Rickenbacker 325

A Rickenbacker 325

The Rickenbacker 325 is an electric guitar used by John Lennon during the late 50's to the mid 60's.

Overview

The Rickenbacker 325 was the first of the Capri series of hollow body guitars released in 1958 by Rickenbacker. It was designed by Roger Rossmeisl, a guitar craftsman from a family of German instrument makers. Production models were 20-3/4" short scale, dot fretboard inlays, and a small (12-3/4" wide) body. The body is unbound, semi-hollow, with 2'oclock angled soundhole (although re-issues lack a sound hole due to the Lennon connection), and boasts the "crescent moon"-style cutaways. This series is currently available only in "C" reissue form. These instruments gained prominence due to John Lennon's use of a 325 during the early years of The Beatles. John Lennon's 1958 model was among the very first batch made and has the pre-production feature of a solid top, i.e., no soundhole. All subsequent production short-scale 300-series Rickenbackers (310, 315, 320, 325) had soundholes until the late 1970s. (from Wikipedia)

Variants

The original Rickenbacker 325 John had bought, with the original tailpiece.

John's original, after being modified with a Bigsby tailpiece.

John's original after painted black and knobs bering changed, as seen on The Ed Sullivan Show.

John with his new Rickenbacker, seen here at Shea Stadium.

John pictured with a fireglo variant with an "f" shaped hole on the side.

Trivia

• John was inspired to buy this guitar after watching Toots Thielemans play it.
• This guitar (along with the Hofner Bass and Gretsch Duo Jet) were made into guitar peripherals for The Beatles Rock Band.