1 HORSESHOE
“The horseshoe pickup definitely held up Rickenbacker’s progress in the electric-Spanish field, but they were having such success with their lap steels they probably weren’t too bothered. The horseshoe is incredible for steel playing; it has one of the best tones you could ever hope for in that regard.
“For a long time – during [co-founder] Adolph Rickenbacher’s reign – Rickenbacker weren’t equipped to build their own electric Spanish guitars; bodies and necks were outsourced from National and Kay. So, it wasn’t in their culture to design an electric guitar completely from the ground up. However, when F.C. Hall bought the company in 1953, he inherited a ton of horseshoe pickups, so it was only logical that he designed guitars to carry those. The first horseshoe solidbody Rickenbackers from that period – the model 600 and model 800 – came out in 1954. It wasn’t until 1956 that Rickenbacker introduced a guitar without the horseshoe.”