For Rickenbacker’s F-series models of 1959, designer Roger Rossmeisl seemed to take a step back from the sweeping cutaway shapes and “German carve” body contours of his earlier Rickenbackers.

The new semi-hollow models, known by the seemingly contradictory term “Thin Full-Body” because of their thin depth and full-size width, featured a traditional rounded cutaway and were the most conventional-looking electric models of Rickenbacker’s modern era (which began with F.C. Hall’s acquisition of the company in 1953).

Rickenbacker appropriated the orderly model numbering system of the Capri-series for the F-series. Like the 360, the 360F was the basic two-pickup model with fancy trim – triangular fingerboard inlays and body binding. Model numbers increased when a vibrato and/or a third pickup were added.

The 330F was the plainer model, with dot inlays and no body binding. The short-scale Capris (models 310-325), were not offered in the “full-thin” F-series. Although the Capris had only been introduced a year earlier, their modern styling set an aesthetic standard for Rickenbackers that the Thin-Full models couldn’t live up to.

The F-series lingered into the 1970s but never really found a market.