Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Only a few weeks ago I purchased a brandnew Rickenbacker guitar in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It is a solid body 6-string guitar that on the official card was denominated by Rickenbacker as a model 220JG. The serial no. is
A6 9637, which dates it to 1993. It is a beautiful instument, plays well and the sound is great. Apart from the fact that this guitar must have been on the shelf for a number of years, I haven't come across any info on the 220JG model anywhere. It is in fact the Glenn Frey signature model without the signature. The only difference would be the colour of the neck, which in my case is with a satin finish only, instead of the black finish on the Glenn Frey signature model.Anyone else seen one? Ever? Anywhere? If you do have some info please let me know. Thanks!

Apparently the 220's were the standard version of the 260 guitars, when the 200 Series line was made over from the original 230 and 250 models. The 220 series was in existence prior to the Glenn Frey edition. It would seem that quite a number of units were manufactured over the years, in all of the standard Rickenbacker finishes. In addition to a special pickguard and nameplate, the Glenn Frey Edition also has an all black neck similar to the Black Star, and many of the components are black. According to Rickenbacker the color was actually modeled after Glenn's Camaro at the time.

I'll add a little to this. The body shape can be traced back to such models as the 430 guitar and the 3001 bass. Later on (1980s), RIC introduced the 230 "Hamburg" and the 250 "El Dorado" models; the 250 being the deluxe version of the 230. These guitars can be seen at rickenbacker.com (view the on-line 1984 200 Series catalog). There were also bass versions of these: 2030 and 2050, respectively.

The Hamburg and El Dorado guitar/bass models were revised in the early 1990s to the 220/2020 and 260/2060, respectively. They were discontinued around 1995, with the 230GF (Glen Frey Signature Model) being the only remaining 200 Series guitar in production today.

The light oil finish necks on the 220/260 guitars are, indeed, quite nice. My 260 was also made in 1993, and first purchased (by me) in 1995. I suppose the 5-year warranty has just about expired by now. Of course, I never needed to make use of it...

Andrew: I am most interested in any description you may be able to provide with regard to the sound of your Model 260. Also you may wish to comment on the discussion of the success of the 200-2000 Series topic.