Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

...on the newly reintroduced V63.

DOH!!!

Hey now, I LOVE Sea Green! If anyone wants to get rid of their 'ugly' Sea Green Ricks, just drop me a line. (esp 4003, 620 or 330!) And, I'm warming up to Blue Boy, too...

Anyway, here's my theory about successful Rick colors. Either the colors 1) blend in well with the rich creamy brown of the fretboard, ie Mapleglo, Fireglo, Montezuma Brown; or, 2) create a stark contrast to the rich creamy brown of the fretboard, ie jetglo, white, sea green (he he), etc.

For some reason, I think the blues that RIC has chosen so far tend to neither blend well nor create enough contrast to the fretboard. Desert Gold is similar to Midnight Blue to me in that respect. There's some discordance there that some people like, others don't.

Someone wanted pics of the various blues so I went out & just snapped these. Here is a 2002 Midnight Blue on the 4003s/5 and a 1979 Azureglo on the 360-12/WB. These are very difficult to take accurate pics of but this is reasonably close to the colors in person. Someone else will have to provide an '80s - '90s Midnight Blue.
Cheers,
Bill

Shows what I know - that's one sweet looking bass!

I'd like to see a super dark blue. . . more navy or royal than the current offerings (Although I like these as well)

Perhaps trans red or green as the FOY?

How different is trans red from the burgundy finish? I know buurgundy was at least somewhat transparent.

Second question: Is it possible to get a laguna in a standard finish, now that 650s come in standard finishes?

As promised here are a couple of pics. This is an 87 610. These shots seem to be lighter than the actual guitar. I saw a new 4003MB last week at my local RIC dealer and the new blue is lighter. The other shots I have on my work computer seem more accurate I reduced them to 21KB but I was still at 800+ X 300+ pixels so it wouldn't post. Here are 3 shots the first one is closer in color, lets see how these go.

I once played in LA with a guitarist who had a MB (6-string) 360. I have to admit that I don't care for the black hardware (and I'm going to be tempted to replace the gold hardware on my 4004LK if/when it arrives), but I remember really liking the blue.

Midnight blue is cool.... Here's a shot of my 1989 330 and my 1993 220 side by side.



Notice how different the two shades of blue are--last winter there was a thread on that topic that was really interesting, in which John Hall explained that the difference in color was due to a whole different way of painting them; the newer Midnights were first sprayed with a silver base coat that was a real nuisance to use....

Got da Blues...

MB S/5


MB S/8

If someone wants to see a current model in Midnight Blue, Willies Guitar of St. Paul, Minnesota, has a 330 in MidBlue. Here is the link. I am only a customer of Willies, so there is no sales pressure going on here. I own a 360 in Midnight Blue and love the color (its great for playing the blues!).

http://www.williesguitars.com/Pages/mb330.htm

Melissa, You really captured the color on that 330. It shows off that purplish hue. This color photographs different than it appears, at least to me.

I've only seen one MB Rick in person, and frankly the colour didn't really do it for me....although most of the guitars in the pictures posted here look quite nice. The one I saw (I think it was a 620/6) looked, well, a little "plastic" to my eyes. Now I realize there's a great future in plastics, but I too would like to see a darker (royal or navy) blue - I think this would show off the classic rickenbacker features much more effectively than the current hue. A blue burst (bluesglo?) would be an interesting experiment as well.

The nicest blue I've seen on a rickenbacker is the 370/12 O.S. on Bjorn's site - go to www.rickbeat.com, check to Models section and scroll down to the 370/12 O.S. What a sharp looking guitar!

Ken, yeah, it took me a while to fiddle with the lighting to capture the true colors of both guitars in one photo.... the 330 is so dark that it looks almost black in low lighting, whereas the 220 is very bright and metallic and almost seems to glow from within. Chris, don't even mention blueburst; I would gladly sell half of my Ric collection for one in Blueburst--have you seen the pics of Mary Chapin Carpenter with her blueburst 620/12? It is a gorgeous color. Search for her name under "Rickenbacker Artists," and you should find the photos.

Very nice! I like the black pickguard with white binding and chrome hardware combination that she's sporting as well. That photo's a little grainy, though - I wonder if there are any other photos of her guitar on the web?