Down the Rabbit Hole: The 350 Phantoms
The 355 Liverpool Plus and 350VB
Over the years there have been plenty of guitars that have appeared in Rickenbacker marketing materials and price lists that don’t actually exist. The intention was there, but…it just didn’t happen. We have a whole article on what I refer to as “vaporware and zombie guitars” (click to learn more) you can read that goes into excruciating detail on the subject.
But there’s one particular guitar that has appeared twice—under two different model names and numbers—that many people seem to think is real. I’ll freely admit it might be—and maybe talking about it here will bring proof to light. But as of right now, I’m not convinced it ever actually existed. So let’s talk about it.
Exhibit A above, a list of additions to the 1982 price list, has a lot of interesting things on it. We have the three B-Series guitars (click to learn more) which debuted that year, along with a B-Series guitar that never appeared—a 325B; we have the 230 Hamburg and 250 El Dorado (click to learn more) that wouldn’t actually appear until 1984; we have the 350 Liverpool which wouldn’t appear until 1983; and then we have two mysteries: the 355 Liverpool Plus and the 655 Brighton.
Now the 655 Brighton is the biggest mystery of the two. The price list gives us quite a few details of what sets this guitar apart—metallic Ruby finish, blacked-out hardware, vibrato—but it doesn’t tell us some really important things…like the body shape. I won’t even begin to tell you all the rabbit holes I’ve been down trying to find details and photos on this one—that’s a story for another day.
The 355 Liverpool Plus is easier to figure out, though: it’s simply a 350 Liverpool with a vibrato. It says so right there in the description. While you can read the complete history of the 350 right here (click to learn more), I’ll give you the salient points.
The 350 Liverpool launched in 1983—meaning the price list above was a bit premature—and took the small-body, three pickup 320 and gave it a standard-scale neck.
Unlike today’s 350V63, the 350 Liverpool featured a 24-fret neck. While the scale length of both guitars is the same—24 3/4”—the bridge is moved further back on the body on the 350V63 to compensate for its shorter neck. As a result, the three pickups are spaced farther apart from each other than on the Liverpool.
What we today call the 350V63 first appeared as the Signature Limited Edition 355JL (click to learn more) in 1990 and was officially rechristened the 350V63 in 1994. It was sold alongside the 350 Liverpool until the production on the Liverpool ended in 1996.
Rickenbacker hadn’t built a vibrato-equipped guitar since around 1970, and the -5 model-number suffix used to designate “with vibrato” models had been absent ever since. The (proposed) introduction of three vibrato-equipped guitars—the 325B, the 355 Liverpool Plus, and the 655 Brighton—must have seemed like the right time to bring that “-5” numbering convention back.
But as we know, none of those vibrato-equipped 1982 price list additions ever actually hit the stores. Why not? Let’s game this out: the Accent vibrato (click to learn more) hadn’t been produced since the late 1960s. If Rickenbacker was going to include a replica of John Lennon’s 325 as part of the B-Series guitars, they needed a replica Accent unit. And if they were going to go to the trouble of developing and sourcing a replica, they might as well throw it onto a few more guitars—thus the planned 355 and 655. Makes sense. So what happened to them?
Well, the simplest answer is usually the right one. Something likely went wrong with the sourcing or production of the replica Accent, and as a result all three guitars had to be shelved.
The Accent replica was nailed down by late 1983—just in time for 325V63 prototypes—and the Accent-equipped 325V63 entered production in 1984. But not the 355 Liverpool Plus. It and the 655 Brighton didn’t get another shot—especially after John Hall purchased the company from his father in 1984 and promptly undertook a program of product-line rationalization.
And that’s the story of the 355 Liverpool Plus. Maybe a prototype or two was built, maybe not. But as a production model? Vaporware. Didn’t happen. That’s phantom number one.
So now let’s fast forward a couple years to 1985.
So…another price list, another vibrato-equipped 350 Liverpool—this time the 350VB. Real—or just another phantom?
VB stood for “vibrato”, and you’ll notice a number of VB-designated models on this pricelist. As already noted, Rickenbacker perfected their Accent replica in 1984 and they were flogging it hard on this price list.
But the 1985 market for Rickenbackers was very different than today’s. The brand was enjoying a college radio and MTV-fueled renaissance. Rickenbacker was attracting a brand new generation of players who had never even heard of an Accent vibrato, let alone seen one on MTV. As a result, the take rate on VB models appears to have been very low.
And as far as the 350 Liverpool itself went…it took some time to find its audience. Vintage Rickenbacker purists didn’t like it because a small body and a standard scale neck didn’t “belong” together, and the new fans hadn’t seen one in the hands of their MTV heroes yet, so they didn’t want one either.
So between its launch in 1983 and 1987—the year the 350VB disappeared from the price list—not a ton of 350s in total were sold. And among those guitars, I have yet to see a single 350VB. Not in person, not on sale online, not on the Rickenbacker Register. Not a single one.
Now let me be clear: I have seen 350 Liverpools from this era fitted with Accent vibratos. You can find them on the Register yourself right now. Here’s one right here:
But that’s not really a 350VB. How do I know? Because that vibrato is an aftermarket Accent—most likely made by Winfield Vintage—not an OEM unit. How do I know that? There’s a very simple tell.
Here’s the side of the string comb on factory Accent:
And here it is on a Winfield Vintage string comb:
Factory unit: closed ends. Winfield unit: open ends. It’s easy to spot once you know what to look for.
And it’s easy to swap an “R” tailpiece for an Accent. The Accent uses the same strap button hole so no extra screw holes are required, and the R tailpiece mounting screw holes are hidden by the Accent tailpiece.
So you do see 350 Liverpools with Accent vibratos in the wild. And since a model called the 350VB appeared on the pricelist for a couple years, people naturally assume that any such guitar is in fact a 350VB, and they get labeled as such—even though they didn’t leave the factory that way.
And so the internet boards are full of references to “Liverpool Plus” and “350VB”, which in turn means that the AI-generated summaries that appear when you Google the subject confidently refer to any 350 fitted with an Accent vibrato as a Liverpool Plus or 350VB—despite there being no evidence that these guitars ever actually existed.
Now am I saying that no 350 Liverpool ever left the factory with an Accent? Of course not. I’ve never seen one, but it certainly could have happened.
But until documented factory-built examples turn up, the 355 Liverpool Plus and the 350VB remain what they have always been: guitars that exist far more often in catalogs, forum posts, and search results than they do in the real world. Phantoms—until proven otherwise.
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