Gradually, I got all these picking styles Roger McGuinn McGuinn had sufficient traction on the folk scene to be included on the 1963 compilation album Anthology of the 12-String Guitar, along with legendary players like Joe Maphis, Glen Campbell, Mason Williams and Howard Roberts.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The room was awash in that glorious, plangent Rickenbacker jangle that is McGuinns greatest gift to the rich lexicon of rock guitar styles.

I was both impressed and inspired by his nuanced command of the signature model Rick 37012 he was playing at that time - trying out subtle variations in phrasing, punching in a pull-off trill to end a line more gracefully.

There was something familiar in the songs ascent from E minor to G major, via a D passing chord with F in the bass.

Producer David Cole called out, Hey, how does Eight Miles High go Without missing a beat, McGuinn played the entire iconic solo that hed recorded nearly a quarter of a century earlier, note-for-note, flawlessly.

Because Id started playing guitar in the mid 60s, McGuinn had always been a major hero.

Not just for his playing and singing, but also the aura of serene cool he emanated back when he was still called Jim McGuinn.

In junior high school, Id had my McGuinn-style granny sunglasses confiscated by the schools Dean of Discipline.

Factories started mass producing the things when McGuinns band, the Byrds, became one of the biggest rock groups on the planet with the 1965 release of their debut single, an electrified cover of Bob Dylans Mr.

Tambourine Man. At the vanguard of the folk rock phenomenon, the Byrds were the bridge that led from the British invasion into the psychedelic era.

Theyre the pied pipers who transported us from yeah yeah yeah to Purple Haze, basically.

Like Bob Dylan himself, the Byrds were, for the most part, seasoned folk musicians whod become fascinated by the new style of electric guitar rock and roll that the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Yardbirds, Animals and other British groups had brought to the fore.

We were already a band and we were rehearsing and working with acoustic instruments, McGuinn told me.

We saw A Hard Days Night and realized the Beatles were playing a Gretsch electric six-string, Ludwig drums and a Hofner bass.

And George Harrison switched between the Gretsch and this Rickenbacker 12-string that didnt look like a 12-string at first, because the peghead concealed six of the tuners.

But when he turned sideways, I went, Oh thats a 12-string I was playing a Gibson acoustic 12 with a pickup in it, but it didnt have the kind of sound George was getting.

I liked his sound better, so I went out and got a Rickenbacker 360 12-string.

What McGuinn brought to electric 12-string rock guitar was a solid grounding in folk picking - something that Harrison and other Rick-playing Brits, such as Pete Townshend, didnt have.

As a teenager in Chicago, McGuinn had studied guitar and five-string banjo at the Old Town School of Folk Music, a pioneering institution at a time when formal instruction in vernacular musical styles like folk was unheard of.

Image credit: Jeff HochbergGetty Images) They started around 1957, McGuinn recalled, and thats when I enrolled.

I studied with seasoned folk musician and Old Town founder Frank Hamilton.

There would be about twelve people in a class, and it was really fast learning.

From there, McGuinn went on to work with several prominent acts in the early-60s folk music boom - the Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, Judy Collins and even pop crooner Bobby Darin during his brief attempt to get down with the folk thing.

Roger Mcguinn Discography