Behind The Times

admin · Post by **admin** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:45 pm

It seems as if I am behind the times once again. I was in a local music store on Saturday, sadly not a Rickenbacker in sight.

To my surprise I noticed an artist series Fender with a maple fretboard that was lacquered. Taking a page from Rickenbacker's book so to speak. So how long have Fender been producing instruments with a lacquered board?

winston · Post by **winston** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:18 pm

My 71 Strat has a lacquered maple neck and fretboard. It was like that when I bought it and it looks like it is the original finish.

To be fair though, my Strat had a number of custom shop items installed on it. The guard the gold hardware and the tuners were all Fender custom shop add ons.

So it is conceivable that my guitar was either a custom shop job or the original owner upgraded the hardware. But the main thing is that the neck appears to be a factory finish.

admin · Post by **admin** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:37 pm

Thanks Brian, it is not as bad as I thought, only 34 years behind.

winston · Post by **winston** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 5:00 pm

Peter, I don't think that Fender guitars with a lacquered neck are very common.

I have 9 Strats and four of them have maple necks. Only my 71 has a lacquered finish on the fretboard.

mikeylc · Post by **mikeylc** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 6:28 pm

Peter when you say lacquered do you mean finshed? Fender and most manufacturers put some sort of clear coat on their maple fretboards. Maple absorbs finger oils and gets those ugly gray/black stains when it is not finished. The older vintage stuff that has those stains was more than likely finished in a thin coat of nitro. Since it's thin it has worn down over the years from playing. Fender changed from finishing their necks in nitro to poly around '68. If a Fender has actual nitro lacquer or acylic lacquer for that matter it was probably a refin or custom shop. Fender did not finish their rosewood FB as a regular practice.

admin · Post by **admin** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 6:50 pm

Thanks Mike. The new maple-necked Fender I saw was lacquered with a high gloss finish reminiscent of the appearance of the Rickenbacker finish.

admin · Post by **admin** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 4:07 am

It seems that the instrument I saw was from the Fender American Vintage Series. I guess these lacquered maple fretboards were produced in 1957 and have been around all along.

mikeylc · Post by **mikeylc** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:12 am

The real lacquered boards have a lot more gloss than the poly boards. The current American Standards have a satin finish. My 71 P has a poly board with a nitro headstock. Fender seemed to change finishes and processes a lot. RIC has very consistent throughout the years.

admin · Post by **admin** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 6:19 am

I agree the RIC fretboard finishing is great. It does seem a little thinner on my 1966 450/12 than on my more recent Rickenbackers though.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:13 pm

Fender makes a SoCal Speed Shop Strat that has a painted fretboard:

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:29 pm

Peter, the fretboard finish thickness (and hence, appearance!) has changed as conversion varnishes with more body have come on line, so to speak.

Earlier guitars which I have worked on do have thinner varnish coatings; recent guitars have thicker, and once again the dividing line seems to be early 1980s. My '81 320 had thin varnish on the fretboard, and some from '83 that I looked at, had a thicker varnish.

Recent Rickenbacker instruments have a buildup of varnish on both sides of the frets, so whenever I refinish one nowadays, I spray the fretboard twice; once by itself with the rest of the guitar masked off, suspended upside down, so the varnish settles on the upside of the frets, then, after a day's cure time, I remove the masking and lightly scuff the fretboard, tack cloth the entire guitar and give it its standard double wet coat of varnish, suspended from the headstock. This allows the varnish to settle on the downsides of the frets, giving the fretboard its characteristic "double meniscus" appearance. Then after several days' more cure an shrinkdown time, the frets are levelled.

BTW, my '83 ES-16 (Electro) has a thinner coat of varnish on the entire instrument, and apparently received no color-sanding of the clearcoat, nor did it seem to be hand-buffed. This makes sense, as this was a "student" line of instruments.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:10 pm

You might be interested to know that since the beginning of July, the thickness has been cut back tremendously. It's now thinner than perhaps it's ever been. This coincides with the use of a new conversion varnish formula.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:38 pm

John Hall and I discussed the new varnish last March, as he was just testing the new varnish for durability with regards to temperature extremes and moisture resistance. We reviewed the samples, which had passed with flying colors. The major advantage of the new varnish is that it has a much lower VOC than the old, and removes one roadblock to RIC increasing their annual production of instruments.

Notice I say "one roadblock". Rickenbacker will still not compromise quality in order to "get caught up" on orders, but at least the yearly cap on production has found relief, for now.

Great news!

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:59 am

The new formula also has just the slightest tint of yellow which warms up the colors, especially the Fireglo. It also smells quite nice!

It's tough too. During testing it went through three forced rapid heat-cool cycles, from 250 down to -10 degrees in 36 hours with no signs of degradation. The wood wasn't happy about it though!

The downside that were wrestling with right now is that it's very difficult to shoot in weather above 90 degrees, an obvious problem in So. California. Without great care, it can flash off too quickly, leaving micro-bubbles behind.

The material primarily swaps acetone for lacquer solvents. That makes it a much more friendly material not only for the environment but also the workers, but acetone can evaporate too quickly without care.

britye · Post by **britye** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:34 am

we called that solvent pop in the collision industry, nasty situation indeed