The Rickenbacker Company was the original inventor of electric guitars. Proof of this is they produced the first 12 string electric guitar ever made. This was in the year 1963 and George also had one of the first prototypes. At the time of their first US visit in February `64, after rehearsals for The Ed Sullivan Show, the group (except for George who was sick in bed) and F.Hall met in The Savoy Hilton Hotel in NYC.

The company organized a private showing of their products. John mentioned that some of the new 12 string models would be very interesting to George. They went to visit him in the hotel with one of the new 12 string models to let him try this new guitar. While he was playing it in bed, the phone rang and a local DJ was asking him some questions while broadcasting live. He asked, "How are you doing?" George replied, "Fine, and I am currently trying some new guitar from Rickenbacker." The DJ asked him, "If we buy it for you, will you use it?" George said, "Yes."

This instrument has a remarkable and unique sound that is very recognizable on the A Hard Day`s Night LP. One of its specialities is also an extraordinary key tuning system. This Rickenbacker has double strings in an octave and E1 and H strings are in unison. Also the strings are reversed from their normal position. The result is a very strong and powerful sound, almost like two guitars are playing at the same time. The jackplate has two inputs with a regular mono and Rick-o-Sound plug, which makes it possible to divide the signal into two lines and send it into two amplifiers.