One of Five or Less Made in 1966

This 15 1/4-inch thin-body (1 1/2 inches) full size Thin Hollow Body Standard Model 340 guitar weighs just 7.20 lbs., with a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Maple body, single-bound on the bottom edge, with a bound "cat's-eye" or slash soundhole, maple and walnut neck, rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and white dot inlays. Individual Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. Three Rickenbacker chrome bar "toaster" pickups with outputs of 6.68k, 6.92k and 8.15k. Two-piece split-level white plastic pickguard. Five controls (two volume, two tone, and one blend control) plus three-way selector switch. Seven-sided black plastic knobs with metal tops with black lettering. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6648" (November 1966). Rickenbacker bridge and Rickenbacker "R" tailpiece. This very rare guitar (one of only five or less, made in 1966 in Mapleglo, or Natural, out of a total of forty-three) is in exceptionally fine condition, with only the very bare minimum of belt buckle wear on the back, a small (surface only) crack at the bottom end of the slash soundhole. Housed in its original Rickenbacker silver hardshell case with blue plush lining (8.50).

According to The Complete History of Rickenbacker Guitars by Richard R. Smith (page 234), there were only a total of sixty-five 340's produced between 1958 and 1968. The largest number of guitars were shipped in 1966 (thirty-eight in Fireglo and five in unknown colors). This non tremolo model is markedly rarer than its 345 tremolo cousin… two hundred and eighty-nine 345's were shipped between 1958 and 1968 (one hundred and twenty-eight of these in 1966)

A Fireglo 340 (one of four shipped in 1965) is featured on page 259 of Norman's Rare Guitars