The Rickenbacker 381 was made between 1958 and 1963 and from 1968 to 1974. Its body style is similar to the 330, but with a Gothic carved top and back providing extra depth.The model 381 is in fact a hollow body archtop guitar (available without pickups as the 380 model). The first production run of the 381 had single pickguards and 2 controls. Fingerboard inlays can be either  dots or triangles. There were also a number of variations on the 381, for example some had F-shaped soundholes and some had vibratos.

It is currently available as the flagship of the 300 Series in the form of the model 381V69.