Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

yeah! NOTHING YELLOWS GUITAR LIKE BARF... but seriously it will yellow slowly, good case is clean mapleglo on 370/12rm guitars - they are about as yelow as sixties instruments by now ...maybe even bit more. and the smoke doesn't make much difference if you keep the guitar clean. something like ten years from now all the 2k mapleglo ricks will be aged. i am guessing that all those rapidly aged will be orange by then.

Tasty...

Even my '03 650S has aged, and it's an oiled finish! You can see a definite color difference in the Walnut with the pickguard removed.

beatlefreak wrote:Even my '03 650S has aged, and it's an oiled finish! You can see a definite color difference in the Walnut with the pickguard removed.

Especially so, as there are no UV inhibitors in oil finishes.

Are there UV inhibitors in Rickenbacker finishes?

dean712 wrote:Are there UV inhibitors in Rickenbacker finishes?

Seems so, since the late '70ies/early '80ies as these FG don't yellow any more.

Re: yellowing - You guys should check out page one of this very thread.

I think there are some inhibitors in the gloss finish, but none in the oils. The gloss finish still yellows over the years, but not as quick as an oil finish.

heinpete wrote:

dean712 wrote:Are there UV inhibitors in Rickenbacker finishes?

Seems so, since the late '70ies/early '80ies as these FG don't yellow any more.

I've got an '83 with the most gorgeous aged brown/red/amber FG you've ever seen...

Mr. Jayw,
Regarding "yellowing," and as per another post, I just acquired an '88 Mapleglo 330, which is definitely deserves the acquired name of "Goldenglo." The first thing I noticed after it's trip from the bars of Houston to my living room in Dallas was upon opening the case. I am not cigarette smoker, and I will not castigate those who choose the habit, but the overpowering aroma of smoke permeated my living room upon immediate first glance. The golden hue and abounding smell of smoke was wonderful and took me back through what was undoubtedly 20 years of bar-room battles. I loved it. To reiterate, I not a fan of cigarette smoke myself, but I wonder if it could be a necessary ingredient to the aging process. Other forum brothers I'm sure, could offer further assistance...

Paul: I also suspect that rubber grommets and pads react with the finish and produce yellowing as well.

I believe it's the lamp black use to color the rubber, migrating into the CV, Peter. And it ends up closer to orange!

jingle_jangle wrote:Especially so, as there are no UV inhibitors in oil finishes.

I read this and immediately thought that can't be right. So I was very surprised, upon reading the product datasheet, that this is entirely true. Anyway, I personally think the oil finishes look prettty nice after aging a bit.

I worked in an art restoration studio for many years. The dog-pee remark was not far off from some of the aging techniques we used
But you can't beat Mother Nature. Here's my anomalous '76-'77 4001 coming into her golden years. The pictures are close, but a little less orange than the real thing by my monitor. Deep yellowing looks strange to me without the accompanying finish checking, which mine has plenty of Can one artificially cause natural looking checking? I could fake it but I can't cause it, as far as I know.

kiramdear wrote:Can one artificially cause natural looking checking?

That would fit right in with Paul's Oxymoron thread: artificially natural!

like Genuine Naugahyde?