Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Wouldn't half mind adding that one 4003 to my arsenal, John. Welcome aboard.

The finish on ricks can be harmed by rubber tho. My white 4003 has finish damage (not caused by me its a used bass) where the headstock flares out either side of the nut. It was caused by the rubber tubing of a wall hanger. There are orange imprints there.

I do like wall hangers tho, i wraped th erubber on mine with cotton to stop it happening

Welcome Marc and Jack. It is always nice to meet new folks who have an interest in Rickenbackers.

My preference of material for guitar stands is surgical rubber. As it turns out, however, I am meeting an increasing number of people these days who are allergic to the latex used in this rubber.

Welome Marc & Jack to the proud family of Rick owners! Jack, I use the exact same stand as you do. Although I never experienced any problems, not willing to take a chance, I covered the rubber parts with the same type material found in guitar cases. I have some pics posted under the Pic thread, if you closely you will see it. My basses actually love the softness!

cheers

Yes it's a very good idea indeed to cover all parts that get to touch the instrument. I covered my tubing parts with red or blue cotton tennis racket handle wrappers and finish off the tips with red cotton clothes so there's no sharp edges to threat.



Hey welcome to the family, Jack.

RIC uses a finish material/process called "Conversion Varnish" which is quite thin and flexible that allows the instrument to breathe.

Here's some quotes from Mr. Hall regarding "The Finish":
(courtesy of The Registration Page)
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1998/09/30

Everyone refers to "the finish", as if it is only one material; it consists of a number of sealer coats, followed by color coats, and then clear coats. Each material is different and various fourmulations have been used through the years. Nitrocellulose has never been used as a clear coat here, only for some color coats. Nitro shoots well but is a poor final finish coat as it will absorb moisture and turn milky, among other things. In the 60's, our material of choice was a catalyzed synthetic resin, more in the varnish family than anything else. It is no longer available since it had the same regulatory problem as nitrocellose: a very high VOC (solvent) level which is now banned in most areas.
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1999/09/29

Our use of nitrocellulose was stopped in the late 1950's, replaced by the current conversion varnish system. Originally it was based on the Fuller system, later the Sherwin-Williams base formulation. More recently, Lawrence-McFadden has supplied raw material. (We blend the base material with other components to bring it up to our specs.) Some nitro was used in sealer coats for part of one year in the early 80's, mainly as part of a test, but other than that has NOT been used for a very long time.
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Thanks to all for the warm welcome and the great info on finishes and stand coverings. I looked for tennis racket handle wraps, but only found the thin tacky gauze type so far. I'll keep looking.

In the Ric catalogues it states to be careful with white, maplglo and othe similar light colored finishes as they can absorb dyes and stuff like that, I found out the hard way with a white and a mapleglo, with two new shirts on hot sweaty nights. The dyes went into the finish never to come out again. I'm sure it happens with all colors but is only visible on the lighter colors.