Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Will my newer guitars "yellow" with age like my old ones did?

Cole

Only time will tell, hahah! No they say the new stuff is non-yellowing.

Everything 'yellows' .

The UV inhibitors ... slow this way down , but it will 'yellow' .

So instead of 30 years it will take 60!? Sigh..

Cole

The newest finishes (high-specification polyurethanes) are formulated with constant sunlight exposure in mind, and will resist yellowing for a VERY long time. Speaking in an absolutely theoretical sense, everything will yellow. But considering that our guitars spend on the whole a lot of time in their cases or indoors (even ordinary window glass cuts down on UV considerably), one finished recently with state-of-the-current-art clearcoat, should last many decades before noticeably yellowing. Not to say that a bit of golden wood patina is a bad thing!

Oddly, the reason certain alkyd varnishes of the past half-century (still available in such brands as "Man O' War") gave a yellowed appearance to fresh wood, was because the UV inhibitors in those varnishes gave the varnish a yellow cast.

I might mention that about two years ago, I completely restored my wood-bodied station wagon, with new wood, paint, interior leather, and of course VARNISH.

Instead of using the "Old-School" spar (exterior boat) varnish as I had in the past, which required refinishing at least once a year, and which had a nice yellow glow straight from the can, I popped for some pricey conversion urethane. This clearcoat, made by PPG and carrying the designation 2042, went on so transparent from the spray gun, that the first coats looked like the finish on a new MG Rick. Nice on a guitar, but it looked too new and frankly phony on a woodie wagon! So a colorfast liquid dye was added to the clearcoats for subsequent applications. In total, six double coats of 2042 were sprayed, wet sanding between coats with #400 grit and Windex.

The yellow tone on the light wood (birch, in this case) was perfect, though color photos don't do it justice. The darker wood was padauk, which is not a good wood for alkyd varnish as its natural oils inhibit the alkyd's normal crosslink process. But this clearcoat bonded and cured perfectly. I suspect Rick's material is quite similar. In fact, this is the clearcoat that I use in all my own guitar refinish jobs.

Two photos (I ask for your patience while I make this point):

The before photo shows the car with ordinary alkyd (air-dry) boat varnish, after two years's use with garaging every night but occasional bouts with rainstorms:



The after photo, after the clearcoat regimen described above, and two and a half years' use and the occasional tropical cloudburst, but once again garaged each night:



This clearcoat is DA BOMB.

I like it, especially the flames. Why did you use Windex for wet sanding?

Windex is very low viscosity, "wetter water", due to the ammonia and surfactants in the formula which break down the surface tension of water. It keeps the sandpaper wetter and clog-free and also prevents fisheyes in subsequent coats of urethane.