Thanks, Peter. Again, no offense intended, and I certainly do not want to come of as the kind of customer who serially attacks businesses and their representatives for no good reason. My stake in this issue is find out before I buy a new instrument a) how serious this issue is when it occurs; b) how widespread it is in recent production Rickenbackers; c) what causes the problem; and d) how Rickenbacker chooses to deal with the problem. The answers to these questions at this point seem to be: a) pretty serious--the green haze does not polish out, but needs to be sanded off; b) hard to say, but between this and another thread, plus a couple of dealers that I've spoken to in my search for a new Rickenbacker who have returned instruments with similar finish issues, it is at the very least not an isolated incident; c) also hard to say, but long term storage in the case seems to be a factor in each instance; and d) so far so good--Ric seems to be stepping up as soon as the issue comes to light on particular instruments, and once it becomes clear that the customer is not comfortable remedying the issue at home.
I know I'd be heartbroken if I ordered a beautiful mapleglo or fireglo Ric, only to open the case to find this marring of the finish. If the issue has to do with the case lining and the guitar's finish reacting somehow, I would also be concerned that wet sanding would not solve the underlying issue. Fortunately RIC is not the kind of company to leave you out in the cold on an issue like this, so that is some reassurance as I move forward with my shopping.
Thanks for the welcome, all, and hopefully my future posts won't deal with quite so contentious an issue! I really am a nice guy! REALLY!
