Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Interesting.... So, was the silver undercoat used on other models beside the 220, in combination with other colors as well? I really like the bright, shimmery "glo!"

Melissa: It was also used as the undercoat for the Ruby(another beautiful Rickenbacker finish), if I am not mistaken. From John Hall's comments it might have even made a few guest appearances on other finishes over the years. What a headache it must have been to deal with this contamination.

The silver basecoat was used as the basis for Silver, Ruby, and Midnight. The newer silica-based material started with turquoise (although some silver undercoat units were tested, as I recall), replaced Midnight, and was used on the Desert Gold.

The metallic silver was such a pain that we had to designate one Saturday a month as "overtime silver day", remove all other instruments from the entire finish department, and place plastic covers over any unpacked guitars. Even then it showed up on other instruments from time to time.

This was in spite of the tremendous airflows we get and electrostatic collectors. If all our finishes were metallic, it wouldn't matter.

Hey John, is there any chance I could have RIC refinish an '89 230 that I have and if so, what might the wait be? It was red originally, but someone refinished it in black, and neglected to take off the red, so now theres tons of paint on it, and its cracking from all the paint. I could refinish it myself, but it would take me quite awhile to do it, and I would have to use nitro, whereas I assume RIC uses something much better? Thanks!

Wow, it sounds like the silver base was a real pain to use, although the end result is certainly great-looking! Thanks for all the info, John.