, I'm the new owner of Leon's Rick so I thought I'd pick up here. It's great sounding steel, showing signs of regular use for quite some time. As for my research it was given to Leon in 1940, see attachments (interview with Leon in the 70s, Guy Cundell's thesis "Across the south"). I'd be glad if anybody could provide any more information about it, particularly any picture with Leon.

Cheers, Georg

Georg Pfeiffer · Post by **Georg Pfeiffer** » 15 Apr 2024 5:11 am

This might be it

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Tony Oresteen · Post by **Tony Oresteen** » 15 Apr 2024 7:00 am

Georg,

Congradulations on becoming the caretaker of Leon's historic D16 Ric. I am glad you have it and that it didn't get put into a museum somwhere.

When you play out with it, get some photos and post them here.

Leon's happy that a player is keeping his Ric in use.

Chris Lucker · Post by **Chris Lucker** » 24 Apr 2024 3:52 pm

Here is what the Leon Fat-Bodied Rick looked like when i found it for sale at a vintage dealer's Chandler, AZ condo, or townhouse, with a pile of Leon M items -- including his Hall of Fame cast wall plaque, Nocaster, Stringmasters, mic's and cables (in Mrs Mc's makeup case seen in the background) and some crappy steels.

It was an "all or nothing" sale of $100,000, if I recall. The Stringmasters were not "The One" and the Nocasterr body was held together by a huge wood screw.

Scott Thomas · Post by **Scott Thomas** » 24 Apr 2024 5:29 pm

IIRC, there were a couple of T8 Stringmasters, one of them “weight relieved’ via extensive wood routings on the bottom. One of the coolest features was that one of them also had Leon’s handwritten tuning chart for each of the necks taped to the bottom.

Anyway, that Rick is pretty cool!

Joe A. Roberts · Post by **Joe A. Roberts** » 24 Apr 2024 6:19 pm

Extremely pixelated pic of Ralph Kolsiana playing one of those thick ugly Ricks:
https://www.soundcloud.com/aev/ralph-kolsiana

What a band!

Anthony Blair · Post by **Anthony Blair** » 26 Apr 2024 5:13 pm

Here are pics of Leon's ca-1947 Fender triple-neck referenced in the article above. What is that text from? I'd like to see the photo referenced but not shown. This is a pre-production model with even neck spacing & a different carve than those that came later. Noel Boggs got one too. The label still calls it a Dual Professional.

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