This First of the Tulip Shaped Guitars and the First Rickenbacker with Neck-Through-Body Construction

This 13-inch-wide guitar with a tulip-shaped body (the offset cutaways both curve out, but the thicker left horn provides an uneven "tulip" shape) weighs just 5.90 lbs. and has a nice fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 inches. Double cutaway maple body with neck-through-body construction. One-piece maple neck, Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 21 medium-to thin frets and white dot position markers. Serial number "4C7 352" stamped onto circular metal strap-pin retainer on back of bass-horn. Headstock with gold-colored, crescent-shaped, anodized metal logo plate lettered in black "Rickenbacker" and secured with three screws. Individual Grover open-back tuners with clover-leaf shaped metal buttons. One single-coil DeArmond pickup in the neck position with an output of 9.78k, stamped on the underside "Rowe Industries / Toledo Ohio USA / DeArmond / Reg US Pat Off." Gold-colored anodized metal pickguard with twelve screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus a two-way 'tone boost' switch and jack socket, all on pickguard. The potentiometers are stamped stamped "140 634" & "140 641" (Clarostat, August and October, 1956). Black bakelite seven-sided control knobs with white marker-line on top. Rickenbacker individually adjustable six-saddle bridge with four height-adjustment screws which in turn sits on Rickenbacker aluminum tailpiece secured by three screws. Complete with the original gold-colored anodized bridge cover. There is some finish checking on the body and a few small surface marks, especially on the edges. The back of the guitar has the remains of the original felt padding that was used on this model. Otherwise this exceptionally rare fifty-one year old 'Custom-Color' Ricky is in exceptionally fine (9.00) rating. Housed in the original Rickenbacker grey hardshell case with black leather ends and red plush lining (8.75).

"Rickenbacker introduced the Combo 400 in 1956 and dropped it in 1958. The Model 425 replaced it. This was the first of the tulip shaped guitars and the first Rickenbacker with neck-through-body construction. The single pickup was in the neck position, recessed into the body. Standard colors for the Combo 400 were Cloverfield Green (blue-green), Montezuma Brown (golden), and Jet Black. The first press release for the Combo 400 said it had an aluminium pickgurad with "gold color impregnated into the metal so that it will be difficult to scratch." In other words it was gold anodized." (Richard R. Smith. The Complete History of Rickenbacker Guitars, p. 142).

"The new solid body guitars showed Rickenbacker's energy and enthusiasm. They integrated exciting visual designs with the requirements of practical musical instruments. And the designs were original, not copies of Gibson, Gretsch or Fender. The first Combos were just a taste of the new direction the company headed, trailblazing philosophies of guitar technology and construction. Rick solid bodies combined several significant innovations. The extreme cutaway, first used on the Combo solid bodies, combined a flare for style with a concern for utility. Neck-through-body construction, used on most models between 1957 and 1970, was the ultimate manifestation of the solid guitar. With these Rickenbackers, there were no bolts or glue joints on the plane between the end pin and peghead. The design enhanced the instrument's tone and sustain." (Richard R. Smith. The Complete History of Rickenbacker Guitars, p. 138).

"Rickenbacker used just one confirmed DeArmond pickup in their guitar range, in the Combo 400 single-pickup solid guitar. The pickup's bezel is hidden beneath the gold-anodised aluminum pickguard, as shown below. This pickup also appears to have been fitted at the bridge position in the 1957 Combo guitar. This pickup was also used in the Harry Volpe Model Epiphone guitar seen in the Epiphone section, with a visible bezel. The musical instrument pickups, effects units and amplifiers designed and manufactured by Harry DeArmond and Bud Rowe in Toledo, Ohio, from the 1940s to the 1980s, through Rowe Industries Inc., H. N. Rowe & Company, Rowe DeArmond Inc., DeArmond Inc. and Tosh Electronics, all of Toledo, Ohio, USA." Musicpickups.com (DeArmond).