"Tommy - Can You Hear Me?"

1969 Rickenbacker 4005 Bass

This very light and super rare 1969 Jetglo 4005 bass weighs just 8.00 lbs. The semi-hollow body features a maple body with sculpted top, checkerboard binding on the back, offset cutaways and a bound "slash" soundhole. Laminated maple and mahogany neck with a really nice fat nut width of 1 23/32 inches, a standard Rickenbacker scale length of 33 1/2 inches and a very comfortable medium profile. Bound rosewood fretboard with 20 original medium frets and triangular inlaid crushed-pearl position markers extending completely across the fretboard. Headstock with hooked "cresting wave" top and white opaque plastic logo plate lettered in black. Individual open-back tuners with cloverleaf metal buttons. Two chrome bar "toaster" pickups with outputs of 8.14k and 7.93k. White plastic pickguard with five screws and with original clear plastic thumb rest with two screws. Five controls (two volume, two tone, and a master "blender" control) plus three-way selector switch, all on pickguard. Seven-sided black plastic knobs with metal tops with black lettering. Four-saddle bridge and "R" tailpiece. Jack input on a metal plate (with the serial number "IK [November 1969] 569") stamped in blind on the lower treble bout. The pots are dated "137 6808" (CTS, February 1968). There are a few surface marks, mainly on the body edges but overall thsi super rare bass in is exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. The original medium frets and the fretboard show virtually no playing wear whatsoever. This is the only 'sixties' factory Jetglo that we have seen. Housed in a later three-latch, rectangular black hardshell case with black leather ends and black plush lining (9.50).

Introduced in 1965, "the Model 4005 and Model 4005/6 were Rickenbacker's thin-line hollow body electric basses. Rickenbacker created these models at a time when other companies were having success with this type of bass. The British invasion groups helped to start this trend with their interest in hollow body models; before the 4005 was available, the company received many requests for hollow body basses from England. The company even took an order for a violin shaped six string bass with a natural finish in 1965, but there is no evidence the factory made it. The body shape of the Model 4005 basses followed the styling of the 1965 Models 306-375 standard guitars: they had a rounded top edge and double cutaways. The 4005 basses had two pickups and Deluxe features. Like the solid body basses, they had string mutes, twenty-one [sic] frets, rosewood fingerboards, and full scales. The first ones were available in either Fireglo or natural maple finishes. In the 1970s they were available in any of the standard Colorglo finishes. These models had slash soundholes and R tailpieces" (Richard R. Smith, The History of Rickenbacker Guitars, p. 207).

Among the great "sixties" bassists who used a 4005, were Nick St. Nicholas of the Steppenwolf,  and John Entwistle of The Who, who used a similar '67 (serial no. GE 2208) in the studio between 1969 and 1970.