Rickenbacker built Geddy Lee a one-off bass for Rush's reunion tour
The custom 4000V CB TB in Turquoise Blue mixes vintage Rickenbacker parts with specs Lee asked for himself, ahead of the Fifty Something Tour's June 7 opener.
Apr 27, 2026 · 1 min read
Guitar Radar Editorial · Reviewed by Peter Luha · Published Aug 27, 2026
Credit: Rickenbacker / No Treble
Rickenbacker handcrafted a custom 4000V CB TB bass for Geddy Lee to play on Rush's Fifty Something reunion tour, built by Richard Cannata at the company's factory to Lee's own specifications. The finish is Turquoise Blue, a color Rickenbacker originally offered on its late-1950s combo-series instruments, set off with checkerboard body binding. Lee asked for the neck itself to stay unfinished, with a hand-rubbed oil finish only on the back and a stinger-style color transition where the neck meets the body.
The bass runs a 33.25-inch scale with a bound rosewood fingerboard, 20 frets, and triangle pearlescent inlays, and pairs a vintage-style single-coil "toaster top" neck pickup with a horseshoe pickup at the bridge. Rather than the usual volume-and-tone layout, Lee had it wired with two separate volume knobs — one per pickup — feeding a single mono output. Some of the hardware, including the knobs, comes from Rickenbacker's early-1990s parts stock rather than being newly made.
Why it matters
A one-off instrument built to a single player's exact requests, rather than a signature model sold to the public, says something about where Lee sits with the brand after decades of playing Rickenbackers — this is a relationship, not an endorsement deal.
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