Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I was wondering about the nature of the binding on a bound Ric 4003 fretboard: is it painted on, or is it an inlay of binding material, as on a bound body? I'm curious about this, because I want to know how stripping the paint & finish off a bound 4003 neck would affect the binding. BTW, doesn't the factory do a brilliant job on that binding!

Brilliant ....in what way ?

Yes it is installed , they do better adhesion than say ......Guild .

What it is , is this .........there is a ledge cut into the fretboard side and a strip of white secret plastic is melted into the grain of the wood.
When I worked there we had a soup can full of acetone and one soup can full of chunks of binding with some acetone , making a white goop .This stuff was used to melt/blend the seams together .

I never use paint stripper on guitars ......I did twenty years ago , but now I use other things .

If you want to turn a 'Fireglo' into a mapleglo (aka Natural) then do not use stripper .Stripper melts the colorants and 'pushes' those particulates into the pours of the wood.You will NEVER get them all out .And it won't be just a few .

I have posted on this subject before .Check the back posts for some info .....if you can't find what you need ,......ask me again.

And the brilliant thing is not the installation , but rather the touch of the binding scapers .They are doing a "tterrifficc" job !

The "secret" is out! the binding is an ABS
extruded plastic.

Not all of the binding on the 4003 is well done! I had to have the neck redone on my '87 4003/8FL after the binding started to come loose, break into ½" long sections, and fall out. I didn't want to send my guitar back to the factory to have this redone, and the company wouldn't tell my tech what to use. So he improvised some new binding and did such a fantastic job it's about impossible to tell it's been replaced. Every time I see him he tells me he should have charged me double for such a time-consuming job!

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