1960 Rickenbacker 360 "OS" (two pickups, no vibrato) Fireglo

One of the Earliest of Just Thirty-Nine Fireglo 360's from the First Year

1960 Rickenbacker 360 "OS" (two pickups, no vibrato)

This 15-inch-wide Capri "OS" thin-body (2 1/8 inch deep) full-size guitar weighs just 7.40 lbs. Double-bound hollow maple body with a "cat's-eye" or slash soundhole. Three-piece 'flamed' maple (center walnut strip) neck with a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches, a scale length of 24 3/4 inches and a nice medium-to-thick profile. Rosewood fretboard with 21 original medium frets and triangular pearl position markers. Gold opaque plastic logo plate with "Rickenbacker" in black, secured by three screws. Individual 'single-line' Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons (all stamped "D-169400 / Patent No." on the underside) and hexagonal bushings. Two Rickenbacker chrome bar "toaster" pickups with chrome covers and outputs of 7.83k and 7.41k. Two-piece split-level gold lucite pickguard with four screws. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch, all on lower level of pickguard. Rickenbacker TV style black plastic knobs with gold diamond inlays on top. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6006" (CTS February 1960). Rickenbacker bridge and Rickenbacker 'flat' tailpiece. The serial number "2T 042" (February 1960) is stamped onto the jack plate. This beautiful super rare 'one owner' guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition, with virtually no playing wear to the original frets and fretboard. There is some very light finish checking and a few very small, almost miniscule surface marks on the body. All said, this sixty-two year old and very beautiful guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition. Complete with the original "Rickenbacker"-stamped tan leather strap, original Rickenbacker blue cleaning cloth, original four-page 1960 Rick catalog and three flyers, with the original Rick envelope (with postage stamps of 6¢ and 1¢!) and an original 60's Rickenbacker string box with two original flatwound 'D' strings. Housed in its original Rickenbacker rectangular silver hardshell case with black leather ends and red plush lining (9.00).

"Models 360-375-- The third division of the 1958 Thin Hollow Body Series consisted of full sized guitars with the same Deluxe features. The body shape was the same as Models 330-345 from 1958 to the summer of 1964; then it changed… The guitars from this group were the finest and most expensive of the Thin Body Capri guitars. They had neck binding, triangle finger board inlays, and body binding. The two tone brown sunburst guitars had white body binding while the natural maple guitars had brown wood binding which was later changed to white. The factory produced the first commercially sold Deluxe Thin Body guitars in May and June of 1958. (They produced the forerunner prototype at least a year earlier according to a dated photo in the Rickenbacker archive.)… Two gold pickguards, four T.V. style knobs, and one switch became standard for the Models 360 and 365 before the end of 1958. The non-vibrato model had the flat tailpiece." (Richard R. Smith. The History of Rickenbacker Guitars, p. 171).

"360 1959 Following a logical styling patters that would become established Rickenbacker practice, the 360 was a deluxe version of the 330, with obvious cosmetic differences. The body was bound, likewise the fingerboard, which also sported triangular position markers." Tony Bacon and Paul Day, The Rickenbacker Book (with double-spread color photograph) pp. 30-31.

Just 39 360 "OS" in Fireglo (with "toaster" pickups) were shipped in 1960 (the first year), followed by twenty in 1961, and then ten in 1961, one in 1962, four in 1963, four in 1965 and then the final eleven in 1968 making a total of 79. (#2255)