A Fantastic Super Rare
Factory Black 1957 Rickenbacker 1000

This super-rare, factory black finish, 13-inch-wide three-quarter-size student model with a tulip-shaped body (the offset cutaways both curve out, but the thicker left horn provides an uneven "tulip" shape) weighs just 4.90 lbs. and has a nut width of just under 1 5/8 inches and a short scale length of 21 inches. Double cutaway maple body with neck-through-body construction. One-piece maple neck, Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 18 original thin frets and white dot position markers. Serial number "V 7107" stamped in blind on lower edge of neck at body-end. Headstock with single-layer, crescent-shaped, black lucite logo plate lettered in white "Rickenbacker" and secured with three screws. Individual 'single-line' Kluson Deluxe tuners with (replaced) oval white plastic buttons. Single Rickenbacker 'Pre-Chrome Bar' Single-Coil pickup with two height-adjustment screws and an output of 7.55k. Single-layer white plastic pickguard with fourteen screws (two tiny chips at horn-ends). Later 'Tulip-shaped' single-layer white plastic back-plate secured by fourteen pins. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus two-way on-off mute switch and jack socket, all on pickguard. The potentiometers are stamped stamped "140 XXX" (Clarostat - year & week obscured by solder). Black bakelite control knobs with ribbed sides. Ebony saddle (slanted) on metal base with four height adjustment screws which in turn sits on Rickenbacker aluminum tailpiece secured by three screws. Complete with the original aluminum bridge cover. Apart from the professional replacement of the back-plate and the tuner-tips, this fifty-four year old very early guitar is in all original condition. There is a small amount of wear to the back of the neck and the body edges, especially on the lower edge. This is the first example of one of these super rare guitars that we have ever seen and we can safely give it an exceptionally fine (9.00) rating. Housed in the original Selmer imitation gray snakeskin hardshell case with maroon plush lining (9.00).`

This guitar is identical to the 1957 example shown in color on p. 99 of Richard Smith's The History of Rickenbacker Guitars.

"Models 900, 950, and 1000 -- These short scale student guitars came out in 1957. The 900 had a single pickup and a twenty-one fret neck. The 950 was the same as the 900, but with two pickups. The 1000 had one pickup and an eighteen fret neck. These guitars had neck-through-body construction. (The original factory designation was C150-18 fret, C150-21 fret, and C150-21 frets-2-pickups.)... The production models were three-quarter size tulip shaped guitars. They amended the shape slightly in the last part of the year to include a 'new cutaway feature.' The new shape had less than perfect symmetry which allowed easier access to the upper frets. Original colors included brown, black, gray, and natural.. After 1968 and before 1975, the body shape on the 900 and 950 changed from the tulip style to the cresting wave style" (Richard R. Smith, The History of Rickenbacker Guitars, p. 145). According to Richard R. Smith (p. 237), at total of 354 1000's were shipped from the factory between 1957 and 1960 in the following colors: 28 Black; 43 Natural; 17 Autumnglo; 8 Gray; 258 with no color specified.