Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi Folks, I've recently bought a well loved Jetglo 330, with plenty of mojo. There are a few worn spots in the finish with some red colour showing through the black. I'm just wondering if any body knows is a red sealer or undercoat was part of the production process, or is this guitar a possible refin?
t.i.a

jc

This guitar has been posted before, either here, or some other forum as those photos are very familiar. You guitar looks like it was originally Fireglo but has been resprayed black without correctly sanding the FG finish off and preparing the instrument before the new paint job. RIC does not use a "red sealer coat". It would never come from the factory like that.

If that were my guitar I would have it properly refinished, unless you like the look it currently has.

Actually, I have a 2008 4004cii in jetglow that I have dinged. It too has red under the jetglow. There was a thread about this a few years ago & other's also had red under the jetglow. Mr. Hall stated in that thread that there was no undercoat & Ric doesn't do resprays. Still, I'm sure mine was untouched when I got it.

I agree - not factory. However, I have a 950 ('67 maybe? can't remember) that's black over touches of red and I wonder if a 950 could have been quickly jetglo'd at the factory before going out, to fulfill a time sensitive order. These days, no, but then?

Just my two bits here, but we seem to have three distinct instruments (per the model #'s) all finished in Jet-Glo and each with evidence of red underneath the black, yet John Hall says "nope" to the idea of red primer/undercoat... And it seems to be a no-brainer that any skilled refinisher would remove all of the original color before applying the new one.

So I wonder: Could all three have been re-done at some point by the same shop?

In my world, that would bes quite a co-incidence, but it would be interesting to check out the travels of the three Rics and see if they were ever in the same place after the factory.

bvstudios wrote:And it seems to be a no-brainer that any skilled refinisher would remove all of the original color before applying the new one.

You'd be surprised how many UNskilled refinishers abound!

bvstudios wrote:all finished in Jet-Glo

Pretty much THE color to hide structural damage. Very common to refinish instruments of any color in black.

While I can't say for certain my 4004cii wasn't refinished, the person I bought it off of was the original owner. He made no mention of a refinish. The paint looked incredible. The action on the bass however was a mile high. It had the spacer installed under the bridge & the action at the nut was rather high. The was no perceivable wear on the frets. My thought was he bought it, was disgusted by the action & put it under the bed. Then eventually sold it. While re-sprays & undercoat aren't supposed to be done, we've all seen questionable things come out of the factory.

^
That's what I'm thinking. The CEO would never admit to oversprays being done, but if a FG finish isn't quite right, are you going to spend time rubbing it back, or just overspray?

Thanks for all input so far.

I wouldn't admit it because we don't do it. Period. It's just too easy for us to remove all the old finish first before repainting.

My 1989 RIC 230 was like this before I refinished it. Red underneath black. The red color was CV and the black was acrylic, and was put on so thick that it eventually started cracking the finish. I sanded it all off and refinished in BlueBoy CV and it is great now. Yours would like fine if it was all sanded off and refinished too. Its a bit of work but is worth it in the end.

Greg

I own a production facility and there is the right way, my way and the way when I'm not around. I have seen so many of these Jetglo with red underneath. Many are refins and obvious (under the TRC and cavity looks terrible), but to do a refin that looks factory Jetglo is not easy. Jetglo has that greenish tint to it that is different than black by Fender and Gibson. I have seen many that I have felt are factory (mostly, if not all from late 60s through the 70s).