Often described as the Holy Grail of Beatles guitars, the Rickenbacker 325 was John Lennon’s first American-made instrument and his inseparable companion from the Hamburg days to the height of Beatlemania
John bought his first 325 in the autumn of 1960, during the Beatles’ early days in Hamburg, Germany. It was a 1958 Rickenbacker 325 Capri (serial #V81), a short-scale hollow body with three “toaster” pickups and a gold pickguard. John grew so fond of it that he called it “the most beautiful guitar”. Over the years, however, the instrument went through several modifications. The most significant were the replacement of the original Kaufmann vibrato with a Bigsby B-5, and a refinish from natural to black. John played this guitar throughout the band’s formative years, and it remained his main instrument up to the Beatles’ first appearance in America on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964.
On that occasion, the Rickenbacker staff managed to meet the band and present them with some of their latest models. Among them was a special 1964 Rickenbacker 325 (serial #DB122), updated and designed as a replacement for John’s worn 1958 guitar. Within a few days, it was in John’s hands — just in time for the Beatles’ second The Ed Sullivan Show performance, filmed at the Deauville Hotel in Miami on 16 February 1964. This new guitar, soon nicknamed the “325 Miami”, differed from the earlier one in several ways: a slightly thinner body, a factory-applied black “JetGlo” finish, white pickguards, and an additional blend control for mixing the three pickups. It quickly became one of the defining symbols of Beatlemania — and the guitar most closely associated with Lennon.
In addition to these two iconic instruments, John also owned a Rickenbacker 325/12, an extremely rare twelve-string version built at his request during the Beatles’ stay in Miami and delivered in March 1964, as well as a Rickenbacker 325 Rose-Morris Model 1996 in FireGlo finish, featuring “f”-shaped soundholes on the body. The latter was used as a temporary replacement when his “Miami” was out of commission.
The one in the photo is a 1988 Rickenbacker 325V63 JetGlo, a faithful reissue of John Lennon’s 1964 “Miami” 325.
