1997 Rickenbacker 360

Details

I purchased this guitar with help from my parents as my high school graduation gift in 2008. At the time, I was still only about 9 months into learning guitar and didn’t even own an electric guitar. I was very into 80s rock, but had a real soft spot for The Bangles. Susanna Hoffs played a Rickenbacker 350, so we looked everywhere to find a 24 fret RIC 350 and just couldn’t locate one. At the time, there was a shortage of supplies and finding Rickenbackers was very difficult, even brand new. Eventually, we found a store in Orlando FL called the “Guitar Den” (sadly no longer open) which had quite the collection of vintage instruments, including four Rickenbackers. I had the chance to play this 360/6, another Jetglo 360/6 in slightly rougher condition, a mapleglo 360/6, and a fireglo 330. They were all wonderful guitars in their own right, but I ended up taking this one home - I loved the black and white appearance.

This guitar has Hi-Gain single coil pickups, which sound wonderful even distorted, and stereo Ric-O-Sound jacks. The neck has a glossed in fretboard, and I quickly learned to wipe down the back of the neck and body every single time I played it, otherwise my finger sweat would make the neck rough. I played this guitar extensively while learning but eventually used it only for cleans after buying my first Kramer Pacer. The body is semi-hollow, and has binding on the back side, with the front being rounded - very unique. It can be a little uncomfortable to play because of that, since there is no contouring on the rear side and it’s quite large, but thin. Another unique feature from these older Rickenbackers is the inlays, the triangular inlays are this guitar are inlayed with space on either side, between the inlay itself and the edge of the fretboard and binding. I always thought this looked cool and spoke to the quality of the instrument. Current generation Ric’s have the inlay across the whole board, which is probably a bit cheaper and easier to produce but I think doesn’t look quite as cool.

The neck is a nice C shape with very small, vintage style frets. This is clearly a guitar not really meant for lead playing, though it’s definitely possible - just takes a bit more work. There is also a Rickenbacker humbucker pickup I’d love to try - maybe someday when I finally get that 350 Liverpool.