Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I just got this sexy '88 330 in rare scarlet red w/ black hardware. It's in near perfect condition and is a great player, I'm very pleased! The finish looks legit, but I'm a bit perplexed about a few things. There's what appears to be some black marker on the headstock. Also someone wrote "Red" inside the control cavity. Any thoughts?

I have no idea what's going on on that headstock. Weird. The "Red" inside the control cavity is written in marker on the bare wood to let the finish shop know what color should go on. Another couple of coats inside the cavity, and that would have been invisible. I see a lot of color notes inside control cavities; some that don't match the color applied. Obviously, a unit was taken out of order to fill another. You might also see initials inside where factory folks sign off as the instrument passes through the assembly and finishing process.

I'd be willing to bet that your Rick's previous owner left a Kyser capo clamped to the headstock a couple of times and it's rubber pad stained the finish. I once left a Kyser overnight on my '57 reissue Strat and it left a faint black mark in the fingerboard's finish. It definitely wouldn't polish off and I didn't want to get too aggressive trying to remove it. Fortunately, it faded out over a short time.