An Extremely Rare 1966
Jetglo Rickenbacker 345

This 14 3/4-inch-wide full-sized thin-body (1 1/2 inches deep) guitar weighs just 7.10 lbs. and has a nut width of just under 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 24 3/4 inches. This guitar features offset cutaways, with pointed horns providing a "sweeping crescent" profile across both. Maple body, with a single "cat's-eye" or slash soundhole, three-piece maple/walnut/maple neck with a medium to thin profile, and rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and white dot position markers. Headstock with white opaque plastic logo plate with black lettering. Serial number "FJ 3476" (October 1966) stamped onto the jack plate. Individual dual-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. Three Rickenbacker chrome bar "toaster" pickups with outputs of 3.54k, 3.54k and 13.06k (that's how the Ricky three-pickup models measure). Two-piece split-level white plastic pickguard with four screws. Five controls (two volume, two tone, and one blend control) plus three-way pickup selector switch, all on lower level of pickguard. Seven-sided black plastic knobs with metal tops with black lettering. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6633" (CTS August 1966). Inside the control cavity the body is marked in black paint "345 Q." Rickenbacker six-saddle bridge with the original chrome cover and separate Rickenbacker vibrato tailpiece. This guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition, with the bare minimum of belt buckle scarring on the back, a few tiny wear marks on the edges, and a small amount of wear to the fretboard by the first two frets. Housed in its original Rickenbacker silver hardshell case with blue plush lining (8.75).

"Models 330-345 -- This set consisted of full size guitars with an extreme cutaway to the last fret…Model 345 [had three pickups and a vibrato]…The full sized Thin Hollow Body Standard Models 330-345, along with the Deluxe Models 360-375, were the quintessential Rickenbacker Capris" (Richard R. Smith, The History of Rickenbacker Guitars, p. 167).

According to by Richard R. Smith (p. 234), there were a total of two hundred and eighty-nine 345s shipped between 1958 and 1968 (one hundred and twenty-eight of these in 1966).

One of John Lennon's main guitars was a 1964 Rickenbacker 325 in Jetglo (very similar to the 345 but with a shorter scale length of 21.25 inches as compared to the standard 24.75 inches and a body width of 12.75 inches as compared to 16.00 inches.