Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I rarely see them for sale. Just wondering if the John Lennon influence would have caused a surge in production.

I see far more of the Fireglo Rose-Morris 325s (1996) than domestic-market 325s of any finish, although a Jetglo 325 will pop up from time to time. It is somewhat surprising that there weren't more of these made, but 12-string production skyrocketed during the mid-60s more than anything, if you can believe the published data. As cool a guitar the 325 is, the 3/4 scale-length is not for everybody....this may have had something to do with it. I would say there is far more demand for the guitar now than there was in the 60s when The Beatles were contemporary in the music world.

As far as the short scale goes, guitarists seem to either love 'em or hate 'em - There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

There is a '66 JG for sale by GC on the 'Bay for $13,999.00. They claim it's an R-M, not knowing that US models had "F" holes then, too.

I have a '66 MG in my shop right now, original owner. Bought at Manny's in NYC back in '68. First MG of this model and vintage I've seen.

I know who owned that guitar, it was sold within the last year privately for MUCH MUCH less than that, Guitar Center needs to huff more glue fumes---their price is ridiculous. That guitar would have to be dead mint in the box for that kind of money, even then it would be a little high.

Well, John, that's GC for you!

When I bought my first Rickenbacker back in 1965, I didn't know one model from another(I was thirteen years old). All I wanted was a hollow-body six-string Rickenbacker. I think most people were the same, nobody knew Lennon's was short scale. We didn't even know what a short scale guitar was. You bought whatever hollow-body you could locate. If you were smart enough to figure out Lennon's was a 325, you could order one in black and wait a year and a half to get it. Nobody would do that because if you had a band going you needed a guitar now. For these reasons I don't think there were many original black 325's produced during the sixties. The few that were made had f-holes except for a couple that have turned up over the years with no f-holes. I know of three and one of those is DB122.

Interesting points Larry. It is amazing how much more is known now with information that is more easily available online.

My first Rick (a '64 325) was purchased in 1979 from the best guitar shop in town. It was tagged as 'Old Rick' with no further information. It wasn't until many years later that I was able to date and identify that guitar.

If you accept the published data (why do we always say that?), there were darned few 325's made in the sixties, considering worldwide demand. I guess that qualifies the exceedingly high prices garnered for these artifacts despite the aberrant ƒ hole. Ordered my first 325JG in '67. Waited months & months for delivery. Was disappointed about the ƒ hole. Just a kid, dumb as a box of rocks about guitar mechanics, had terrible trouble keeping it in tune with 9's. I still laugh about it to this day.

Tracy: I did exactly the same thing. I wanted a Lennon guitar, but didn't understand why it sounded horrible with 9's on it. Of course mine was also butchered and had a Gibson bridge. As a teenager more interested in making punk rock noise than music, I didn't grasp the concepts of intonation and string length. I later found out that the bridge was mounted in the wrong place.

Randy; 1st actual-in person 325 I saw was end of my senior year of HS,1970, right after I got my 1st 360-12.One of my friends found it at a local St. Paul music store, for like $115,w/hsc.Jetglo, F hole, think it was a '66 or '67.I tried it out, and thought, Geez,this feels like a toy!And this being that time period, the mindset on string guages was Ernie Ball .008 extra/ultra/super/whatever/Slinkys.Guitar felt worse than strung with rubber bands. No one liked it that tried it.Visually, yeah, Cool as hell, but can't use it! Who Knew??[then, anyway?]Be worth some cake now...

Ed Roman has a 1965 325JG(and 4 1964 FG):

http://www.iwantguitars.com/store/?product=11975

It's a refin... black inside the sound-hole.

I think there are many more black refinished 325 guitars from the 60's as everyone wanted the Lennon look. I've had a bunch over the years that were refinished. It's sometimes very hard to tell, especially if it was done professionally many years ago. There aren't many original black ones out there in my opinion.