{"id":536500,"date":"2026-03-14T19:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T19:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536500\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T19:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T19:37:19","slug":"for-sale-john-lennons-rickenbacker-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536500\/","title":{"rendered":"For Sale: John Lennon’s Rickenbacker Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the 1960s-era Rickenbacker electric guitar that was played by John Lennon during the band\u2019s residency at London\u2019s Hammersmith Odeon in December and January of 1964.<\/p>\n

Lennon would later gift it to Ringo Starr, who kept it as a prized possession for over 45 years before eventually selling it in 2015 to support his Lotus Foundation charity.<\/p>\n

History Speedrun: A John Lennon Rickenbacker<\/p>\n

John Lennon had been closely identified with Rickenbacker guitars since 1960, when he picked up his first 325 model in Hamburg, Germany. He painted that one black in 1962 and eventually replaced it with a brand new black 325 Rickenbacker that was delivered directly from Rickenbacker\u2019s California factory during the Beatles\u2019 first US visit in February of 1964.<\/p>\n

Above Video: This is the original first take of The Beatles Christmas message in 1964, the same era when Lennon was playing the guitar you see in this story. Even many lifelong Beatles fans haven\u2019t heard this Christmas message, where you can hear the members of the band riffing and just generally messing around with each other.<\/p>\n

During the band\u2019s residency at London\u2019s Hammersmith Odeon in December of 1964 (a variety show called \u201cAnother Beatles\u2019 Christmas Show<\/a>\u201c) Lennon damaged the neck of his 1964 guitar after dropping it offstage.<\/p>\n

British Rickenbacker distributor Rose-Morris stepped in with a replacement from their stock \u2013 the slightly different model 1996, which was essentially just a version of the 325 redesigned with traditional f-holes to better appeal to the European market.<\/p>\n

Lennon played the Rose-Morris Rickenbacker for the remainder of the Christmas shows, which ran through until mid-January of 1965. The shows were a mix of music, pantomime, and comedy<\/a>, with support acts including the Yardbirds (featuring a young Eric Clapton), Freddie and the Dreamers, and others.<\/p>\n

Rose-Morris seized the marketing opportunity, featuring Lennon in advertisements with the tagline \u201cRickenbacker: the Beatle backer.\u201d Once Lennon\u2019s original 325 was repaired, the 1996 was retired to his home studio at Kenwood, where it was later photographed in 1967.<\/p>\n

The guitar\u2019s story took an interesting turn in September of 1968. During the tense White Album recording sessions, Ringo Starr briefly quit the band, flying to Sardinia for a two-week break on Peter Sellers\u2019 yacht, this was the trip that inspired him to write \u201cOctopus\u2019s Garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ImageThis is the 1960s-era Rickenbacker electric guitar that was played extensively by John Lennon during the band\u2019s residency at London\u2019s Hammersmith Odeon in December and January 1964.<\/p>\n

When Starr returned to the studio at the band\u2019s request, Lennon gave him the little red Rickenbacker as a gift to encourage his songwriting, noting it would suit Ringo well given its smaller size. Starr treasured the guitar for over 45 years, later describing it as one of his \u201cprized possessions,\u201d before eventually parting with it at a 2015 auction benefiting his Lotus Foundation charity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a rest and the holiday was great, Ringo recalls in The Beatles Anthology. I knew we were all in a messed-up stage. It wasn\u2019t just me; the whole thing was going down. I had definitely left, I couldn\u2019t take it any more\u2026 I got a telegram saying, \u2018You\u2019re the best rock\u2019n\u2019roll drummer in the world. Come on home, we love you.\u2019 And so I came back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all needed that little shake-up. When I got back to the studio I found George had had it decked out with flowers \u2013 there were flowers everywhere. I told them that I had been writing some songs, Starr told Andy Babiuk in 2010, so the next day John came in and gave me his little red Rickenbacker. He thought it would fit me well as it\u2019s a bit smaller and that I should use it to write more songs\u2026 it\u2019s one of my prize possessions.\u201d \u2013 Ringo Starr<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ImageLennon would later gift the Rickenbacker to Ringo Starr, who kept it as a prized possession for over 45 years before eventually selling it in 2015 to support his Lotus Foundation charity.<\/p>\n

That Rickenbacker remains in remarkably well-preserved condition, looking almost brand new in the images in the auction listing. Instruments owned and played by members of The Beatles always tend to sell for hefty figures, and this one belonged to two Beatles at different times.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now bring offered for sale by Christie\u2019s with a hardshell case, a modern flight case and a modern burr-wood wall-mounted display cabinet. The price guide is $800,000 \u2013 $1,000,000 USD and you can visit the listing here<\/a> if you\u2019d like to read more about it or place a bid.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
\n\"John<\/a>
\n\"John<\/a>
\n\"John<\/a>
\n\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

Images courtesy of Christie\u2019s<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/a><\/p>\n

Articles that Ben Branch<\/a> has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.<\/p>\n

Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the 1960s-era Rickenbacker electric guitar that was played by John Lennon during the band\u2019s residency at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-536500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}