Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

... in azureglo. Made the rounds here a few times and refin by Paul W. so long ago. Plays great and trying it at my gig tonight. I will try and post pics soon.

Congrats! Definitely need some pics...

Sounds like a really cool guitar! Get some pics up as soon as you can.

Congrats Chuck!

Hi Chuck

Is your guitar the 1969 one that was up for sale on Gbase before Xmas from Atomic Music and described as a possible pro refinish? If so, that was a beautiful looking guitar.

When I first saw that Gbase guitar for sale, I took advice from others who told me it was possible that the Azureglo was a genuine factory finish (although I recall reading that John Hall has in the past disputed the authenticity of such claims). Is there any definitive view on whether these late '60' Azureglo finishes are all refinish or some are indeed original factory.

For the record, would be great to see some pictures of your guitar Chuck.

Yes, it is the same one, and with some assistance I got the full story. First, it is a refin. It was done by Paul W. here about 10 years ago and changed hands at least once after that before landing at Atomic. The colour is awesome- more turquoise than azureglo and the best refin I have ever seen. Super slim neck and sounds great, although I am experiencing some weird electronic issues! Play a set at the gig fine, second set a weird breaking up distortion; sounds like the amp shorting but it's the guitar. Argh!

I'll try to get some pics up but might be a while. I didn't pay the asking price so electronic issues aside I'm pretty happy with it. Now that I've played/owned a few '60s Ricks the slimmest necks are certainly to be found on the late '60s models.

Chuck, it was closer to 6 years ago, maybe even 5. The guy who had Paul restore it, I've forgotten his name, brought it to my house once. Nice fellow. I think that Paul joined the RRF in '05.

k43rover wrote: Is there any definitive view on whether these late '60' Azureglo finishes are all refinish or some are indeed original factory.

Re factory finishes, Paologregorio's Azureglo OS from the 80s was ordered from the factory with that finish. He can give everyone more specifics. Believe it was an available color from the factory for some time span there. Its a very nice color - especially when accented with Double Binding.,

Looking forward to seeing your pictures ! Sorry to hear about the electrics problem.....

Sounds like the one Bill Yantz owned. I see that he still visits here but it looks like he hasn't posted in awhile. Here are a couple links to threads about the guitar:

viewtopic.php?p=207111#p207111

viewtopic.php?p=337245#p337245

Azureglo was available from `69 through `85.

Mine is from 11/84.

IIRC, Mitch Easter's AZ Blue 330 is an `82.

There are a couple of `79 AZ Blue WB/12s on the forum as well.

krick wrote:Sounds like the one Bill Yantz owned. I see that he still visits here but it looks like he hasn't posted in awhile. Here are a couple links to threads about the guitar:

viewtopic.php?p=207111#p207111

viewtopic.php?p=337245#p337245

It was his. I spoke to him and he was very helpful. He sold it to Elys Rand; after that I have no idea until it was on consignment at Atomic (who were great to deal with- I'd buy from them again).

chucksimms wrote:Yes, it is the same one, and with some assistance I got the full story. First, it is a refin. It was done by Paul W. here about 10 years ago and changed hands at least once after that before landing at Atomic. The colour is awesome- more turquoise than azureglo and the best refin I have ever seen. Super slim neck and sounds great, although I am experiencing some weird electronic issues! Play a set at the gig fine, second set a weird breaking up distortion; sounds like the amp shorting but it's the guitar. Argh!

I'll try to get some pics up but might be a while. I didn't pay the asking price so electronic issues aside I'm pretty happy with it. Now that I've played/owned a few '60s Ricks the slimmest necks are certainly to be found on the late '60s models.

Not ten years ago. Bill bought it in Reno back in 2005, and I refinned it and delivered it to him in early 2006, back in Reno, in the middle of a bad blizzard. We met in a restaurant and opened it up in a slot parlor...

It was originally Mapleglo, and had been hacked up badly for humbuckers by somebody. Bill wanted JG for it, but I suggested AZ for a relief from redone JG Ricks. The AZ was from a factory formula, and was not aged to make it look like vintage AZ, so it's brighter than original Azureglos, which go dark cobalt with age.

It took a lot of work before I ever lifted a spray gun.

Hack job by somebody with a Dremel and no sense of history or decorum...



Machining out the humbucker butchery, nice and precisely, and fitting maple blocks into the new routes, followed by re-routing in factory-fashion for the magnets:



The guitar was rebound, refretted, and had the neck rebound as well.

Then, (finally) spray booth for color coat, followed by clearcoat, hand-sand, hand-buff, assemble and detail:











Love those double-bounds. This one is a beauty, and plays really nice, too. NOTE that the toasters are newish scatter-wounds.

The distortion issue is either the output jack or switch. I'd lay $$$ on it being the jack. Nothing to worry about, and easy to set right.

some great info in these prior threads that have been referenced - for people like me who only joined the forum recently they are very useful to revive - thanks for posting them.

One point on the authenticity of '60's Azureglo finishes - if I am reading this correctly, Azureglo was only an official factory finish from 1969. Does that mean that there are definitely no genuine factory guitars painted in this colour prior to 1969 or are there known earlier prototypes/trade show guitars etc kicking around? I ask this as I seem to recall reading a thread somewhere about disputed guitars built earlier than '69 where some respected collectors were adamant that they were original Azureglo but this was disputed by others (including IIRC John Hall himself)?

Here's a factory AZ 366/12 from South America. It's a '68 that I restored in 2007 in aged AZ:





So we know about '68 being OK.

ooooohhhhh....the AZ finish on that '68 is just lovely; looks like a piece of glass - nice work Paul

Any advance (in reverse) on '68?.....