Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Ron, Have you got a body shot of the 3rd one?

Yes, but I have to do it at home, and I won't be home until 8:00 EST tonight.

MB = Montezuma Brown
MID = Midnight Blue (thought that's how RIC refer to the finish)

Ahh, see that? Much variation in MID!

Here is a shot the 610 I posted yesterday but with natural lighing. (I have this one at work.) I croped it to show only the body. This shows how varied the original blue looks in different light. This guitar has some nicks in it. I did not see any silver base showing through but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. I thought that the later ones had the base coat, they seem lighter and somewhat metalic. Obviously from what I've read here I am wrong.

Thanks for posting the photo.

When I was at the Rickenbacker factory, back in late March, I saw a whole passel of Mid-Blues of variouys models in final assembly, getting ready to ship. The color of these was a very bright pearlescent/metallic blue. The closest reference for this old guy is the old '66 Chevrolet/Camaro/Chevelle Marina Blue. They were nothing like the dark 610 above!

To Simplify: The first Midnight Blue was a deep dark non-metallic blue ...The next was
an "electric" metallic medium blue...and now as of just recently it is the same color blue with less of the metallic pearlescent look.

It was never this:

Amen, Keith.

That 610 looks like the same color as my 330.... I think that really deep shade of Midnight was the color before they started using the silver base coat.

Keith, I never said the color was pewter. I said pewter blue.

Paul, that is a very apt description of the newer midnight blues. The color of my 95 4003 (I will post an image of it when I get home) is very similar to Ken's 610 and Melissa's 330, a very dark, non-metallic, almost purple (in certain light) midnight blue. It was the midnight blue that I recognized from the late 80's. When I repaired a dime size ding in the headstock, there was no silver metallic undercoat there.

Wow - this topic seems to have got a few people's backs up!

I remember when my mate got his Les Paul Standard. I asked him why he'd chosen to get a black one and he nearly killed me! "It's ebony you idiot" was his response...

Actually, Dan, your words were "light gunmetal blue". The color that description made me think of was sort of like the Strat above, but with a tinge more blue. I think we all can agree upon the fact that words are vague in describing colors and should be used very carefully.

Can we put this one to bed now?

Robert, (That was funny)

That's been the progression of this thread. All I can say that it was a shade of blue I have not seen on any RIC before.

Paul, I used both descriptions. (checked the archive) Yes, by all means lets put it to rest.