Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Marc, congratulations, I am glad you can finally rest easy with this one. I could tell it was really weighing on your mind.

Paul, I think a lot of where this comes from in terms of the "re-fin mentality" is that the quality of the re-fin rarely (except in the case of craftsmen like you and Dale and others here) near the quality of the original finish. Face it, for every awesome refin done, there are 200 that use a spray can or a roller, one of those was my old '67 Gibson EB3 (yes, the guy used a ROLLER).
This devalues the "refin" in the eyes of the collector. The more of the quality refins we have and the less of the spray jobs, the opinions might start to change.

Now using a roller on a Roller....Now there is something that would bring tears to Paul's eyes.

Just more paint and cars in the same thread...

The whole refine thing As I keep saying over and over in this thread something is only factory or original once...................................

No matter what the condition,People want to have something just the way it left the factory 20,30 or 40 years or even a hundred or hundreds of years before.Thats the whole deal.....Once refined its not factory original ever again.

Hey Ken, what happened with your refin '72 MG you had briefly on eBay? Someone snap it up?

I noticed that went rather quickly...

Steve, exactly the point I was trying to make.

Back in the '70s my partner bought a Bugatti (yup, cars again) out of a barn in Iowa, which had been painted with a roller and had a set of Pep Boys type foglights fitted to the front bumper. Inside was every gauge known to man and three aftermarket stick-on ashtrays. $37K was the price then. Now the car is worth $1.5 million+, but of course after market appreciation and a restoration costing $300K. Still a good profit, IMO.

There is an enormous and quite tangible difference between amateur (however good-intentioned) restoration work and professional. It is also true that as long as there are hobbyists longing to become pros or to represent themselves as such, the gulf remains great and armchair mechanics and luthiers continue to proliferate. This is helped in no small degree by companies such as ReRanch and StewMac selling amateur refinish materials in spray cans alongside tools and materials that are professional in quality.

The good news is that, due to the explosion of the guitar market and number of serious players out there, there is a corresponding growth in luthiery as a career. But at least for another decade, care needs to be taken in selecting a luthier or finisher to work on your most precious instruments, lest a tyro get to practice his/her beginning skills on your Rickenbacker.

The 72 went with a buy it now of $3200.that one was an exeption to the rule the finish was original when I got it,it was so tinted checked and banged up you could hardly see how beautiful the wood underneath was.