TYPE
Electric Solid Body Double cutaway guitar
FEATURES
Birch body, maple neck
Rosewood fretboard
Horseshoe-shaped single-coil pickup
INFORMATION
In 1953, the newly named Rickenbacker company started building new modern solid bodies: the Combo series. These modern styled Combo guitars were initially given a light finish, had a large black pickguard and Rickenbacker’s own heavy horseshoe-shaped pickups.
The Combo 600 was equipped with a single coil pickup that ran above and below the strings. There was a volume and tone control-knob and a threeway-position switch. However, the Combo 800 had a dual coil pickup.
Although the Combo was officially a solid body guitar, large areas of the rear were hollowed out on the 600 and 800. This reduced the weight of the 5cm/2inches thick body. These cavities were covered with metal plates.
The other properties of the Combo varied from year to year. Some examples have a blue body, larger pickguards, different colored plastic parts and a different logo on the head. In the late 1950s, Vibrola whammy bars were applied to the body. The Combo 600 lasted a long time and production stopped in 1969.
