Firstly the price shown is negotiable, please contact Graham at Badlands Guitars to discuss if you have a genuine interest, thank you.
Everyone loves a mystery, especially if it involves royalty and in this case we are talking rock n roll royalty. I have had this 1966 Ric for quite a while now and have been digging into its history. Rickenbacker were less than helpful when asked about the guitar or Rics they supplied to Pete Townshend, so I had to follow other leads.
Things that are 100% confirmed is that this is an original Rose Morris 1998 model made in the year 1966, finished in autumnglow. It is catalogued that around 150 were made and only 50 of less were shipped to the UK. This is of course the exact era Pete was smashing these on stage. As you can see it has been broken at both heel and headstock, not something many players would do with an extremely rare and valuable guitar. From a customer who is part of a major UK band we managed to contact Lincoln Fong and Pete himself, asking about this guitar.
Pete states that the "first" 5 he smashed were given to the road crew, suggesting he had more, or maybe most of the few that were sent to the UK. He says that this was quite possibly one of his. Another customer who is Roger Daltrey's osteopath, asked him about the guitar, and he replied that it could well be one of his "fiddle players". Now as you can see from the evidence gleaned thus far there is not a 100% confirmation of its history, but given the facts of the very limited number made, the damage sustained which is reflected in famous pictures of Pete sat with a wall of smashed Rics, the year made and the comments from 2 of the Who members there is little chance it was anything but one if those smashed on stage In the picture with the broken Rics you will note these are all "F" hole Rose Morris import models.
The guitar itself has many original parts but some are missing. The tailpiece and bridge are absent. All electrics and pickups are original, as are the scratch plates and truss rod cover. Original tuners are with it. The all important jack plate is with it. In the picture with the broken Rics you will note these are all "F" hole Rose Morris import models
Obviously at some stage since '66 it has been refinished but the autumn glow is evident where the neck was stripped.
