Rickenbacker guitars and bass guitars have a rich history that dates back to the 1940s, when the company was founded by Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp. At first, the company produced lap steel guitars and electric guitars with horseshoe magnet pickups, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that Rickenbacker began to make its mark on the music industry.
In the early 1950s, Rickenbacker introduced the Combo series of guitars and basses. These were some of the first electric instruments to feature a solid body and had a distinctive, twangy sound that made them popular with country and rockabilly musicians. Eddie Cochran used a Rickenbacker 360 on his hit song “Summertime Blues.”
In the 1960s, Rickenbacker really came into its own with the introduction of the 4000 series bass. This bass had an asymmetrical body shape and a powerful, punchy sound that quickly made it a favorite of rock and roll bassists. These 4000 basses inevitably became the choice of many iconic bands of the era, including The Beatles, The Byrds, The Who, and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. The 1st 4000’s c.1957 came w/a Walnut neck-thru design & the last of these 4000’s from 1961 used a maple neck-thru design. By 1962 this design changed to their modern far more carved smooth body shapes by the time Paul McCartney, Maurice Gibb & Chris Squire used them.
This particular Rick 4000 Bass was 1 of only 50 or so of these 1st series of basses made by Rickenbacker from 1957 thru 1961. Its got a wonderful patinated original Mapleglo finish covering its slab body made from some very flamey Birch wood & she has a Mahogany Neck-Thru Body design. Its 1 powerful “Horseshoe” pickup was its coolest asset as it has a very bright funk to a darker rock tone when needed. Its Kluson tuners were humungous & had huge shafts thru the cartoon-like headstock w/no shaft ferrels ever. Its serial # is stamped into its side jack plate designating 1959 as well as its original pots. Its sporting its original gold painted clear lucite pickgard & matching truss rod cover. To finish it off its still got its original chrome knobs & 2 sliding bridge covers w/its 6-string guitar bridge in place using only 4 strings from new. Its now 64 years young & to find a more original example will be far & few in between. Its excellent overall & comes in its original green/gray tolex hard case.
