When were the first Jetglo finishes?

[glen_l]

Not referring to the 50's 'Jetblack' finish often found on 50's solidbody Rics.

I recall reading that Jetglo was a new finish for 1964, and for the first time, black appeared on hollowbody Rics. Is this correct?

Richard Smith's production info doesn't seperate Jetblack and Jetglo but it does indicate that the first black hollowbody models appeared in 1964. That could be the Jetglo finishes.

I wonder was Jetglo a new finish produced specifically for Lennon's '64 325? Or was that guitar actually Jetblack?

[tblair]

Lennon's guitar should have been either Black Diamond or Jet Black- not sure which, but they weren't using Jetglo in the literature that early (the sales office may have been using it, but I doubt it).

The '59 catalogue uses 'Black Diamond' and the '61 price list uses both 'Black Diamond' & 'Black'.

By 1966, they were using 'Jet Black' for the color. The hollowbodies were still only offered as Fireglow or Natural for standard options.

By the 1967 catalogue, the 'w' was dropped from 'glow', and they were offering Fireglo, Mapleglo, Azureglo, Burgundyglo, and Jetglo as standard hollowbody colors. They offered everything in 1967.

[leftybass]

There were some solid body Rickenbackers made prior to 1964 that were black, or whatever the nomenclature was at the time. There is a 1960 4000 bass in the Rittor Book that has a factory(supposedly) black finish, plus the 1963 460 that was factory black with gold guards in the Smith book. There was a 1963(Dec.)425 on ebay a couple of months back that was factory black with a Sceusa neck. Cool.

[glen_l]

There was certainly no shortage of solidbody Rics factory finished black in the 50's. Combo400 & 450, model900, 950, 1000's were all available in black as far back as 1956.

However, it appears that Lennon's '64 324 was the first hollowbody Ric factory finished black. There were a variety of other hollowbody Rics produced in black throughout '64 which, as Tony pointed out, would have been special orders.

So I wonder whether Jetblack, Diamond black, and Jetglo were different names for the same black finish, or were there refinements?

[adam_swapp]

My '62 625 was originally black. (It isn't now, and it won't be again ).

[glen_l]

yep, 600 series (also solidbodies) were offered in black prior to '64.