 The year: 1958. The place: a guitar trade show in New York. The man at the Rickenbacker exhibit, trying out the new merchandise: Jean "Toots" Thielemans. Behind him, at his elbow: a certain model 325 that will soon change the sound of popular music? Photo: (c) Rickenbacker Int'l Corp., all rights reserved |
 1960: 1958 Rickenbacker 325 Capri (5/8 scale,
hollow-body electric). The Holy Grail of guitars.
Lennon bought this "short arm" guitar, with a natural
finish, gold pickguard and Kaufmann vibrato, on the
Beatles' first trip to Hamburg, after he saw jazzman
"Toots" Thielemans playing a Ric model on an album
cover. Later in 1960, in Hessy's Music,
Chris Huston of The Undertakers mounted a Bigsby B-5
vibrato and "bow tie" bridge (for more on this
operation, click here).
At
the
same time they replaced the "oven" knobs with new ones
from Curry Electronics. Somewhere along the line,
Lennon disconnected the middle pickup, and in September
'62 had it painted black. In his well
researched piece Baby's
In Black, Peter McCormack tracked the job to a
subcontractor, Mr. Derek Adams, and suggests the
refinishing was part of Brian Epstein's effort to spruce
up the band's look. But another source credits the
refinish to coach painter Charles Bantam, who reportedly
sprayed the Rickenbacker with black coach paint while
the band took a brief holiday. Later inspection
led Ron DeMarino (below) to speculate the finish had
been brushed on! So perhaps we'll sort out this
point in time. At any rate, in '63 Lennon changed
the knobs again when he had some electrical work done by
Burns of London. Lennon played this guitar onstage and in the studio right through to the first Sullivan show (below) and the Carnegie Hall shows (2/12/64), then, except for a bit of work on Beatles For Sale, retired the beat-up workhorse. In 1972 he had it restored to its natural finish by Ron DeMarino of New York, who also replaced the cracked pickguard. (Read DeMarino's account here.) Many listeners, including myself, maintain that it makes its final appearance on the Double Fantasy sessions ("Stepping Out"). I also believe, but cannot substantiate, that Lennon used this guitar on Yoko's "Walking On Thin Ice" in December 1980. Regardless, as guitar aficionado Frank McLallen wrote: "That guitar . . . from Hamburg to the Plaza in New York City, and a national broadcast on the Ed Sullivan Show -- doesn't get any better." This priceless instrument, recently displayed at the Lennon museum in Japan, is now owned by Sean Lennon. |
| Note: Only 28 of this model were made in 1958 but still several didn't sell, and in late '58 or early '59 those guitars were reconfigured from two knobs, one switch to four knobs, two switches. Lennon's was long thought to be made from maple, but the body and neck are actually alder. Some who've researched the matter insist the Musikhaus Rotthoff in Hamburg wound up with the prototype from the '58 New York trade show and sold it to Lennon. Scrutiny confirms that the pickguard, screw arrangement, the wood grain and an unusually bent Kaufmann vibrato arm are identical. According to Harrison, who bought a Gibson amp at the same time, the deal was "a knocker: a pound down and the rest when they catch you . . . I don't know if we ever paid them off." This guitar would have cost about £100 in 1960, but because it apparently had been hanging around the store for a while, Lennon probably picked it up for a lot less. In 2002 Rickenbacker introduced the 325C58, an exact replica of Lennon's 325 as it left the factory. |
last public appearance at Carnegie Hall. |
The stripped-down "Hamburg" of today sports a
white pickguard, although Ron DeMarino swears he
replaced the cracked original gold one -- a gift
from Lennon, along with the original tuning heads --
with another gold one. |
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(c)2000, 2015 John F. Crowley