Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I got a relatively recent 360 in Fireglo. My wife hates the color and I kinda want it to be more amber colored. This is from the era with the button top pickups that don't have allen hex tops (not sure where that places this guitar in the timeline)

What I am wondering: are there simple ways of making the finish yellower?
Would sunlight yellow it?
or a sunlamp?
are there sprays that would adhere to the surface and ad an amber tint?

Sunlight would more likely fade the color, not amber it.

I'm sure Paul W. will chime in as soon as he sees this and has a chance to answer. IIRC, he has a tinted clear coat formula for creating the amber tinge (it's one of the clear coats, which explains why the binding is ambered as well).

Buy it some time in a tanning booth.

The only way to do it and have it last is to scuff the original clear coat and soray an amber clear over it, then follow with a transparent clear to allow buffing. It's a lot of hassle, and if the guitar is more than a few months old, it needs to be checked for microscopic stress cracks, or you'll get air inclusions under the clearcoat.

Why not sell it or trade it on something with a nicer FG?

Thanks folks,

I guess I will just stay with it and try to change it by changing the context - the stuff around it - and see how that effects it: I was going to switch to gold plates anyway.

When someone mentioned that the color would fade in sunlight; does that mean the red will fade down or that the wood will get even paler colored?

pfflam wrote:... When someone mentioned that the color would fade in sunlight; does that mean the red will fade down or that the wood will get even paler colored?

Sean, the effect of sun fading is a bit difficult to describe. I've seen older guitars on eBay as well as in guitar shops that I could tell immediately had been left in a window with the sun beating down on them. I guess the best description is, "sun fading causes a decrease in the intensity of the color pigments, resulting in a 'bland' looking color".

Think of it also in these terms: if one adds a bit of bleach when washing bright colors, the colors become faded.