Short Takes: The Model 3262/365S

Lemonade from lemons

I’ll tell you from my own professional experience that having more demand than you can possibly supply is a tough spot to be in—you have to constantly decide which customer you’re going to disappoint today. And that’s exactly the position Rickenbacker found themselves in from about 1964 to 1966, thanks to the visibility four lads from Liverpool had given the brand.

UK distributor Rose Morris watched Beatlemania sweep across Britain in mid-to-late 1963, and moved quickly to capitalize on it. By the end of year they had secured exclusive UK distribution rights for Rickenbacker, and placed an enormous opening order for 300 guitars.

Pete Townshend with Rose Morris 1998

Rickenbacker spent most of the first half of 1964 filling that order, just in time for Beatlemania to explode in the United States as well. And as if demand wasn’t already high enough, Rickenbacker themselves handed another Beatle what would become one of the most famous guitars in company history: George Harrison’s 1963 360/12 prototype. Since a 12-string model hadn’t been part of their original order, Rose Morris quickly expanded their order to include one of those too.

1964 Rose Morris 1993

Gaining those distribution rights had been a smart move: Rose Morris sold through several of the more popular models almost immediately, so they ordered still more. By the end of 1964, Rickenbacker had produced around 650 guitars for Rose Morris, with still more orders on the books. And while Rickenbacker had dramatically expanded their capacity, the backlog of domestic orders had exploded. Filling the Rose Morris orders had been the top priority.

And so, heading into 1965 Rickenbacker faced a difficult choice: who were they going to disappoint? Rose Morris, or domestic dealers?

Rickenbacker chose to satisfy the domestic demand first.

As 1965 progressed, the flow of guitars to the UK slowed to a trickle. Correspondence from Rose Morris grew more strident as the year stretched on.

Despite that, there was still hunger from Rose Morris for more—and new—guitars, especially the semi-hollowbodied 4005 bass (click to learn more) which launched in late 1965. But by the end of the year, only about 225 guitars had been shipped to the UK.

The first real cracks in the relationship were showing.

F.C. Hall and Rose Morris met at the 1966 NAMM show in Chicago, and as perhaps a gesture of good faith Hall proposed two new models: the 4005 (click to learn more) Roy Morris had been asking for—with an f-hole instead of a slash soundhole, of course—and a similarly f-holed 336/12 6/12 convertible guitar (click to learn more). Both were assigned a Rose Morris part number—3261 for the bass (4005S internal designation), 3262 (365S internal designation) for the guitar—and a purchase order was written.

Still, as 1966 ended, only 100 guitars had made their way across the Atlantic. None of them the 3261 and 3262s that had been ordered in July at the NAMM show.

So in early 1967 Rose Morris took matters into their own hands, and traveled to Japan to find an alternate source. They returned with private label “Shaftesbury” Rickenbacker copies built by Teisco Gen Gakki.

Teisco Gen Gakki “Shaftesbury” Rickenbacker copies

When Hall contacted Rose Morris in June 1967 to inform them the first 25 3261s were finally ready to ship, he was told—probably in not terribly polite terms—words to the effect of “we don’t want them. Cancel all outstanding purchase orders.” And with those words, the Rickenbacker/Rose Morris relationship effectively ended.

The immediate problem Rickenbacker faced was what to do with the 25 weird f-holed 3261 basses they now had on hand. And while the 3262 guitars were still somewhere in the production pipeline when Rose Morris cancelled the order, those needed to find a home as well.

1967 3261 bass

Rickenbacker had turned away many European distributors over the past few years—they were having a hard enough time satisfying Rose Morris—so it didn’t take long to find a buyer: Italian distributor Saporetti and Cappelli. There was just one catch: they’d take the basses as-is, but they didn’t want a 12-string—especially not a 6/12 convertible. Six strings only, please. That’s where this monstrosity comes in:

1965 3262/365S headstock

A “New Style” round-top 360 (click to learn more) with an f-hole is unusual, but not entirely unprecedented—some of the first 360NS prototypes have an f-hole. But this headstock is truly one of a kind.

While we’re not entirely sure how many of these guitars exist, or how far along in the manufacturing process they were when production was paused—but they were clearly far enough along to already have slotted and drilled 12-string headstocks. So how do you turn that into a 6-string?

The easy answer would be to plug the slots and paint it a solid color, but it is likely these guitars were already somewhere in the finish process. So the slots were routed out a bit more, filled with black plastic caps, and…good enough!

1967 3262/365S headstock

Converter guitars like the 362/12 this guitar was based upon have an additional internal block to provide a solid mounting point for the converter assembly, but externally there is no difference. So apart from the Rose Morris f-hole, you can’t tell there’s anything else unusual about the guitar from the body alone.

1967 365S/3262

But putting the Rose Morris f-hole and that headstock together in one package places the 3262 near the very top of the “what in the world is that thing?” list among Rickenbacker collectors.

1967 365S/3262

When we talk about rare Rickenbacker models, we usually talk in terms of significance. That’s not the case with the 3262. It’s just weird. Not “prototype that didn’t go anywhere” weird, but “factory solving a problem in real-time” weird.

It’s also an artifact of an important relationship gone sour, and that story is worth telling. But mostly it’s just weird—and that’s my favorite part.