Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A number of weeks ago, Forum member Bill Yantz sent me a '69 365 OS (double bound) that he found in a guitar shop in Reno. It had suffered a pretty terrible fate--a previous owner had performed a hack job with a Dremel and a sanding drum, to fit a pair of Gibbie hummers. There should be a permit process for Dremels with sanding drums, maybe like the handgun permit process?

Bill really wanted to have the guitar repaired and refinished in its original Mapleglo, but, short of replacing the top (an un-original move if ever there was one--the top and body sides are one piece, in typical RIC manner) there was no way to patch the awful butcher work and keep it invisible under a transparent finish. So, I told him that I could patch it, but MG, BG, AG, or FG were really out as finishes if he wanted the guitar to look good.

He was stuck with JG, we thought. Then I thought, wait a minnit here, how about Azureglo (AZ)? I strongly suggested this option to Bill, and Jwilli also suggested this color, unbeknownst to me. Bill agreed, and last week the refinish took place.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...here are the links to the process photos, with the very first being the butcher pics I took when I pulled the toasters which had been put back in by the guitar store owner, with oversized foam pads underneath to hide all the extra holes.

So, you'll see it as it arrived in my shop:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/butcher1.jpg

Then as I made up some precision maple blocks to fill the new routs which I was going to make to clean up all the butchery:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/butcher0.jpg

Here it is clamped up on my mill ready for routing:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/clamped.jpg

Here are the inserts being glued into the new routs:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/inserts1.jpg

Here I'm routing the slots for the magnet poles. These slots are a duplicate of the original style factory slots:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/routs1.jpg

Next, the toasters were test fitted:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/pufit.jpg

The guitar's celluloid binding had come loose in a half-dozen places. It was cemented back into place and taped overnight. I have a glue that I've made up, which consists of old binding dissolved in ethylene dichloride. It's a milky-white soup that does a great job of securing the binding in place.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/bindingtape.jpg

And then on to the task of refretting and refinishing the fretboard. First the old frets were pulled. The fretboard had been revarnished at some point with some furniture varnish brushed on over the CV. This had worn badly, discolored, gummed up with sweat and finger oils, and made a sorry mess:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/board1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/fretpull.jpg

But following pulling the frets, the board was carefully sanded, checking all along with the radius gauges. (It's a 6" radius, BTW):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/sandboard.jpg

Next, the board was filled:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/boardfill.jpg

Then, sanded.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/sandboard.jpg

It took three applications of filler to get the grain levelled out.

Now it's time to sand the body. This guitar was easier to sand than to chemically-strip.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/bodysand.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/heelsand.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/hssand1.jpg

Sealer was applied--one coat, sand, then a second coat.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/sealer2.jpg

This was also thoroughly sanded and the guitar was ready for its first coat of Azureglo paint. The AZ legend is that it was picked out from a VW that used to park across the street from the Electro factory in the mid-1960s. The color is, in fact, a slightly modified form of VW code L-360 (Sea Blue). I managed to get the formula from my distributor, and mixed up a nice batch. I've heard that AZ was a bit darker than Sea Blue, but after mixing up the Sea Blue, I was not comfortable with making it any darker. So I made it a tiny bit (1/2 shade) lighter and then let it be. It's a good match for AZ now.

Here's the 365 after four coats of color. The binding is partially taped, partially scraped, using the same type of tape and scraping methods as the factory. In these pictures, the body's already been taped and scraped and in fact is ready for clearcoating:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/colorcoat2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/colorheel.jpg

20 ounces of conversion varnish--clearcoat--were applied; five ounces per double coat, and four double coats. Here's a shot of the body right after the last coat:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/cleardet.jpg

Is it ready to assemble? Nope. At least four hours of sanding and buffing (both by hand and with power equipment) is needed to give the paint a glass-like shine, before we can reassemble the instrument for Bill. I'm also going to be making new guards, because, as you can guess, the old upper has been butchered to fit around the hummers, and the lower was scratched heavily and would not match a new upper in color.

Here is is after buffing, yesterday evening:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1969%20365%20OS/buff2.jpg

It should be ready to ship in a couple of days. More pics tomorrow or Tuesday!

REALLY nice! That's a great color. Almost MID.

Wow! That's really something - thank you for that wonderful trip, Paul!
(hungry for a follow-up)

Wonderful stuff once again, Paul. I think Bill is going to very pleased with the result.

Oh, yeah! Beautiful work, as always, Paul! Lovely restoration, and gorgeous color.... Super!

Can't wait for you to get your hands on my 360F

Whoa. I want one!

Amazing work as usual, your Curmudgey-ness.

Incurmudgible!!! I've always loved Azureglo!

Very nice Paul. Reminds me of Greg Fritz's 1968 370/12 O.S. that is factory AZ. Beautiful job.

The thing that gets me about your work, Paul, is all the clever problem solving you do. The colours are always great, but the repairs are what really impress me. Just amazing. I would have thought that particular guitar was a goner. It makes me want to grab every abused Ric I can because, as you've proven here, there's always hope!

I've got a '57 Combo 400 here that'll prove that in spades...

John I was thinking the exact same thing as I was examining the photos. Truly amazing piece of work Paul. If I found an abused Ric. If I could get for a decent price I would not hesitate to buy it and turn over to the touch of the master's hand.

Beauty!