Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

sorry..forgot this pick of the harness...

That stain is indeed curious. It is hard to tell for sure from the pics but the finish looks to be original. It looks as though the varnish has reacted with binding or the binding glue.

That staining is due to the absorption of a stain by end grain of the maple. I think that:

1. At sometime in the bass's 36 year history, someone possibly attempted to stain it using a thin, penetrating-type stain. Later on, the bass was stripped. This of course, takes the finish off the wood's surface, but does nothing for the issue of stain inside the wood, which has soaked through from the end-grain.

2. It's even possible, that, depending upon what was used to strip the bass (and it must have been a solvent rather than paint stripper--we all know what paint stripped does to binding!), the wood stain was diluted by the solvent and soaked into the end grain at that time.

3. It's also possible that paint stripper softened the binding, so the binding was removed, guitar solvent-stripped (and stain happened here), and new binding installed.

In any event, there's no question that this bass has seen a lot of finishing activity, mostly amateur and uninformed attempts. The current appearance is evidence of this.

Can the staining be removed? Not with any technology or materials we currently have at our disposal. I'd say, JG, AZ or BG are all appropriate responses to this distress, should restoration even be in the cards.

Now here's some evidence Ted might be right. This is an excerpt, and some pics from web pages a man named Lee McCartney made in regard to a similar bass he had restored:

Looking it over, I see that it has deteriorated somewhat over the years. I noticed a small crack in the wood that wasn't there before and the wood has darkened all around the edges of the bass. There are many other problems with the instrument, some of which were present when I put it away 15 years ago. The chrome has worn off the hardware (some of the hardware has even begun to rust), the mirror backing is coming off the pickguard, and bits and pieces of the original hardware are missing.

Interesting. So there are two with that problem - and from the same year. I have never seen that before. Perhaps in a pinch the factory made some matierial substitutions (glue, finish, whatever) and this is the result.

The finish on my 2002 4003S/5 has reacted badly to the plastic used on one of my guitar stands. Everywhere the stand touched the guitar the finish as yellowed. None of my other Ricks have done that. The sides of the nut are varnished on the 4003S/5. JH says that means it was reworked in the factory for some reason. Maybe the finish was prepared differently or was even a different material.

Congratulations Mark,

Looks like you made out well!

I love a happy ending!

Well, I kinda posted my thing before I saw Paul's comments. The bass is in for set up now...and i'll study it more when I get it back but, for now I will have to bow to his expertise on this...

Maybe one day i'll get a refin...but at that point, I should probably get it re-bound as well...too bad an opaque white wouldn't cover it..I'd go for that...jg,az,bg..they always work too...

Does the finish apper to be original?

rickfan60 wrote:Does the finish appear to be original?

I think so. Again, i'm not an expert, but it didn't appear that the pickguard or trc were ever off, and the solders look orginal(see pic). ...but u never know...

It'll be interesting when this bass sees a confluence to two

I had a friend who used fruniture polish (like Pledge or something) to polish an acoustic guitar he had. It had a similar 'shadow' at he braces and where there was binding and inlay.... hmmmm very curious... but sweet looking bass Marc - congrats. How does it sound?

Nice, Marc! I hope you can bring this to RIO!!! There should be some experts there to assess this finish issue, I think.

ram wrote:I had a friend who used fruniture polish (like Pledge or something) to polish an acoustic guitar he had. It had a similar 'shadow' at he braces and where there was binding and inlay.... hmmmm very curious... but sweet looking bass Marc - congrats. How does it sound?

Your friend likely used something like Johnson's "Pride", which is a petroleum-solvent-based wax mess.

This is end-grain staining, and the last thing RIC would do is substitute simple materials (binding glue) with something else (what?) that would cause this staining. Rick has always used a DIY binding glue that can be made in any shop with two materials: acetone and binding scraps. The binding scraps dissolve in the acetone in a matter of a couple of hours, or overnight if you wish. Mixed up, this stuff is invisible, as it's white and the same color as the binding being applied. No chance of it discoloring the maple like this.

What are the odds of 2 '72 MG 4001s having been stained and then refined in the same way? I am not convinced the wood itself is stained. Of course I don't have the instrument in front of me.

There's definitely a stain in the wood. Only question is, what caused it?

I thought we covered that...