Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Thanks for the clarification, John! I could have sworn I read here once that "Burgundyglo" never existed. Now i know.

Yeah, I thought it said "Bglo" or something similar in pencil inside my 72, but I'm at work and couldn't check. I asked on the Rick site about it, and Ric&Vox pointed me to the History Tab, Literature, 1968, and it shows the color as Burgundy-Glo.

Okay, but this brings on many questions, doesn't it? What is a Glo? On my 72 Burgundyglo, I see the grain of the wood through the finish. Is it the same with a Jetglo? So maybe it has to do with opacity?

I recall Walnutglo too. The term was used by my local Rick dealer back then. The first time I posted a pic of my 4002 here, I called the color Walnutglo and was immediately chastised for it. I agree John, the term Walnutglo was being used. I don't know if RIC ever called it that but the name certainly gained currency with the RIC at the time.

Yes, sometimes walnut was applied as a burst and sometimes as a solid color. I hear tell that some RIC staffers at the time called it baby s**t brown!

Burgandy, so I was told, is the same red pigment as FG with a little black added for depth.

I don't know if RIC ever trademarked "xxxxGlo" for its colors, but as far as consistency goes, it seems only Fireglo, Jetglo, and Mapleglo are unquestioned. I'm not sure about "Azureglo" or "Burgundyglo." I don't know if some new finish process brought about the use of the term "-Glo" but whatever, it wasn't applied to all the colors at any particular time, it seems. There may have been some unwritten custom of applying "-Glo" to short color names for a while (?). Something like "Midnight Blueglo" just wouldn't roll off the tongue, but "Rubyglo" would, eh?

Here's what I can confirm from reading the official 1968 literature from Ric:

Fireglo
Burgundyglo
Mapleglo
Jetglo
Azureglo

These are for sure. The others, Idunno.

Okay, and from the 1958 literature:

Autumnglow
Fireglow

See, "w" was a 50's thing. The 60's did away with all that.

Come to think of it, "W" will also be done away with in 2008.

I was sold a 4003 as 'Rubyglo' back in the late 80's.It was the same finish as this 360 thats just popped up on Ebay :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150075289606&fromMakeTrack=true

Wish I still had it

Another rare color ... Ruby ...

LOVE that Ruby!

I had a Ruby 4003 just like Jared's, I wish I didn't sell it.

I think that calling a certain color "rare" also depends on the model on which it is applied. There was a Turquoise V63 in Japan, I'd say it is very rare. And Jetglo is a rare color for a 4001C64. We've seen many 3001's in Walnut, so for a 3001 and 4002 I wouldn't call the color rare, but a Walnut 4001 certainly is.

You can also add the Amber Mapleglo 4003 that was for sale recently as a very rare factory color.

YES!..mine was exactly like that Jared.But I traded it in for a Fender Precision. D'oh!

The "-glo" suffix (first used with "Jetglo") means "gloss", as in Jet Black gloss". It has nothing to do with opacity. It just grew as a term, organically, to encompass a whole range of both transparent, opaque, and burst finishes.

How a gloss appellation came to be applied to "Autumnglo" if Autumnglo is, in fact, matte, is beyond me. And I've seen--and painted--plenty of shiny Autumnglo guitars and basses. Should I be calling them "walnut"?

The gloss finishes as a catagory were called "Colorglo" finishes, and their variants were Fireglo, Jetglo etc.....

"Glow"(with a W) was still used in the price sheets as late as 1966, but it was "glo" by the time the 1968 catalog was printed.

Autumnglo takes on a nice high gloss where it is regularly touched. The neck of my '80 4001 is quite shiny now. Just looking at the back of the neck, it would be hard to tell it from Walnut