1950s Rickenbacker 400 series?

[anthonyf]

Hello all!

I am new to the forum. This place is great. I recently aquired two Rickenbacker guitars. One 650d and another, somewhat mysterious, guitar. If I made this post in the wrong section, I am sorry. I thought this would be best.

Here are the guitars together. Please don't chastise me for replacing the original pickup on the right... I did not do it.


Here is a picture of the serial number on the bridge 4c337, which when plugged into the serial decoder on the Rickenbacker website produces this
"Your guitar is a 400 Series Combo model manufactured in 1953"


Here is a picture of the neck line with some strange paint on the side of the fret board


And a chip on the headstock that reveals the wood grain underneath


My questions are what do I have here? The color scheme is similar to others, but not quite at the same time. Was this guitar painted? If it was, besides the paint on the side of the neck, a good job was done. Besides the pickup, everything else seems to be original. I have the original hardshell case too.

Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance
Anthony

[kiramdear]

Hi, Anthony, and welcome to the forum.

Look for the "Rickenbacker Register" link in the upper right side of the page. If that doesn't get you there try this:

http://www.rickresource.com/register/

There you can create an entry for each of your guitars and add them to the register. You can add pictures if you like. They'll be search-able by all and part of the huge database.

The finish on the old timer is called jetglo.

Again, welcome!

[anthonyf]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. The registry is awesome! I spent 2 hours just looking at all the beautiful guitars.

I actually found my guitar in the registry. Looks like the original owner may have put the wrong serial number in. Anyway, I am still a little confused. Seems like the guitar is a "400 series combo" according to the Rickenbacker website. The body style just seems off compared to the other guitars from that period of time with the cresting wave and all. The paint job just doesnt look right either.

[kiramdear]

I have to wonder as well about such an early date on a cresting wave. I think we should move this thread over to the guitars vintage guitars section and there it would be more likely seen by one of our experts there (of which I'm not ). I would contact Peter (user name: admin) about possible corrections to the entry info for your guitar. It's worth it to get the whole straight story.