Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Larry, why am I not surprised that you may still have the Route 66 sales list? You are correct, there were not any 310 - 325 models, but I do recall some late 50's Capri and Combo models, as well as an unfinished round top 360 style six string with dot inlays on the fret board. It looked as though it might have been a prototype 330 round top. I think they even found the light show 12 string that McGuinn had previously played, while they were clearing out the old factory. Larry, weren't there some new in the box or near mint Transonic amps that were also listed?
A friend on mine in Kentucky purchased one at the time that was new in the box and he still has it. It even works too!

If you check route66guitars.com & follow the links to the guitar shows, you'll see some of these guitars- plenty of new old stocks and prototypes.

Was it Route 66/The Guitar Gallery that was behind the completing of the Combo 600s/800s that came out in the late 80s? Any idea how many of these were finished? I've only seen one.

Tony, as I recall, there were only a hand full, if that, of Combo 600s/800s that were finished out in the late 80's. I believe Route 66 was primarily involved with marketing and selling the guitars, because RIC, as is the case today, was not in the business of selling vintage instruments. After breaking away from Voltage Guitars, Scott Jennings established his own shop in Pasadena, CA, which was known as Route 66. Scott was an authorized RIC dealer, was well known by the few RIC collectors that existed at the time and was familiar with the vintage market in general. Therefore, Route 66 was a logical outlet for the disposal of left over pieces that RIC had to do something with, as a result of moving out of the old factory.

Did you guys ever list the specific differences between John's 1964 325 body and the mid/later-60s 325 bodies other than f-hole, and also the quantitative reasons why you think that John's guitar was a early 60s left over body?

Beatlenut, When my book, "The Evolution of The Rickenbacker 325 Guitar (1958 - 1967)", is published your questions will be answered.

Cool, Mr. Hardman. Another Rickenbacker book, and a reference guide on 325s. Did Mr. Hall help you with it while working on the 325c58 project?

Beatlenut, please forgive me for having a little fun at your expense. My response was originally intended as a little joke, because a book could easily be written in response to your excellent questions. However, once the 325C58 project is complete, I may very well begin to develop something for publication, in conjunction with another individual who has also studied the evolution of pre 1970 325 models for many years. I do believe such a book is warranted, but I am not certain how much commercial appeal there would be, given the rather narrow scope of the subject matter.

An ad in this months Vintage Guitar Magazine might be interesting to you guys keeping track of "F" holes in early models if you haven't seen it already. http://www.guitarbroker.com is listing (I will shorten it for now but can type it all out or scan it if anyone cares) a "1964 325 Mapleglo with a replaced or modified neck and pro refinish. Unique features are a 2 o'clock "f" hole,wave headstock like on 5o's Rick acoustics, wooden bridge base, custom made plaque, parallelogram inlays" and some other stuff. It says John Hall claims it left the factory on 6/11/64 to Rose Morris. Maybe you guys are already familiar with it. They want $5000.

That guitar started out at $10,000 and is now down to $4500. They rate it as being in excellent+ condition, with its incorrect reneck, incorrect bridge, refinish, plaque screwed into the face, and shaved truss-rod cover. Tsk-tsk-tsk- those guys have had plenty of vintage Rickenbackers to know them, yet they initially tried to get away with calling this one all original. They should also know that no 50's Rick acoustics had a headstock like that. Let the price keep dropping, and maybe I'll buy it as a project.

Just to clarify, I thought this might fit in with the logging of model year changes, serial numbers, and F-hole styles, not as some rare missing link worth a fortune.

I didn't know that Rick's had square neck heels, back in the 50-60s. I always assumed that Rickenbacker did this on the reissues, so people would know that they were reissues. One of the Ricks 320s I bought new back in 1986 had just one truss rod, I cant remember if it was a Gibson style rod or just one side of a Rickenbacker rod. Im leaning more towards the GIbson style seems like it had a bullet like a Gibson. Anyone else come across a Rick with one truss rod like that? Why did they do that and was it just on the 320s?

FATRAT

Jeff: I agree. Even beat up old modified Rickenbackers hold the key to techniques used by RIC in the past. Each one is a little bit of history.

jeff and Peter, I agree too....
FAThaRASS