1977 Rickenbacker 4001

1. SERIAL NUMBER

Stamped onto jack plate; two letters: ‘Q’ (1977) and ‘I’ (September); four-digit number

2. HEADSTOCK

Maple wings; ‘cresting wave’ profile; dual truss-rod nuts (under cover)

3. BODY

Neck-through-body (maple with walnut centre strip); contoured maple wings; ‘cresting wave’ horns; 1¼-inch depth; plain single-layer top binding; Jetglo (black) finish

4. PICKUPS

Dual Hi-gain pickups with individual tone and volume controls; three-way selector switch; Ric-O-Sound stereo jack; mono jack

5. HARDWARE

Chrome-plated cast zinc tailpiece; metal pickup surrounds (chrome-plated plastic cover removed from bridge pickup); four individual nickel-plated tuners (two-a-side)

6. PLASTICS

Single-layer, eight-hole white pickguard; single-layer white truss-rod cover embossed with Rickenbacker logo; reads ‘Made in USA Model 4001’

7. NECK

Neck-through-body (maple with walnut centre strip); dual truss rod; single-bound 20-fret lacquered rosewood fingerboard with triangular resin inlays Guitarist would like to thank Andrew Raymond of Vintage ‘n’ Rare Guitars in Bath for showing us this fantastic instrument, along with Martin Kelly whose definitive book Rickenbacker Guitars 1931-1999: Out Of The Frying Pan Into The Fireglo is available to pre-order now at https://phantombooks.com