4000 Transition Timeline
It occurred to me that while I have gone to great detail to try to pinpoint the exact timing of each change in the 4001’s transition from “vintage” to “modern” specs from 1968-1974, I’d never even really considered the 4000’s transition. So let’s fix that!
Let’s begin by pointing out what changed. The construction went from through-neck to set neck, the neck itself went from one piece to three with a skunk stripe, the headstock went from long to short, the pickup changed from horseshoe to Higain, the pickguard went from long to short, the knobs changed from vintage to silver-top, and the bridge lost its gap tooth. My guess going in was that most of those changes would align with the 4001’s transition—and I was mostly right!
Now there aren’t as many 4000s as there are 4001s in the register to validate, but I feel pretty good about what I’ve compiled. But I’ve surely gotten something wrong, and corrections are always welcome! Let’s do this!
November 1968: The first change to the 4000 (just like the 4001) is the pickup—horseshoe to Higain. But it appears (from the limited examples we have to examine) like the 4000 got the Higain pickup BEFORE the 4001. While the 4001 seems to have made the switch in December of 1968, the 4000 seems to have gotten it at least a month earlier (and possibly more) in November.
Mid-to-late 1969: Pickguard shortens (gap between pickup and pickguard grows), headstock shortens. I can’t put an exact date on these because I don’t have enough examples. But I can tell you that in February both the pickguard and headstock were long, and by January of 1970 they were both short. That said, it seems quite likely that these changes would line up with the changes to the 4001, where the pickguard shrunk in April and the headstock in September/October.
March/April 1972: Just like on the 4001, the through neck of the 4003 is changed to 3 pieces with a “skunk stripe”. At the same time, the wings of the headstock are changed from walnut to maple.
September/October 1972: Construction changed from neck-through to set neck. Neck remains three pieces with skunk stripe.
April/May 1973: “Gap tooth” bridge disappears.
May 1974: Knobs change from black “KK” vintage style to silver top style (with no labels).
And that’s it. Done. Fully transitioned. That’s how the 4000 would look until production ended. When was that? Well, while they remained on the pricelist through 1985, I haven’t seen one made after 1983. And now we know!