Questions for 4004 owners

[woodyng]

i love that trans green cii! there is a really fancy looking tg on the ric website from the namm show-as well,all of the colors displayed there are fantastic....

[woodyng]

i just remembered i missed an opportunity to post another pic of my cii.......

[rickfan60]

1) I am not so sure they are actually unfinished. Some may well be but the ones I have seen that are not glossy appear to have a thin matte finish - perhaps sealer?

2) I am pretty sure the Laredo is the same as the Cheyenne in that regard.

3) The pickups were shifted south apparently to accommodate slap-n-pop play. It was just for a short time around 2000. The problem with moving them (Jeff Scott knows) is that the truss rods become nearly impossible to service. The neck pickup route placed right at the end of the neck allows the rods to be easily removed by first removing the pickup.

4) I have seen a similar one in gloss MG so there are probably others.

[incubus2432]

'03 MG Cii.....finished fretboard
'05 JetGlo Laredo.....finished fretboard
'05 Trans Green Cii.....unfinished fretboard

[nukebass]

I'm sure mine is the same as yours, Paul. However, when they list them as being unfinished, I didn't realize the sides would be finished and the tops unfinished. I had assumed the whole board would be unfinished. It makes for a smoother feel on the sides of the neck, in my opinion.

[bassduke49]

On the question of finished/unfinished fretboards, Ben Hall mentioned in the "At Last" thread:

"Paul, the fretboard is not laquered as specified by our catalog. It should, however, have the UV wood filler on it though!"

I can't find anything in the "catalog" (the big folded two-sided thing) that mentions that, and nothing on the company website. Am I missing something? I wonder if "UV wood filler" is the same as a sealer?

[johnhall]

It's unfinished in the sense that it has no clear coat like so many of our other instruments, but it is filled/sealed to keep dirt and moisture out of the pores.

I think it would be hard to find any completely unfinished fretboard on any fretted instrument, as even the slightest touch on any kind of oil is acting as a sealer.

[bassduke49]

Thanks, John. Was the change from varnished to unvarnished fretboard a gradual one? It seems from the respondents that there was a time overlap. I assume all current ones are unvarnished.

[robj]

Both my '98 Cheyenne and '99 C-ii have "unfinished" fretboards.