Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello everyone. I am new here. I just bought my first Rickenbacker. A beautiful Nov 1995 Fireglow 330 that has a tiny nick on the leading of the lower bout. It is only about 2 mm, but it is to the exposed wood. It can't be seen unless you lift up the guitar but it bugs me.
Must I have it repaired by a pro, Should I leave it alone or touch it up myself? I was going to put on a tiny drop of matched transparent stain ,followed by a tiny drop of clear polyurethane. this as opposed to trying to rework the area. It is in the area of the orange/red, on the verge of moving into the yellow tone. Minwax has a color transparent stain color called Fruitpunch that looks identical. Thank you for any advice. I was told that you can't simply buy touch up paint. Other than the nick and some buckle lines on the back that do not penetrate the finish and are almost invisible, the guitar is mint.

Welcome Gerry. Glad to hear you have purchased a Model 330, the workhorse of Rickenbacker instruments. You also have the classic finish. You have to love Fireglo. I have been faced with a similar problem with my instruments and have left the small blemishes alone. The hardest problem you will have is resisting the temptation to "touch up" this guitar. My two cents worth of advice would be that you leave it alone and enjoy playing your guitar.

Gerry-
Mark Arnquist has described a method to repair finish nicks. It involves using super-glue, the thicker kind. As far as I understand, the conversion varnish is very similar in make-up to super glue.

search the ask a rickenbacker luthier archive.

I chickened out, and left the nick on my 330JG, which sounds like it's in the same spot as yours.

If I were to repair the nicks and scratches on my fireglo, I would have to decide if I wanted to go to fireglo or mapleglo! Some of them have stories to tell. Some don't, and I don't want to know!

I use tints from the RUDD PAINT Co.

These are expensive and can be added to many types of finishing materials .

The Red is pure red . I also stock Blue ,yellow-chromite ,black,white and two shades of brown.With these I can color match most colors .

The Rick fireglo has a brown cast to it and depending on era , you mix up for that shade .

There is no way to mix a catch all fireglo tint and send it to anyone . Sorry .

At the moment ...I have 9 12 strings in the shop and all are fireglo except one .
NONE of them look like they use the same tints . This is NOT necessarily the case but rather the application of the material . Bursting is an art form . And each sprayer has his own 'fingerprint'.