Marc Schoenberger was part of the early-’70s vanguard on the Southern California guitar scene – not as a gigging musician, but among the crowd that raced the 101 freeway to check out old guitars every time a new issue of the Recycler hit the streets. He’d also been repairing guitars for friends and local shops since he was a kid.
One of his repair clients was Eddie Frawley’s store, Central Coast Music, in Morro Bay, where a stop one day in 1984 became memorable. He had a repair to deliver, but was also picking up $1,300 for a ’36 Martin R-18 that he’d consigned. But, just minutes before he arrived, Frawley had hung an old Rickenbacker Spanish-style guitar on his wall. Being a lap-steel collector, Schoenberger immediately recognized its “horseshoe” pickup.
“I’d been thinking about building something like it so I could use one of those pickups I had laying around,” Schoenberger said. “So I grabbed the guitar and asked Ed if I could take it in exchange for the money from the R-18. He nodded and I walked out maybe two minutes after I’d arrived (laughs)!”
Having never seen anything like it, Schoenberger knew nothing about the guitar.
“Back at my shop, I looked at it and thought, ‘Well, it’s been refinished,’ because I could see gray primer. But when I removed the back cover, I started to think that was probably the only finish it’s ever had. Taking a closer look at the pickup, I figured it had been hacked out of a lap steel.”
Other details added to the intrigue.
“It looked like the bridge had been moved – twice – and it still didn’t intonate (laughs). Looking at the saddles, you think, ‘What’s going on here?’ and ‘How did they forget to use blocks to anchor the screws into the back plate?’ The truss rod is poking out from the top of the neck, and it’s put together with random screws.”
The oddity hung on Schoenberger’s shop wall, garnering little attention – until two years later, when a stranger walked in, looking to sell an Epiphone Sheraton (finished in Burgundy Mist) and noticed the Rick hanging on the wall.
“He said, ‘Oh, you bought my guitar!’’’ Schoenberger recalls. “I was surprised! Of course I asked, ‘What do you know about it?’ and he proceeded to tell me how he’d bought it at a garage sale from guy who’d worked at Rickenbacker and kept it in his office. He said, ‘This is an important guitar because it was the very first one they made,’ and he remembered taking it around the corner to an autobody shop to have it painted. When the old guy started getting weepy, he thanked him and left with it.”
Though happy to have learned something, Schoenberger didn’t dig any deeper.
“Not knowing any names and not having Richard Smith’s Rickenbacker book – which wasn’t published until five years later – I was basically stuck.”
A recognized authority on National guitars, Schoenberger remained only casually interested in Rickenbackers – until 2010, when a copy of Smith’s book landed on his desk. He leafed through it…
“On page 65 was a picture of Ward Deaton, who the caption says was Rickenbacker’s longtime factory manager until he retired in the early ’80s. Thinking that if I could track him down, he’d probably know something. I found an Atascadaro phone book from ’86, and there was a listing for a Stacy Deaton. I called several times over the next week and nobody ever answered.”
The trail cold, Schoenberger was left with a lot of unanswered questions, in part because early Spanish-style Ricks are from the days when company owner F.C. Hall and guitar designer Roger Rossmeisl were figuring out how to make them, and they were never consistent from one to the next. The Combo 600 and 800 were designed by Hunt Lewis then adapted for production by Rossmeisl; the body outline and original tapered headstock shape were by Lewis, while the German-carved top and production headstock were Rossmeisl’s.
Also, time has since revealed that Deaton and his wife, Barbara Jean (who wound the pickups on the Rick 325 that John Lennon played for The Beatles’ first appearance on Ed Sullivan) lived in Costa Mesa and had two sons, but no daughters. Ward passed away in 1993, Barbara Jean in 2018.
The serial number on Schoenberger’s guitar dates it to 1954 – the first year of production (there are two prototypes with tapered headstocks, one of which resides at the Rickenbacker factory), and its white finish makes it exceedingly rare. He hopes its story reminds guitarheads of Rossmeisl’s genius (see page 26 for a feature on his 12-string models).
“All these years later, I’m still amazed at his radical design ideas,” he said.
Guitar collector Collin Whitley notes that Rickenbackers are gaining traction in the vintage market.
“If you’re into vintage guitars for the historical aspect, there is a lot to love about Rickenbacker,” he says. “The brand played a pivotal role in guitar history, and its instruments have a distinct tone and character. For many of us who were too young to collect vintage guitars in the ’80s and ’90s, Gibson, Fender, and Martin were cost-prohibitive, but older Ricks were relatively inexpensive and had such great history attached to the brand. They were my gateway.”
Schoenberger has contacted Rickenbacker about buying his Combo 600, but they’ve declined, so he’s hoping to find a good home for it.
“I’m looking at you, Mike Campbell,” he laughs. – Ward Meeker
Special thanks to Martin Kelly, author of Rickenbacker – Pioneers of the Electric Guitar.
This article originally appeared in VG’s April 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
