Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I am curious to know why some of the fifties and very early sixties model guitars sported metal truss rod covers while other models had the plastic type? Was this a matter of economics?

Not as much as the fact that the "scimitar" shaped TRC designed by Catherine Hall is a much more identifiable and unique shape. As John Hall has mentioned, you can tell a guitar is a Rickenbacker a hundred feet away due to its unique and striking visual features. The TRC is arguably one of the more recognizable!

I'd bet that the acrylic TRCs that replaced the metal ones in the early 1960s, cost several times what the metal ones did to manufacture. Eventually, when the injection-molded TRCs came onto the scene, costs per unit gradually came down as the tooling was amortized.

For a short period, some of the guitars sported both!

By that, I mean---they had the familiar Rickenbacker TRC-shape cut from opaque white plastic (same as pickguard material) with leftover Lap Steel/Case badges mounted on top, though i've mostly seen this on early electro instruments.

jingle_jangle wrote:I'd bet that the acrylic TRCs that replaced the metal ones in the early 1960s...

Paul, Weren't the metal TRCs only on a few instruments ever, like early 425s, while gold or black 'screened acrylic ones were being used since early on?

Or did you mean this? Is this metal?

There is a nice sampling of photos of the Model 425 here.