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Rickenbacker driving a Duesenberg:
Source:
Adios to Ghosts. The Christy Walsh memoir, in several… | by John Thorn | Our Game
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08-14-2025 11:38 AM
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There was a Rickenbacker automobile manufacturer and racer. That’s who is pictured, not the guitar maker.
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Apparently they, Adolph and Eddie Rickenbacker, were cousins… from Wiki.
Rickenbacker was born in Basel, Switzerland as Adolf Rickenbacher. As a child in 1891, he immigrated to the United States with older relatives after his parents died, settling in Columbus Ohio and later southern California. He Anglicized both his own name, and that of his company's brand, to Rickenbacker to capitalize on the popularity of his second cousin, America's top scoring flying ace of the First World War, Eddie Rickenbacker, who due to the wave of anti-German sentiment caused by the war, had felt pressure to change the spelling of his surname in an effort to "take the Hun out of his name." Eddie was already well known as a racing driver at the time, and his change received wide publicity. "From then on", as he wrote in his autobiography, "most Rickenbachers were practically forced to spell their name in the way I had..."[2]
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What I was actually getting at, in a convoluted way: given this connection, could it be that Duesenberg guitars (a German company, right?) based their name on Rickenbacker guitars, knowing about the historical link between the pilot and the car he had been driving in his previous life as a racer?
But, OK, the connection between two actual carmakers seems to make better sense!
(I didn't put much research into this specific questiion; just found the picture and the caption underneath might meet with some interest here.)
After all, Rickenbacker and Duesenberg guitars do share some DNA, I guess.
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It appears Dusenberg guitars don’t have any relation to the car company. Which would have been a great cherry on top.
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Maybach guitars exist but most Maybach limos are driven by anonymous chauffeurs. If there's a Mr Gibson, Fender, Comins, Collings, Yamaha etc. among you, please wave!
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Hm, German Wikipedia claims that the German guitar manufacturer was, indeed, named after the US automaker, going as far as claiming that, like the American cars, their guitars get nicknamed "Doozy."
However, no genealogical link is apparent from the text. Perhaps the brand name was basically up for grabs by the time Duesenberg Guitars was to be established. Snatching the name could well have been driven by Rickenbacker guitars as a role model, I guess.
Just speculating...
Duesenberg Guitars – Wikipedia
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Originally Posted by Gitterbug
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Blue J's post seems to be gone.
The twist in there has since crossed my mind at least once daily.
Now, regrettably, deleted.
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