FOR SALE: 1930s Rickenbacker M-12 Amplifier.

Amp is shown here alongside a Fender Acoustasonic Strat to give a sense of its size. The Ric M-12 is in great shape for being 80+ years old. Everything is original except the tubes which are newer (included). I haven’t used it recently, but did use it for a few small shows and it worked fine, however, it is being sold as-is due to its age.

Leo Fender used to repair Ric amps at his TV repair shop, which probably inspired and gave him the blueprint for his Fender amps. The Rickenbacker M-12's tone is similar to a 1965 Fender Tremolux, but it's far more responsive to picking dynamics, angle of attack, harmonics, etc., and can go from a clean jazz tone to country twang to grinding blues and rock without touching the amp... Just the volume control and pickup switches on your favorite axe. I recommend having it recapped and a grounded plug added if you’ll be playing through it.

The Rickenbacker M-12 has 3 inputs, 1 mic, 2 instrument, each with its own volume control. The mic and instrument inputs have slightly different tonal characteristics, with mic breaking up a bit more quickly into Fender tweed style distortion. One tone knob controls overall tone for all 3 inputs.

The Rickenbacker M-12 has a distinctive "R" on the speaker grill. It has a 12" bass reflex speaker, which is both cool and funky. It has the transformer mounted on it which makes replacing it a bit of an ordeal. The amp is rated at 15Watts RMS, but it uses a pair of 6L6 power tubes (like my 65 Fender Tremolux) so it should be capable of 30-35Watts if appropriately modified... But then it wouldn't be original, so I have kept it as is.

Note Rickenbacker M-12 Amplifier chassis and the speaker in the pics, the transformer on the speaker. I removed the tubes for this pic. As you can see, this amp is very clean.

The RCA tunes are either original or NOS. The groove tubes I repurposed from another amp.

The guts of the Rickenbacker M-12 chassis is also pictured. Yeah, it definitely needs to be recapped. In addition to replacing the capacitors, the transformer will need to be replaced and a 3 prong grounded plug will need to be installed to make this gig ready.