De-Lacquering your fretboard

[s4001]

I had a 4003S with a stripped board. Loved the bass, but the stripping was significantly inferior to having it finished.

[sowhat]

Well, i never liked nail painting and in fact never used it. Not sure if it helped my... mean, that grey thing in my head.

[rictified]

When I was a 16 YO kid I worked in a rubber factory where we had 55 gallon drums of pure Toluene to use as a solvent. It was good for other things also, talk about dirigible drain bramage.
Whether you want to leave your neck finished or not is a decision only you can make, I had a positive experience it is still my bass sounding Ric bass, Scott had a negative experience.

[fenderslash]

I gigged with a couple of 330s for about a year and a half, and although I loved the sound I had problems with the thickness of the fretboard lacquer. My rhythm guitar style is kinda Georgia Satellites meets Rolling Stones, and while playing rhythm the guitar was perfectly fine, and I would say that anyone who plays rhythm predominantly would have no real problems with the fretboard. But when I play lead I bend the strings a LOT, and I found that there wasn't enough space between the lacquer and the top of the fretwire to get the "grip" I needed on the strings. I could do it, but I felt like I was always fighting the guitars, especially one of them which felt practically fretless! Whenever I lost the fight there were muted strings instead of clean bends which was embarrassing at times.

A few months ago I felt that after a year and a half of exclusively gigging with the Rics I had given myself plenty of time to adapt, and if I was still having to fight the guitar after all that time then it wasn't going to get any better. I went back to my old love and bought myself a new Tele (a '62 style Japanese model), and even with the Tele's vintage fretwire the ease of playing lead was like night and day compared to my 330s and the playing became so much more enjoyable.

But I miss gigging with the Rics. I love the look of them and I love their High-Gain sound with some crunch to it. Well before discovering this thread I have often wondered if stripping the fretboard would be the answer to my problem. So I've just been keenly reading the various opinions and technical advice to decide whether it would be worth giving it a go, accepting the fact that I'll detroy any commercial/collectible value in the guitar in exchange for a more practical gigging instrument. I have to admit that due to my total lack of experience in this area I'm really hesitant to do a DIY job on such a lovely instrument.

[beatlefreak]

If you were to have it done, it would be best for a knowledgeable expert like Paul or Dale do it, IMO.

[paologregorio]

If some players don't like the lacquer layered at the edges of the frets, couldn't a Rick be refretted with the full width taller frets the way that lacquered maple neck Fenders are?

I don't worry so much about slight and reversible mods such as switching out fret types, and I don't think that someone new to Rickenbackers would either. I have five of them already and it wouldn't matter to me if the frets were different from the originals, so ong as the refret was done nicely. I wouldn't want the lacquer removed thoughI like the fell of the lacquered fretboard.

Frets are something that evenutally need to be replaced on any guitar that's played for any length of time, however babied. All Rickenbackers don't have the same fret height(or the same fretboard radius for that matter) anyway-it all depends on the era in which they were built. If someone who's never had one wants a Rick because of the way they look and sound, and they pick one up that's still lacquered but has taller frets, are they even going to care? I know I wouldn't. It would be more familiar feel-wise to the player.

[rickenmetal]

I don't know why anyone would want that. I actually put lacquer on my cheap Danelectro's fretboard and it feels way better (after I sanded the lacquer off the frets of course) even though it looks cheap the way I did it, only the body is too small and I wish it was 330 size. I need more tools to fix that though.

I would personally like laquer on the fretboards of all guitars, Gibsons and rosewood Fenders included.

[heinpete]

Eureka! By all means leave that neck finished and avoid the risk of acetone-related brain damage. Also please strenuously entreat any female who may be in or even near your life do her nails under a fume hood (like under the kitchen range's exhaust fan) or outside the house - and stay there until they dry and no more polish-smell can be detected. Even that small amount of acetone in the polish remover and in the polish itself, when breathed in enclosed spaces, will scrambled-egg her neurons in short order. It is one of the greatest health hazards in the home, and one that is largely ignored by millions of men and women around the world daily.

Elys, you're quite right. In University lab we used Acetone as a mutagenic for our experiments on yeast strains quite efficiently!

[ajish4]

I had a 4003S with a stripped board. Loved the bass, but the stripping was significantly inferior to having it finished.

My 84 4003S Alemric came with the board stripped. I plan on having it sprayed one of these days. Someone also changed out the frets. I'll have them replaced one of these days as well. I don't like it as much as the finished necks I own.