Up for sale is my vintage late '60s/early '70s Rickenbacker 381 in original Fireglo finish. The finish on this particular example is unusually deep and rich, but is completely original. It's also got some nicely-figured maple on the back.

This model was introduced in late 1968 to serve as Rickenbacker's top-of-the-line model, but was discontinued around 1972, making these hard to find from this original era. Production during this time was reportedly likely fewer than 100 guitars.

It features a double (i.e., front and back) German carve with checkered binding, also on both sides. This example has a bit of binding cracking, but nothing out of control and it hasn't gotten any worse during the 5 years that I've owned it. That said, there are two small (roughly 1 cm) pieces of binding missing on the front side. The neck and soundhole binding are completely intact, though.

At the time of release, these transitional high-gain pickups were a brand new feature for Rickenbackers. These are original in this guitar and sound fantastic (particularly the neck one in my opinion).

This guitar does have a bit of a spec anomaly to it. The jack plate appears to be original; however it oddly doesn't have a serial number pressed into it. I purchased this guitar from someone that I consider to be an expert on vintage Rickenbackers and his assessment was that it was never given a serial number for whatever reason.

Given the lack of serial number, assigning a specific year is difficult, but there is an internal cavity marking reading "381-K." Add to that the location at which the neck joins the body, and it potentially narrows it down to either 1971 or 1972 as being the most likely year of manufacture.

Most of its parts are original - both transitional hi-gain pickups, tailpiece, bridge, tuners, truss rod cover, pickguards, knobs, and (I think) the dual jack plate; however, the wiring harness (pots, etc.) was supposedly replaced in 1984.

It sounds great and plays nicely with no neck angle issues. The frets are in decent shape with no work needed in my opinion.

Weight is 7 lb, 14 oz.

The neck has a fairly thin profile, with the following thickness measurements:

• 2nd fret: 0.787"
• 7th fret: 0.807"
• 12th fret: 0.816"

Sale includes a vintage Rickenbacker hard case, which is not original to the guitar, but designed to fit this model.