Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I recently acquired a 1980 Rickenbacker 360/12. Initially I thought that over the years the Fireglo finish must have faded but now I'm thinking that it is an Amber Fireglo finish. I've looked at a lot of pictures of vintage Fireglo Ricks and none of them have faded like this one. When you see it next to my 2011 Rickenbacker 6 string in Fireglo, there is a big differences. The 360/12 is nearly closer to Mapleglo than Fireglo.

http://i609.photobucket.com/albums/tt17 ... f046df.jpg
http://i609.photobucket.com/albums/tt17 ... 82beb6.jpg

Was Amber Fireglo available as a colour back then in 1980?

Nope.

It's a regular Fireglo. Lots of variation in them, from year to year, even month to month within a given year.

It is good old fashioned regular fireglo circa 1980.

What has happened is that the clearcoat has yellowed over the past 34 years.

The COY Amber Fireglo attempted to duplicate this effect by adding a little amber to the clearcoat. An new "old looking" fireglo one might say...

Jetglo turns greenish when the clearcoat ambers - but there was never a COY Greenish Jetglo!

Here is my 1980 620 12 with a similar fireglo BTW...

The Fireglo finish on this guitar reminds me of the mid-2006 batch of 1996 AFG reissue models like the one in this post:

viewtopic.php?p=818771#p818771

The earlier and later batches of these models looked much different.

And it was not just Amber Fireglo that got this rather light application in 2006. Here's a 4001C64 from 2006 in Fireglo (not Amber Fireglo) with relatively bright red edges to the burst:
Compare it to a 2007 4003 in Amber Fireglo:

Anyone interested in a beautiful, mint condition 360 AFG?

Please PM me - it will also be in the marketplace shortly.

Thanks Everyone.

The great man himself John Hall also replied to me on the Rickenbacker Forum confirming that it is Fireglo and that Amber Fireglo was introduced to replicate what my Guitar has. He says mine is the real deal.

http://www.rickenbacker.com/forum/viewt ... =1&t=15753

I also forgot to mention that the Guitar has got a bit of history to it as it was previously owned by a well known property developer here in Ireland that was friends with the rich and famous. Here is the man himself at an event with Bono and the Edge from U2.

http://entertainment.ie/photos/U2-band- ... htm#!img=4

Unfortunately for him, he lost his fortune as many other property developers did when it all went bust in 2008. Maybe this is why the guitar ended up in my possession.

Mine is a FireGlo that went AmberGlo. It's a 25 year old Ric and in some pics it looks FireGlo, but then I took this pic and it really captures the amber:

irishstratfan wrote:Thanks Everyone. The great man himself John Hall also replied to me on the Rickenbacker Forum confirming that it is Fireglo and that Amber Fireglo was introduced to replicate what my Guitar has. He says mine is the real deal.

Hi Edward - welcome to the Forum from a fellow Ric enthusiast based on the island of Ireland.

Although some people questioned whether it was a proper 'colour/color' as such, the Rickenbacker Corporation's 2006 Colour of the Year (COY) Amber Fireglo attempted to replicate the look of an 'aged' Ric. Personally, I like this COY a lot. In my experience, the easiest way to confirm an AFG Ric is to look at the fret-markers and binding, which have a distinctly 'yellow' look - as seen in this photo of my 2007 660-6 AFG (shown previously on the Forum).