Rickenbacker 320

USA made 1981 320 JetGlo. This is identical to John Lennon's 1964 except for the fact it has no trem (R tailpiece). 21 frets, semi-hollow body, 20.75" scale. High gain pickups.

This is a very small guitar! (3/4 size) I can see why John Lennon like his so much. Although some complain about how difficult they are to play, the action is super low and it is dead simple to play rhythm on this guitar! The stretches for "Beatle" chords is sooo easy!

There is no other guitar that sounds like this but a Rickenbacker! It isn't very versatile in this department as the only really useable tone is with the bridge pickup. You can't pick up this guitar without playing the riff to "Ticket To Ride" or "Day Tripper" or just whack out those intro chords to "She's A Woman". I play through a Line6 Spider II 112 amp. I'm hooked on playing this guitar!

Action, fit and finish are all superb! This guitar was well used for the last 24 years and it is still in excellent shape. Typical Rickenbacker excellent quality.

This is a workhorse guitar. I know the previous owner who played a Beatle's cover group for years. The guitar has seen many many gigs and is in great shape.

I ordered new tuners, a new bridge cover and a new nut for this guitar from Rickenbacker. The nut that arrived is too small because the new guitars have a smaller nut than the 1981's did. I asked a question about this on the Rickenbacker forum and none other than the owner and CEO of Rickenbacker John Hall posted a note that he was contacting his Customer Service guy to send me a new nut for my 320 (this guy actually held Lennon's custom 325 12 string before it was sent to him in England!)

I've never heard of customer service this excellent (unless it is Jean Larrivee of course!)

I've been playing guitar for 35 years. I have a new American Deluxe Strat and numbers of acoustics. These 320's are becoming a rare guitar as Rickenbacker is no longer making them.

Mine's a 1981 Fire-Glo (red and yellow sunburst), hollow maple body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, three single-coil Hi-gain pickups and it has the nice R tailpiece. It's short scale, and I don't mean like a Les Paul or a Jaguar, it's a full 4 inches shorter than a Strat or Tele. It's basically the same model John Lennon used except his was a 325 which has a vibrato arm. The controls are like those on a Les Paul, with the addition of a fifth pot which is a volume in series with the neck pickup volume, allowing for more output. The bridge and middle pickups are usually wired together but I disconnected the middle one. Gave this one a 10 'cause what more do you need.

I play it through a Fender Blackface Bandmaster and a couple of effects (you can check out my whole live setup at stonedogsmusic.com). At first I used it mostly for the chiming Beatles-type stuff but I was surprised by its range and started using it on some of the heavier stuff too. I had to stuff some insulation under the pickups and bridge so it wouldn't feed back like crazy when playing live. I added a small value capacitor to brighten the neck pickup which was too dark for my taste and now it's still warm and full but has a bit more definition. The bridge pickup has a personality all its own, a bit fuller and honkier than most single-coils. There's definitely no other guitar that sounds like it.

The guitar is nearly my age so obviously I bought it used but it was in great shape until it was dropped on stage by the other guitar player in my band two days after I bought it.

As solid as a guitar can be. The finish on my 1981 still looks great, although it WILL get scratched if someone in your band drops it.

Bought it used.

I have a Tele and a Danelectro U2 (see stonedogsmusic.com for a list of all my gear) and I love them all but the Rick is the one with the most personality. Nothing else sounds like it.