"In addition to being a rare bound headstock modelяthe nut, frets, pickups, and bridge on this guitar are all slanted. The theory behind this short-lived design was that the slight downward slant of the bass side frets toward the guitar body would more naturally fit the playerуs hand, and allow for more comfortable, accurate fretting of the guitar. Slant-fret Ricks were only produced in the early to mid-1970s. This particular example has checker bound back, crushed pearl inlays and hi-gain pickups, which by 1971 had replaced the Toaster Top pickups on many guitar models. This example also has a 24-fret neck, which would replace the 21-fret neck that had been standard on the full-scale Rickenbacker guitars up to that time. "