Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I know this has been asked before but generally from those who don't want to damage the rest of the instrument's finish.....I'm not concerned with that. My plan is to use a chemical stripper to remove the finish from the entire 4004Cii that is the basis for an 8 string conversion project I'm starting. I realize that my inlays will likely be trashed but is there anything else that I should be concerned about? I am replacing the body facing and reworking the headstock and my constantly evolving plan is to have a tung oil finish when I'm done so I don't want to just leave the CV on the fretboard alone.

Chemical stripper will work fine, and since you're not concerned about the dot inlays (which can be sourced and replaced easily anyway), go for it.

The trick is to put a very thick coat of paste stripper onto the instrument (after you've removed all hardware--frets can stay on), and place it into a polyethylene trash or yard bag large enough to hold it and be sealed up. Sometimes it helps to deeply scuff the varnish surface with some 80 grit paper to give the stripper something to hold onto.

Squeeze all of the air out of the bag and let it sit overnight. Pull out the bass and scrape off what you can, then repeat as necessary. Finally, give the whole body, neck, and fretboard a good scrubbing with #3 steel wool and denatured alcohol and let the waste varnish drip off into a container or onto something absorbent. When the gunk has all been scrubbed off, let it dry for a day or two. Then you can begin sanding and detailing it prior to your conversion exploits.

Excellent.....thanks for the info!