Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Great pic Jeff, you took that one to the limit.
Also great look at the metallic-ness of the finish.

I wonder what a black sparkle metallic finish would look like on a 4004....hmmm...

Seems the 4003 DCM was the quickest to sell out even without the CB.

RIC knows is customers really well imho.

Thanks Mark! I finally had some time to take the guitar to my studio for a "portrait" session.

Yea, there was no doubt in my mind that they were going to sell everyone that was made, especially with only 75 units offered and all the hype on the forum. I was actually pretty relieved when they didn't do the CB on the DCM, it was around that time that I realized I liked 4004's better.

Dang, Jeff, that "Exhibit A" looks sooooo sweet.... Sigh.....

I just finished doing a batch of checkerboard bindings on a guitar and three basses...I'm checkerboarded out. But not out of checkerboard...

Anyway, I'm fresh on the process (not that I get stale, you unnerstan').

To carry the CB around a sharp corner (like Exhibit "A") is not really a big deal. When I CB bind an instrument, I first "temper" the CB by flexing it and drawing it over one finger while holding it between the thumb and that finger and pulling it against its direction of curvature. Do this a few times and it softens nicely, thank you.

When I bind, I do the entire instrument cold, but the sharp wrap area gets heated to the point of distortion using a heat gun, and then it's pulled gently around the corner and held until it cools. Only after this do I apply cement compound and proceed with the balance of the binding length.

The CB is done first and allowed to dry overnight, minimum. Then the white outer binding is applied.

Now, look closely at Exhibit "A". Can you see that, although the DCM paint shows a sharp corner, the CB has a slight radius? This is because the wooden body also has a very small radius at that point, and the CB is wrapped, not butted. If two pieces of CB were butted, the corner could be absolutely sharp, but it would take twice as long due to drying time.

Then the outer binding is applied and hand-finished. I've found both butted and wrapped corners. It depends upon the vintage and type of instrument. Exhibit "A" looks butted, which is interesting. This gives a sharp corner on top of a rounded corner, meaning that there's a little air space that must be filled. I use a thick paste that I mix up out of celluloid shavings and acetone. It's just a thicker version of the cement used to glue the binding onto the instrument.

Then the whole mess--and it does look messy until it's scraped--is carefully levelled by scraping with a sharp steel.

When the color is applied to the guitar, the broad edge of the binding is masked off with special tape, while the face or back sides (the sides showing the exposed CB) is scraped after painting and before varnishing, by hand, using a fresh single-edged razor blade. This takes some practice, as a slipup means a spoiled paint job!

When a corner like this is scraped, the scraped painted edge can be "cheated" a bit by scraping it sharp, fooling the eye into thinking it's looking at a sharp edge, when in fact it's seeing a painted radius.

Wow, what an explanation! Even I understood the process.

Painstaking is the word that comes to mind........


Thank you sir!

DCM

DAMN

Exhibit "B":



Compare and contrast with Exhibit "A".

Very nice, and would have looked just as nice on the 4003-DCM, oh well !!

Oh, so you like DCM now, do you?

Absolutely, I've a 4003-DCM on order, not Fireglo, but a close second, as is that Eggplant one that Paul has.

Mink.

I apologize, but I've forgotten the origin of the 'Mink' moniker...

"Mink" is the finish of Paul Boyer's '72 4001.