Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've had my new 4003 for just over a week and have noticed what seems to be either glue from the frets....do they use glue for the frets?....or a build up of finish around the frets.

www.sunhaze.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/001.jpg
www.sunhaze.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/002.jpg
www.sunhaze.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/003.jpg

Either way, is this normal?

If it is glue then it's beneath the finish surface.

I didn't notice it in the store...it shows up more under fairly bright lighting.

Also if you look at the first picture, there is some excess glue from the nut just along the edge under the A string.
This is on the surface of the finish....is there a safe way to remove the glue from there?
If it's super glue then I suppose it's gonna be difficult, but I'm worried that if I leave it and the nut is removed it will pull some of the finish surface away with it.

Thanks.

I think its excessive finish build up.

I had a 4001CS that had frets that looked like that, some of the finish had even chipped around the frets themselves. It almost looked like the neck had been refinished, but since I bought the bass new from a dealer I don't think that was a possibility.

It looks like there was a temperature/environment change that caused the frets to swell up with heat, then shrink down with coldness, causing the fingerboard finish to actually pull away from the wood. Peter or Jim may want to chime in on this one.

This is caused from really extreme moisture. It can get in at the frets and slide under the finish causing the sealer to whiten. You see this sometimes when goods have been outside in the rain under a tarp such as on a pallet when loading an aircraft.

It usually goes away for the most part when summer comes, leaving only a faint outline where the moisture extended to.

Any excess glue can be easily removed with an Exacto blade, just a bit of scraping action needed. Depending on your skills, a tiny bit of sanding and polishing might be needed to tidy up. The adhesive doesn't normally stick to the finish well in any case.

John,

If I need to sand and polish after scraping, what do i need to polish with?

Thanks.

As JH mentioned, I used a exacto to clean up the edges, I then used Dupont Finesseit II to polish the fretboard, great stuff. Another good cleaner is made by Zymol, it's called HD Cleanse.

Liquid Turtle wax has been mentioned by JH several times, says it's the best stuff to use. I don't know if he meant the fretboard though, although if it's good for the bass finish it should be good for the neck as well. I've used California Gold car wax with Carnuba with good results before.

When I was doing show car paint work a fews years back I remember an article in a high end car show circuit magazine that did a scientific test on the properties of the leading car waxes, turtle wax received the lowest rating of any other wax product tested. It has one of the highest petrochemical to carnuba wax ratios on the market.

Use a small block to hold at least 800 grit paper and very lightly sand only where necessary. Polish with something like liquid Turtle Wax, pretty much whatever you have handy in the U.K. as auto wax, doesn't need to be anything expensive or high tech.

You may wish to tape off the edges of the fingerboard to avoid any inadvertant damage.

If petrochemical polishes scare you, something more natural like Russian Cleaner Polish should do the trick. Take a big swallow of vodka, spit on the surface, and polish it out. I'm a more picky kind of player than most of you; I wouldn't allow anything on my guitar or bass that I wasn't willing to drink. Independent tests prove that it is more likely to be frequently used than other polishes, but results may vary widely among users, especially after prolonged use.

Makes them OLP's poly finishes shine like um, plastic...

I know guys who got fired from bands because they drank too much polish.

Given that the finish itself is entirely petrocehmical, there certainly isn't much concern about using them to polish the instrument.

Now, a natural shellac or lacquer finish on a classical instrument is a different animal entirely.

Like I said those were the days of lacquer, a fews years back. With the modern two stage finishes I don't think it's such a big deal, unless your dealing with the Pebble Beach Concours crowd, where a tin of wax will run $1400 (Zymol Estate Glaze)http://www.zymol.com/vintage.htm