Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Interesting comments, Roger. You mention the color shadings between batches varying, and discuss how different painters possibly worked on successive batches. But RIC is a small, family owned business. As far as I know, they only have two sprayers.

Great comments..Actually the differences can be attributed to nearly all the reasons stated by Roger and John..Painters have indeed changed here,but also being human,there will be minor differences in the same painter's finishes..As Roger alluded to,the shading sometimes is changed slightly to accomodate strange woodgrains,mineral spots etc. This is left to the discretion of the painter in most cases.

Of course the changes in air quality regs have played no small part in how finishes will look too.When forced to change to a new material,it becomes an experimental process,sometimes successful,sometimes not.We recently changed the FG a bit in order to improve and smooth out the "blending" from the outer edges to the middle,hopefully to the satisfaction of the people recieving their instruments.

There most certainly is a picture in the spray booth that the painters are supposed to use as a general guide,but unless we can have George's actual guitar (is that asking too much?),and the same paint that it was sprayed with (maybe even the same painter!),then it's never going to be exactly the same..We try to get it as close as we can with the resources available to us.

Kris,we have 3 sprayers.

I have watched RIC's painters work, and I'm amazed at their strength and coordination, especially when painting bursts. They typically nail the edge blends with one or two passes around the guitar, while holding a spray gun in one hand and an eight-pound guitar at arm's length in the other. And they do this all day long, five or six days a week!

OTOH, it takes about 20 minutes per side of each guitar that I paint to get the smooth blend between colors that observers have commented on, and about an hour in the booth per guitar to get the colors and blends to my satisfaction. This is on a single-color blend like FG or Aquaglo. Two-color blends take a bit longer, and the 5-color blend paint job on my '60 Capri spent an entire day in the booth for color alone.

RIC does not have this luxury, or their guitars and basses would be priced out of sight.

Eric & Paul,
Thanks, you guys rock...and paint!

Paint on !!!! Excellent posts Paul & Eric

The fireglo on the 330 I just got is pretty amazing. It also has the nice areas on the side of the body where it's not just red, it's a burst there too.

Any pics, John?

Going back to an earlier post, here are the three 1996 AFG models from another angle. The top and center ones have consecutive serial numbers from October 2005. The one in the center is the 1996 AFG that was actually displayed at NAMM.

The bottom one has a May 2006 serial number but my dealer received it in late August. You can also see the difference in the shading on the edges in this photo.

Hmm, the newest one looks the most amber-looking out of that bunch...at least on my screen it seems that way.

John, that is very true.

With the "ambered" clear coat on the newer one, the frets look like they are solid gold.

Wow! You guys really got into this paint thing. Nice. Well, the 360c63/12 Pink Panther arrived on Thursday and I made a few pix for fun. I really love how it plays and handles, especially through my Janglebox. Anyone like to hazard a guess as to which chord I played first after tuning it up?
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/orangejay47/ricc632.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/orangejay47/ricc631.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/orangejay47/ricc63.jpg

Jay - that is one pretty guitar. That woodgrain is classy.

Nice one, Jay!! Congrats.

Jerry's right, that woodgrain is superb.

Yeah, it does play like a dream. Congrats!

Thanks, guys. I am very excited and grateful to own one, even with the pinkglo. I can still remember going to see A Hard Day's Night when it first came out and getting introduced to George's 12 string. It was love at first sight, but I would have never thought that 40 years later I would still be excited about it, not to mention own one like it. When I add my Janglebox and Chorus pedals it really makes it hard to put it down.