Terminology: The Cresting Wave
You know it when you see it
Here’s a question I just can’t answer—and believe me, I’ve spent a lot of time trying: when did the term “cresting wave” enter the lexicon to describe Rickenbacker’s 400, 600, and 4000 Series instruments?
My strong suspicion is that it’s just one of those terms—like “toaster” pickups—that collectors coined and Rickenbacker co-opted. But we’ll come back to this question in a minute.
Before we do, let’s answer an easier one: what do we actually mean when we say “cresting wave”? The answer is simple, and you’ll know it when you see it.
The cresting wave design element—because that’s what it is—first appeared on the 4000 bass (click to learn more) in 1957. Three times. Once on each cutaway, and again on the headstock.
Seen here on a 1959 4000 headstock, the term is pretty self-explanatory. It looks like a wave—on the ocean—that is cresting, and about to break. Whoever actually coined the term couldn’t have done a better job—it’s the perfect description.
The cutaways of the 4000 got the same treatment. Instead of simply rounding them over, like Fender had done with the Stratocaster and Precision Bass, that abrupt break in the curve adds a surprising amount of visual interest.
This may feel more adventurous than the other designs Roger Rossmeisl was producing during this period—arguably his artistic peak—but it actually makes sense in the context of both his design language and the era.
Sharp angles were a key element of Rossmeisl’s design language. Consider the sharp horns of the Capri models or the dramatic German carves (click to learn more) found on many of the solidbody Combo models—swooping lines giving way to sharp transitions everywhere you look.
It also fits the broader futuristic, atomic-age design trends of the day—the 4000’s dynamic headstock looks right at home alongside the tail fins on American cars, which were becoming increasingly exaggerated with each model year in the late 1950s.
And thus was born the “cresting wave” design language. It didn’t take long to spread, appearing shortly thereafter on the upper cutaway of the redesigned 1958 450 (click to learn more) and 425.
The change was more evolutionary on the 450 than it might at first appear. Rossmeisl’s first draft of the solidbody 450 had first appeared on the 1956 tulip-shaped Combo 400 (click to learn more).
The lower cutaway was reshaped in the name of player access in mid-1957, creating the so-called “half-tulip” 450 (click to learn more)—but the upper half of the “tulip” remained unchanged.
And if we look closely at the final outline of the 450, we can see that the upper point of the tulip remains intact while the interior has simply been scooped away to create the cresting wave.
In late 1961 the upper horn of the 4000 was extended slightly to improve the instrument’s overall balance, and its cresting wave became slightly more pronounced.
You can see the circular nature of the design here—the original 4000 design inspired the 450 design, which itself inspired the revised and final 4000 design.
With that change, the cresting wave design language was effectively finalized for both bass and guitar models. While exact outlines would vary over the years as tooling wore and was replaced, those variations all trace directly back to the original 1958 450 and 1961 4000.
These basic silhouettes have been reused and refined across many subsequent models. The 4000’s design has carried forward into most Rickenbacker bass models since its introduction, appearing on the 4001 (click to learn more), 4002 (click to learn more), 4003 (click to learn more), 4004, and short-scale 4030 (click to learn more) models.
The 4000’s cresting wave body has also been used on guitars—including the 1970s-era 480 (click to learn more) and 481 models, as well as the 90th Anniversary 480XC (click to learn more).
It has even been stretched to create the 4080 doubleneck bass/guitar.
Likewise, the 450’s body shape was carried over to the 600 Series guitars when the 625 (click to learn more) launched in 1962, and has since appeared across the line—including the 610 and 610/12, 620 and 620/12, 660 and 660/12, and even the modern 650.
So that’s the cresting wave and its history. But where did the name come from?
I just can’t tell you. The first time I can find the term “cresting wave” used directly by Rickenbacker is in the 1995 600 Series catalog. It appears in the 1987 Richard Smith book Rickenbacker (click to learn more) to describe the 400 Series guitars—and that’s as far back as I’ve been able to trace it.
So the term was clearly in use by the late 1980s, but not adopted by Rickenbacker themselves until the mid-1990s. My guess? It originated with collectors in the early 1980s, as vintage guitar collecting began to take off and a shared vocabulary began to emerge. And honestly, whoever came up with it couldn’t have done much better.
Want to learn more about other Rickenbacker design elements? Check out the “Design Elements” section of our handy site map to see what else we’ve covered!