The following information was obtained from Mike Rutherford, his assistant Dale Newman and from Mr. Gordon Wells a luthier who used to work closely with the master luthier Mr. Dick Knight. Mr. Wells graciously spoke of the work that he and Mr. Knight had done for Genesis, The Beatles, Paul McCartney and George Harrison during a telephone conversation on October 4, 2000.
Mike Rutherford's famous doubleneck was crafted by the well known luthier Mr. Dick Knight, whose talents are known worldwide. Mr. Knight passed away around 1996 and co-worker Mr. Gordon Wells kindly provided the details, to the best of his memory, concerning the construction of Rutherford's famous instrument. The dates and serial numbers of the instruments were provided by Mike Rutherford.
The doubleneck was crafted from two Rickenbackers, a July 1965 Model 4001 bass (Serial Number EG 290) and a May 1973 Model 360/12 (Serial Number ME 1661). The doubleneck was made sometime in 1974 and Dick Knight had only 9 days to do the work as Genesis was to go on tour at that time. Rutherford approached Knight with the two instruments which, to the amazement of Knight and Wells, was held together by "Gaffer tape." Apparently it was quite a sight to see when it first came in the shop. It was quickly refinished to black by Mr. Knight and Mr. Wells in reference to Mike Rutherford commented "it was still sticky when he took it."
Mr. Knight seems to have started something as shortly thereafter Rickenbacker International Corporation began to produce the Model 4080 (bass/6 string) and Model 362/12 (6/12 string) doublenecks in 1975; and the Model 4080/12 (bass/12 string) in 1977. Whether Mr. Knight's work was the impetus for these factory doublenecks is not known at the present time, but remains a distinct possibility.
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