Video Fridays: Double Hit of Rickenbacker 12-String Cover Song Goodness

I’m pretty confident in guessing that most guitar players who have stuck with the instrument for a number of years have at least tried playing a 12-string guitar, and from my experience as a guitarist, and from chatting with fellow guitarists for nearly 30 years, it is VERY common for said guitarists, myself included, to have purchased a 12-string guitar, only to sell it not long after, once we realize that it is pretty much a one-trick pony.

It’s a strange musical phenomenon, really. There are numerous unquestionably iconic songs, in folk, blues, and rock music, that feature the 12-string, either acoustic or electric, yet VERY few artists specialize in 12-string, and even if they do they eventually move on, either abandoning the 12-string altogether or featuring it in only a relative few songs in their repertoire.

The reason: A 12-string guitar almost always sounds exactly the same, lush and jangly, and VERY few musicians want every song to have that sound in it.

It almost seems unfair. How can something so pleasing become tiresome so quickly? Well, listen to more than three songs featuring the 12-string guitar in a row and you’ll get it.

That said, in small doses, the 12-string — especially, to my ears, the king of the electric 12-string, the Rickenbacker — is hypnotically beautiful, and so this week’s Video Fridays installment brings you a couple of mighty fine examples.

First up, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers do their version of a song, So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star, by The Byrds, THE band most associated with the 12-string electric guitar. Their earlier music, before they went Country, is likely the longest stretch of 12-string-centric music ever recorded.

The next clip features Matthew Sweet and John Hiatt covering a wonderful, underrated early Beatles song, composed by George Harrison: If I Needed Someone.

Enjoy, and Happy Weekend, everyone!