Over 50 guitars are located in the Guitar Gallery: The Quest for Volume within the Museum of Pop Culture. One of them is a 1961 Rickenbacker 4000 guitar. A nearby placard reads:
Old pickups + new design = a bass with a new sound and look
Released in 1957, the Rickenbacker 4000's sleek long-horned body,
sculptured head and clear plastic parts made it a bass for the Space Age. The company's first bass, it had a crisp, percussive sound from its large pickup-essentially the same horsehoe pickup Rickenbacker used on their breakthrough 1932 Frying Pan lap steel guitar.
The 4000 was a great success, later becoming a favorite of players like Paul McCartney and The Who's John Entwistle.