Bassic Colors No. 18 – What was old is new - Amber Fireglo

[bassduke49]

The last official "Color of the Year" was available to order in 2006; Amber Fireglo. This purposely aged version of Fireglo proved to be the most popular in the COY program. An amber-tinted clear coat is the trick, applied so that the attractive Fireglo finish looks yellowed by time and exposure. Neat and attractive to many, Amber Fireglo was applied to 4003, 4004L, and 4004Cii basses; I have not found any C64 basses that received this color, and officially they would not have - but then there are Jetglo C64 and C64S' out there, and even at least one Fireglo C64S which are not offered in catalog or price-list descriptions.

Amber Fireglo, although available for order in 2006, eventually was still being produced for several years after due to backlog in fulfilling orders. The backlog and RIC's efforts to reduce it, put the COY program on hiatus; there was no COY for 2007, but that wasn't the end of "new" colors on Rick basses. Tune in next week for more, but for now, let's enjoy the warmth of Amber Fireglo. Discuss and post pictures of Amber Fireglo basses. Here's mine, a 2007 build 4003:

[thx1955]

Gorgeous, my second favourite Fireglo !!!

[woodyng]

a great looking color,i especially like it on the cii's-very complimentary to the gold hardware....also really love the amber tinted binding on the 4003's.....

[fatcat]

My 2nd favourite COY behind MB.The 4003 has flats on it, and I'm tempted to take it out to jobs.But I'd hate for it to get marred.
Now if they will EVER make my long ago ordered AFG 381-12...............

[s4001]

I'd love to see AFG with white, un-ambered binding.

[cassius987]

When I showed Scott Pope (iiipopes) my 2007 4003 AFG, he immediately got out an old 330 or 360--I don't recall which--that was from the 1970s. "They're exactly the same," he remarked. It really was stunning how alike the two finishes looked, even down to the binding.

I like the yellowed binding a lot better than the way white binding looks with normal FG--too harsh of a contrast for me. The only color I like white binding with very much is MG... so I'm really grateful that both of my FGs ended up having that extra A bit as well (it was never planned on my part, really).

[libratune]

I agree that the yellowed binding/fretboard markers on the AFG models can be a bit much -- yellow turning to orange. Some examples:

4003 AFG

360 AFG

[jingle_jangle]

Ambering needs to be handled with sensitivity. I've seen only a couple as overdone as the example you're showing, Ron. Over the old poured inlays, it actually looks pea-soup green. I suppose over the new ones it'd look like an ancient Egyptian bowling ball...

Like I tell my students when they're hyperventilating, eyes popping out of their heads, getting ready to paint their very first 1/5 scale car model---Don't let the spray gun get ahead of you--turn down the fluid needle until you're in control.

[cjj]

Here's my July 2008 4003FL:

[s4001]

That FL looks nice. Not too heavily yellowed.

[johnallg]

Nice bass, CJ, but they forgot to put the frets on that one... You "got took".

[cjj]

Dang it! They even got me to pay extra 'cause they said it was really rare that one would get through RIC's world class quality control department that way...