Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This has probably already been discussed. If people wanted to buy guitars just like the Beatles played, why did Rose Morris order Rickenbacker 360 models and Fireglo 325 guitars with F-holes instead of slashes and dots instead of fins on the neck? We all know George's 360/12 had the slash sound hole and John's 325 was Jetglo without any sound hole.

Roger: My understanding is that Rose-Morris felt that British buyers would only go for traditional features like F-holes, dot markers, and sunburst (i.e. Fireglo) finishes. They may have also been trying to hold the cost down by eliminating fin markers, neck binding, etc. They didn't seem to want any deluxe features.

Lennon bought one of the first 325s, which just happened to be a solid top, not necessarily the production model specs. Further guitars to him were made like that specifically for him, and were unlike 99 percent of guitars of that type sold anywhere. On the other hand, over here, didn't Carl Wilson have a 360/12 with an F hole?

Yes, Carl Wilson got that guitar from B Sharp Music in Minneapolis. He called it 'an English cutaway' Rickenbacker in a thank you letter he wrote to B Sharp back in 1965.

Why would Carl Wilson need to buy a RIC 12 in Minneapolis when they were built in his back yard?

RIC did sell some of the RM style models in the states as S models(the only difference from RM models being chrome-topped knobs) like Carl Wilson's guitar (which would be a 330/12S in spite of the body binding.) The most famous S model is, of course, the 4001S, although I'm not sure whether these started in '64 or not like the other S models.