Overview: The Combo 400
So what was the most important lesson Rickenbacker learned from their first modern electric guitars, the Combo 600 and 800 (click to learn more)?
Keep it simple, stupid.
Consequently, the brief for Roger Rossmeisl’s first solo Rickenbacker design must have been galling to him. After being allowed to let his imagination and his chisels run wild modifying the externally designed Combo 600 and 800—giving the company a dramatic new visual identity in the process—he was now being asked to do the exact opposite: design a simple, scalable, entry-level solidbody guitar. No German carve (click to learn more). No complex routing. Just a basic, easy-to-build—and therefore profitable—instrument.
And that last part mattered.
While there’s no way to verify exact margins, it’s hard to imagine Rickenbacker was making much money on the Combo 600 and 800. They were extremely labor-intensive guitars, yet priced roughly the same as the much more technically advanced—but far simpler to build—Fender Stratocaster.
That had to change.
And so 1956 brought the Combo 400: a guitar designed less to impress at first glance, and more to solve problems—manufacturing problems, pricing problems, and scalability problems. If the Combo 600 and 800 were about establishing what a Rickenbacker looked like, the Combo 400 was about figuring out what a Rickenbacker could afford to be.
But Rossmeisl being Rossmeisl, he couldn’t just leave it at that. He still had to do something unique.
Believe it or not, the modern 620’s “cresting wave” (click to learn more) is already hiding inside that silhouette, waiting to come out as it would in time. But in this first iteration there’s no wave, there’s a…tulip. And the Combo 400 wouldn’t be the only one—1957’s short scale solidbody 900, 950, and 1000 (click to learn more) would share the tulip design language.
But the shape wasn’t Rossmeisl’s real party trick.
That distinction belongs to the construction—neck-through (click to learn more), with body wings bolted into place. Simple. Scalable. Which sounds a little funny today, given that neck-through construction is now seen as a “premium” feature.
But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. So let’s get into the Combo 400’s details for a moment. Because in addition to the “keep it simple, stupid” mantra, there was another design weakness in the Combo 600 and 800 that had to be addressed: the venerable horseshoe pickup (click to learn more).
Don’t get me wrong—it still sounded great. And the Combo 800 featured the world’s first commercially available humbucking pickup—even if Rickenbacker failed to grasp just how big of a deal that was. But those horseshoe magnets were just so…big. And very much in the players’ way. It continued to make sense as a lap steel pickup…but these guitars weren’t lap steels.
Rickenbacker realized they needed a different kind of pickup for these different kinds of guitars. The problem was that they didn’t have one yet—the toaster was still in development. And so, already a DeArmond distributor, they took the expedient route and simply picked an off-the-shelf pickup (click to learn more)—one already in use on the Epiphone Harry Volpe signature model—and fitted it to the Combo 400.
The DeArmond pickup and controls were attached to a gold anodized pickguard that covered much of the guitar’s face. Those controls included volume and tone knobs, along with a two-way switch that bypassed the tone control in one position. The output jack was face mounted as well—another clear “keep it simple, stupid” decision. The Combo 400 saw the first use of the black Kurz Kach “KK” knobs that would be the primary knob used on most guitars through 1964.
The neck was a one piece maple design with maple wings, topped with a twenty-one fret unfinished paduak fretboard with simple dot inlays. Dissatisfied with the swooping headstock design he had used on the Combo 600 and 800, Rossmeisl simplified it here, creating an enduring Rickenbacker design element in the process.
The anodized truss rod cover from the Combo 600 and 800 was the only design element to carry over to the new guitar. Tuners were older and inexpensive open-back Grover Sta-Tites (click to learn more), reinforcing the Combo 400’s no-frills, cost-conscious brief.
The six adjustable saddle bridge and bridgeplate designed for the Combo 600 and 800 was used again—and again it was too tall. Once again it had to be recessed into the body. An anodized ashtray bridge cover clipped into the pickguard to hide it.
The most controversial design choice of the Combo 400 was the strap buttons…or rather the lack thereof. Instead, the guitar was equipped with a circular chromed ring inset into the back of the upper horn, to which a supplied saxophone strap was attached. The serial number was also stamped onto the ring.
The fact that this guitar—along with most surviving examples—now sports an added strap button should tell you all you need to know about how well that feature was received. And although the balance point of the guitar when attached to the ring was actually pretty good, a gray “flocking” material was sprayed on the back of the guitar to provide just enough friction to keep the guitar from sliding around.
So now that we’ve covered all the other details, we can finally talk about that neck-through construction. The Combo 400 wasn’t the first production neck-through solidbody guitar—that honor goes to the 1952-57 Harmony H44 Stratotone, another low cost design. But it was the second, which means the idea was still fairly novel at the time.
I’ve chosen this example—which has been refinished—because it makes the construction method very clear. The one piece neck section—running from headstock to butt—forms the core of the guitar, with two body wings attached to either side. The two “holes” in the back of the neck were for centering pins used during the manufacturing process.
The neck was clear coated, and the wings were painted one of three standard nitrocellulose colors: Cloverfield Green, Black, or Montezuma Brown. Importantly, the wings’ finish was applied before assembly, as the next picture makes clear.
Looking closely, you can see the bolts running through the entire assembly of this early example, used to supplement the glue and ensure long term stability. The bolt holes were then capped with a chrome cover.
As confidence in the the guitar’s structural integrity grew, those bolts were first replaced with staples, which were themselves later eliminated, leaving the glue to do all the work.
In the end, the Combo 400 did exactly what it was meant to do. At a list price $55 lower than the Combo 600—about $650 today—it outsold the Combo 600 and 800 combined, and by a wide margin. Simple and scalable, just as intended.
But the Combo 400 was never meant to be the destination. After handing the design off to production, Rossmeisl spent 1956 and 1957 in a creative frenzy, designing the forerunners of the Rickenbacker line as we know it today—the 4000 bass, the semi-hollowbodied Capri line, and the cresting wave successors to the Combo 400.
And in early 1958—only two years after its introduction—the Combo 400 was replaced by said cresting wave 425. Not because it had failed—but because it had done its job.
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Find here all the embedded links in this article so you don’t have to scroll back up to find them!
Overview: The Combo 600 and 800
Timeline: The Evolution of the 620
Timeline: The Evolution of the 900, 950, and 1000
Terminology: Neck-Through Construction