Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Here are pics from a friend's '81 AZ 4001. He is suspicious of the finish so I made some photographs for your perusal. The pic of the chip on the headstock does show the finish as being quite thick; is this correct for this finish? Notice no visible markings in the cavities as all of it is painted. Whaddya think?

More.

More.

The rest.

Okay, my guess. Refinished, and nitro over the blue. There is also conductive gray paint in some of the cavities.

If that is a refin, the shade is exactly like mine. I'll take the pickguard and TRC off tomorrow if I have time. I think it's real though. Mine also has blue on the aluminum block like that, just has a lot more.

Jeff, what is that nut made of? Alu?

Looks original to me. Just wondering why he thinks its a refin???

You gunning for this one Jeff??

Dunno if it is or it isn't, but I absolutely love the finish on this one!

If it's original, why wasn't the writing masked before it was sprayed? And it looks too thick where that chip is.

Still, a nice shade of AZ.

The color looks pretty accurate to what was done at that time, but I suspect it's been re-finished.

What I'd do is to try some scraping in some inconspicuous areas that don't show, ala the control cavity or truss rod cavity.

I'll add that the finish looks like it's been on the guitar a while. Of course if it was Mapleglo to begin with you won't find anything......

jps wrote:Here are pics from a friend's '81 AZ 4001. He is suspicious of the finish so I made some photographs for your perusal. The pic of the chip on the headstock does show the finish as being quite thick; is this correct for this finish? Notice no visible markings in the cavities as all of it is painted. Whaddya think?

It looks to me like a refin, and not a terribly good one either as to the surfacing detail afterwards. That bass seems to have had some rough handling over the years subsequent to the refin. Apologies to Scott, but that's my gut on this one.

You guys know better than me.....I've never even seen a real Azure-glo 4001.

My vote is that it's original. AZ is a thick finish. So are JG, White and a few others. They chip the same way.

If it was re-finned, it was done in a color very close to factory, the materials and methods were very close to factory, and it was done shortly after the bass was made.

What I wanna know is...What happened to the little rubber mat/gasket thingies that the tuners rest on?

Let's ask Paul W. about the finish!

Paul?

Look at the close-ups of the open screw holes. If it were a re-fin, wouldn't there be some blue in there?

All of those holes look like they were drilled after the finish was applied.