F-BODY GUITARS
A RICKENBACKER FOR THE JAZZ GUITARIST
“These rare variants of the Capri range were aimed at the jazz market. The F-body [Full Body] guitars share the same outline as late-’40s Roger guitars. I’m sure Roger was fond of that design and thought, Why not recycle it? Roger guitars were all handcarved and therefore time-consuming to build, whereas the F-body Rickenbackers have flat tops and flat backs.
“In ’59, Rickenbacker stopped hollowing these out and they switched to gluing pre-cut sides. If you think of the size of that body, hollowing it out would have taken a long time — significantly more time than it would take to hollow out a regular-sized Capri. When they moved to glued sides, the pitch of the neck became a lot flatter and more in line with the body.
“In 1966, Dick Burke reshaped the body to make it fatter, and the pickguard changed from a teardrop to a kidney-bean shape. To my mind, it’s a much less attractive guitar by the late ’60s. I think the earlier ones are a lot more stylish.
“Paul Weller played an F-body in the Style Council quite a bit, and Jimmy Bryant used one to amazing effect. You can hear it on his early ’60s records.”