1989 230 Blueboy
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 11:08 pm
Well as promised almost 2 years ago, here are some pictures of my 1989 Rickenbacker 230, refinished in Blue Boy. It was originally red when it left the factory in 1989. I bought it used in 1991 and it had been refinished with black over the top of the red with acrylic lacquer. After many years, the black was checking and cracking due to too much finish, and perhaps to finish incompatibilites. When the pickup selector switch went bad, I decided it was time to refinish it. I stripped and sanded it down to bare wood, and since the binding was yellowing and cracking, I decided to redo that. I refinished in PPG conversion varnish, and Paul W. mixed the Blue Boy for me (thanks Paul!). I applied the paint 3-4 coats at a time and sanded in between, with the final sanding up to 2000 grit, and then buffed. ( A LOT of sanding!!) The frets also needed some work, and I decided to refret it. Since that is a job and a half, I decided to leave the neck un-lacquered for future ease of refretting, and just oiled it. I also decided that I didn't like the original control setup and replaced the circuit board and stiff pots with individual parts and modified control order. The original setup would have the switch down for the bridge pickup, but the upper controls were the active controls for the bridge pickup. The switch was up and that would be th eneck pickup, but the bottom controls were for the neck pickup. Needless to say, it seemed backwards....so I wired it up like a Gibson as far as the control arrangement, but kept the stock pot and cap values, and wired in the same caps and resistors that are in the original setup......the so called "semi-active circuitry without use of a battery" as the original literature advertised. The original neck pickup broke when I went to put it back in.....one of the wires going from the circuit board on the bottom of the pickup into the epoxy broke. It was impossible to find it without melting away the epoxy, and when I finally found it there was no way to attach a jumper wire to it without destroying the pickup. So I emailed RIC and they put a pickup up on ebay that they had laying around. I believe it was the last one they had too, and they are no longer made anymore. Luckily I was the high bidder. The new pickup was a bit hotter than my current bridge pickup, so I moved the bridge pickup to the neck since it's DC resistance was identical to my former neck pickup. ( I had measured it before it broke ) The new pickup went into the bridge position. It is a little bit later vintage pickup but it works and sounds fine. It is REALLY nice to have my baby back in operation, as this was my first ever guitar, and even better, it plays and sounds and looks better than it ever has! I suppose it probably increased the value too, but I don't care since I'll never sell it. Anyway, I hope you all like it! I am sure its one of a kind unless someone else has refinished theirs into this color.
Greg
Greg
I think it is one of those body shapes that lends itself to BB pretty well.