JakeK wrote:The deal with the 350 was that they were making the 660/12 Tom Petty model, and asked Mike if he wanted a guitar, which became the 350 we know today. Tom's prototype 660/12 and Mike's 350 were both made in 1989, so there's a good chance they have the same neck.
I've been revisiting the specs of the neck on Mike Campbell's 1989 custom 350 (which I'll call "350MC"). My interest was revived by the pictures of the 350V89 prototype shown at NAMM 2013.
Both have a 24-fret, dot inlay neck. We don't know for certain, but I'm assuming that they both have a 1.75" width at the nut, like the 660-12TP made at the same time as the original 350MC. The folks who've examine both the original 350MC and the 350V89 say that they also have an unusually flat neck profile, unlike any other Rickenbacker guitar.
Since both necks have 24 frets and a glued-in design (with a tenon that fits in a pocket - a mortise - rather than a neck-through design) it's clearly not a 660 neck, which is a 21-fret neck and is a neck-through design extending the entire length of the guitar.
But for the original 350MC guitar, Rickenbacker could have started with a neck blank for a 660. They would have had to lengthen the neck and heel, fit a 24-fret fretboard, and modify the wood that normally becomes the center part of the 660's body into a tenon.
It's possible they did all that for a one-off for Mike's custom guitar, but if they were to go into production, they'd need to make the neck correctly from scratch, instead of re-working 660 neck blanks.
So, from what I can tell, if someone wanted to make a 350MC replica, they'd have to go the route of either seriously modifying a 660 neck or building one from scratch, because there's still no current Rickenbacker model that has a neck that's close to the 350MC neck's specifications.
Have I missed something? Are there any Rickenbacker six-string guitars other than the 660 that have the 1.75" width at the nut?
