Terminology: Gold Plastics
Vintage vibe with a golden luster
Gold plastics are plastics that are…gold. That about covers it, right?
Well, there’s actually a bit more to it than that. So it’s worth taking a few minutes to understand what exactly people mean when they say “gold plastics”, where they were used, and why people care. It’s a small topic, but one that comes up constantly once you start paying attention.
So first, “plastics”. We’re talking about pickguards and truss rod covers here. Things that are usually—but not always—made of…plastic. They take up a significant chunk of real estate, and have a noticeable impact on the “look and feel” of the guitar.
And then, “gold”. Rickenbacker plastics come in three flavors: white, black, and gold. Gold came first, and it has a significant difference from the other two.
The material most often used by Rickenbacker for pickguards—and for truss rod covers until 1974–75, which we’ll come back to—is acrylic. You’ll often hear the brand name “Plexiglas” used to identify it.
Acrylic is very durable—and very scratch-resistant, which makes it an excellent choice for a pickguard. It’s also naturally clear, which is why it is often used as a tougher, lighter substitute for glass.
For black and white Rickenbacker pickguards (but not truss rod covers), the acrylic is colored—white or black. The actual shade of white Rickenbacker uses is called “sign white”—it’s semi-translucent and designed to be used in backlit signs. That’s why it has that slightly “soft” look and why you can sometimes see the outlines of the routs underneath. By contrast, the black is fully opaque.
Gold, however, isn’t colored acrylic at all. Instead, it starts life clear, and is then painted on the “backside” with a metallic gold paint.
The earlier acrylic truss rod covers were made the same way: from clear acrylic, with the logo screen-printed on the back and then sealed beneath a coat of white, black, or gold paint. You will occasionally see “lifting” of that paint, especially near the screws, where it can adhere to the headstock and pull away when the cover is removed.
From 1974–1975 these were phased out and replaced by injection-molded versions in black or white with raised, painted letters. There was no gold version as gold plastics themselves had already been discontinued. Which brings us to the obvious next question: when and where were gold plastics actually used?
In fact—and this is where it gets interesting—the “plastics” were gold before they were plastic. The very first modern Rickenbacker electric guitars—1954’s Combo 600 and 800 (click to learn more)—had gold “plastics” that were actually gold anodized aluminum.
Anodized is a term you hear a lot—and you probably know what it looks like—but what does it actually mean? Anodizing is a chemical process that uses an electrical current in an acid bath to build up an oxide layer that is harder and more wear-resistant than the base material—aluminum, in this case. In simpler terms, it’s a controlled way of creating an extremely durable “rust” on the surface of the metal.
After the oxide layer is built up, it can then be dyed almost any color. Rickenbacker chose gold. And just like that, the Combo 600 and 800 ended up with gold anodized aluminum “plastics”.
Truss rod covers were obviously handled differently on these guitars—the logo was silk-screened on the top rather than on the back. As such, the logo is subject to wear, unlike the acrylic versions.
Not all Combo 600 and 800s got gold “plastics”. Usually—but not always—Turquoise guitars got gold, and Natural guitars got black. Guitars with black plastics actually got plastics—a backpainted Plexiglas truss rod cover and a Bakelite pickguard.
The next model to launch, the Combo 400 (click to learn more) in 1956, also featured gold anodized “plastics”—and when it gained an extra pickup the following year to become the Combo 450 (click to learn more) , it too featured anodized “plastics”. So what was the first guitar to get true gold plastics?
That’s a little hard to pin down. We know it was in 1957 and that it was one of two instruments: either the Combo 850 or the 4000 bass (click to learn more). The complication is that while the 4000 was introduced in 1957, it didn’t really enter production until 1958. So we can say that the Combo 850 was the first “production” instrument with gold plastics—but the actual first? That’s less certain.
The Combo 600 and 800 were adapted to use the same gold plastic pickguard, and quickly replaced their anodized guards. By 1958 the only guitar left with gold anodized “plastics” was the newly redesigned 450.
There were a handful of “half and halfs” produced in 1957—plastic pickguards paired with anodized truss rod covers—likely to use up leftover parts.
1958 saw the launch of the Capri line and a fairly consistent standardization of the use of gold plastics—and of all plastics in general. Student and entry-level models—like the 425, 950, 1000, etc—received a white plastic pickguard with a stamped metal truss rod cover, and everything else got gold plastics.
With one exception: the 450 retained its gold anodized pickguard, paired with the stamped metal truss rod cover.
1961 marked the beginning of the shift away from gold plastics. The 450 finally dropped the anodized pickguard for white plastics…but with a gold truss rod cover. Pre-production 4001 basses (click to learn more) featured a white plastic pickguard—of a different design than what would go into production—with a gold truss rod cover.
The revised New Capris of 1961 would be the last guitars to launch with gold plastics.
In 1962 the first white truss rod covers appeared, first on the new 625 (click to learn more)—the first guitar to feature all white plastics—and then replacing the stamped covers on the student and entry-level guitars.
In December 1963 the gold plastics era effectively ended with a prototype guitar that would go on to become one of the most famous Rickenbackers ever built: George Harrison’s 1963 360/12.
Technically this wasn’t the very first New Capris with white plastics…but it was almost certainly among the very first few. Were there any gold plastic New Capris made after this guitar? It’s possible…but I haven’t seen one.
And then gold plastics just disappeared. There may have been the occasional one-off, but as a production feature, they were gone.
That is, until the vintage reissue guitars appeared. Guitars designed to replicate—or at least evoke—guitars from the vintage era needed vintage appointments. And that meant gold plastics.
1982’s B-Series (click to learn more) 320B—roughly inspired by John Lennon’s 1958 325—was the first guitar to feature gold plastics since 1963. As did 1985’s 325V59 and 2002’s 325C58 (click to learn more), both inspired by the same instrument. And then there was the 1994 5002V58, inspired by a 1958 Roger Rossmeisl-penned (click to learn more) electric mandolin most people didn’t even know existed. Although this one wasn’t exactly accurate as the original 5002 had featured a gold anodized aluminum pickguard rather than gold plastics.
1991 saw the first new model to launch with gold plastics since the New Capris in 1961—the 660/12TP Tom Petty Signature Limited Edition (click to learn more).
Using Mike Campbell’s 1963 620/12 as its starting point, the 660/12TP got a wider neck, fancy checkered binding, and gold plastics for a vintage “vibe”. The 660 remains in production to this day, long after the Signature Edition completed its 1000 piece run.
Over the past twenty years or so, gold plastics have appeared on any number of special runs, and they can be bought both from the factory and aftermarket manufacturers to retrofit almost any model you can think of. They’ve become so common that it’s easy to forget how special they seemed when they appeared on that first 1982 320B—a deliberate throwback to a feature that had been gone for almost two decades.
Maybe I’m a pedant, but gold plastics just don’t look right to me on a guitar that didn’t originally feature them. But I appear to be in the minority on this one—gold plastics in the “wrong place” don’t appear to be going anywhere . And that’s okay. Now you know where they do and do not “belong”. What you do with that is entirely up to you.