Question re. Rickenbackers

[timiscott]

Hi All, I've got a beautiful ruby red Ricky 330 arriving tomorrow and I've never owned one before. I was wondering if anyone can give any advice about the finish on them. It's not nitro but, from what little I've gleaned, it seems quite reactive. I mean, will chlorine in guitar stand padding eat into it? Will direct sunlight fade it?

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I've had a few Rics on padded guitar stands and have never noticed a reaction. As for fading, i'm not sure - I live in Scotland!

[parry]

As for fading, i'm not sure - I live in Scotland!

[parry]

Hi All, I've got a beautiful ruby red Ricky 330 arriving tomorrow and I've never owned one before. I was wondering if anyone can give any advice about the finish on them. It's not nitro but, from what little I've gleaned, it seems quite reactive. I mean, will chlorine in guitar stand padding eat into it? Will direct sunlight fade it?

I've only ever owned JetGlo Rics, so I never experienced fading but I have some friends who have them with lighter finishes and other than the white slightly yellowing after YEARS of being in contact with a stand... I can't recall anyone with the other colours experiencing issues.

[Larry Mal]

I would not let a guitar like that live on a stand.

[panoramic]

As for fading, i'm not sure - I live in Scotland!

Can't fade on that

[Larry Mal]

You know, in an effort to actually know something, I decided to look up what finish Rickenbacker actually use.

It's called a "conversion varnish", which does not mean anything to me, but they do consider it to be fundamentally different from nitrocellulose and polyester finishes.

Someone will step in who knows, but this is what Rickenbacker has to say about it.

Regardless, really no guitar should be kept on a stand for very long times.

[panoramic]

You know, in an effort to actually know something, I decided to look up what finish Rickenbacker actually use.

It's called a "conversion varnish", which does not mean anything to me, but they do consider it to be fundamentally different from nitrocellulose and polyester finishes.

Someone will step in who knows, but this is what Rickenbacker has to say about it.

Regardless, really no guitar should be kept on a stand for very long times.

You excel at having opinions. Let the dudes formulate their own.

[cestlamort]

Congratulations on the new guitar!

The conversion varnish stuff seems really tough. I've had Rickenbackers on stands for longer periods (multi-guitar stands, if that makes it any better) without adverse effects (albeit black/jetglo). I do tend to put some cotton down over points of contact as a rule (but also forget sometimes).

The finish is one reason why Rickenbackers tend to look more or less semi-new, no matter how old and why there isn't a cult of relic for Rickenbackers.

There are a number of resources out there for cleaning, I use an old turtle wax (they may have changed the formula) and xymol, both of which are car cleaners (but need to have/not have some scrubbing microbubbles or whatever, I don't remember the details).

Direct sunlight should not fade it. I had a fireglo that was closer to salmon-glo that I tried to yellow for a couple years and it had absolutely no effect (but: Seattle).

Note that you'll probably have some finish issues around the neck joint and possibly by the nut, no matter what you do. That's just one of those Rickenbacker "It's not a fault, it's not a problem" QC denial things (like the R tailpiece).

[øøøøøøø]

If you're worried, put some cloth over the parts of the stand that contact the guitar.

[timiscott]

Thanks all, that's really reassuring. I have an AV65 Jm and the nitro drives me crazy! As a matter of curiosity, Larry, are stands bad then? I'm genuinely interested. On another note you may get, a guy has just started working with me who (fairly) recently played in a band with the Only Ones' drummer...

[Larry Mal]

Thanks all, that's really reassuring. I have an AV65 Jm and the nitro drives me crazy! As a matter of curiosity, Larry, are stands bad then? I'm genuinely interested. On another note you may get, a guy has just started working with me who (fairly) recently played in a band with the Only Ones' drummer...

That guy is a great drummer.

So, I'm no expert on finish and stands and I tend to follow Brad's advice of just putting cloth over the rubber.

What I understand is that the phenomenon is (at least in a lot of cases) that the finish is putting gas out for a very long time after you get the guitar, and if it's up against the soft material of the stand, then the gas will destabilize the finish as this happens.

This was explained to me as a way of saying there is no finish safe stand and no finish is safe.

Now, this led me to a lot of questions I still don't have answers for, but what I took from that is that it's just best not to leave guitars on stands.

[Lost In Autumn]

Hi All, I've got a beautiful ruby red Ricky 330 arriving tomorrow and I've never owned one before. I was wondering if anyone can give any advice about the finish on them. It's not nitro but, from what little I've gleaned, it seems quite reactive. I mean, will chlorine in guitar stand padding eat into it? Will direct sunlight fade it?

I did a touch-up on a cherry-glow rick last summer. They use a water based poly, as far as I know. I can't say how reactive the finish is, but it is quite thin. After I dyed the nick in the finish to match, i filled it with thin CA glue, as is standard practice, however, it's so thin that every time i tried to level & polish the patch, I'd invariably sand through the adjoining area, using 10,000 grit and polishing compound. as a rule, I'd keep it out of direct sunlight and don't apply chemicals to the finish, but I wouldn't think stand padding would mar the finish

[timiscott]

Thanks again for all the input; it's greatly appreciated. It's ruby red 2014 Rickenbacker so I'm hoping that the finish will have stabilised, if that's even possible: I do poems and social theory, not chemistry! Increasingly, I just do poly too...

[hulakatt]

Aww c'mon, we gotta see some pics of that Ric!