Guitar Gavel Lick Of The Week with Keith Amyx - Rockabilly in "A"

A little Jerry Reed in this one, no explainer needed. Tabs is at the end of the video.

Introduced in 1958 the Rickenbacker 320 was a student grade guitar and one of the short scale models in the 300 series with a scale length of 21”.  

John Lennon accelerated the 320’s popularity by playing his 325 on the Ed Sullivan show.

The 320 is essentially a non-tremolo version of the 325, and like Lennon’s it did not originally have an f-hole, but that became optional in 1961 and standardized in 1964.

A full scale version of the 320 appeared in 1983, the Rickenbacker 350.  And since then there have been a few versions of the 350 including the limited edition run 350 SH (Susanna Hoffs) from 1988-1990.

Susanna recorded with a Ricky 350 on The Bangles’ “All Over The Place” and “Different Light” albums and that caught the attention of Rickenbacker execs so they approached her about a signature model. 

The result was the 350 SH, a ¾ size body, but included a full-scale neck. To get a little more robust sound she chose to have three of Ricky’s HB1 humbuckers in her personal guitar.

While that pickup configuration may exist on a couple, the Rickenbacker spec sheet has an HB1 in the bridge position with toaster’s in the middle and neck.   

The guitar debuted at the 1988 summer NAMM show in Atlanta with a MSRP of $1,279, only 250 Susanna Hoffs signature models were produced. 

350 SH specs: Jetglo finish, Maple body with checkered binding, HB1 humbucker, two toaster (“chrome bar”) single coils, Two volume, two tone controls, Blend control, 3-way switch