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Rickenbacker Binding Issues

G

GeezerDeacon69

Feb 7, 2010
126
9
Bainbridge Island, WA
#1
Hello everyone,

First off, my POS camera has died so I have no pictures. I'll do my best to describe the problem

My Rick is a year and a half old has been in its case for a few weeks. When I put it away, there were no problems at all. Today when I took it out, I noticed several cracks (very small) in the binding on either side of the neck.

Worse, are the fairly deep cracks (I can get a fingernail in two of them) that have developed on the fretboard binding. They span the whole width of the binding, not the length. There are about four or five of them.

Add to this, an overall yellowing of the binding.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Can anything be done about it? Should anything be done about it?

Thanks in advance.
 
#4
I don't know about the cracks, but the yellowing of the binding is possible if the bass and/or case has spent a lot of time in the home of a smoker. The same thing happened to one of my mandolins, there aren't any cracks though. But at least a year after, the case still smells like cigarettes.

I doubt this was much help, but I'm sure other people will chime in. I really feel for you, a Rick is my dream bass and I can only imagine how upset I would be if that happened.
 
#8
Most people want the yellowing to happen - I've got mixed emotions eg: an old-look that is engineered into the binding or it just yellowed for reasons of it's own.

The case may or may not has prematurely aged it - not very likely unless this was stored in the case for years and years.

The cracking - or fissures really - in the area between the binding and the wood may well be a process of the plastic binding NOT reacting like the wood from big swings in humidity.

Plastic is fairly immune to humidity changes, but the wood is a different story.
 
#10
I have similar issue with mine 4003. Binding is cracking/peeling off right behind the bridge. It first happened few years ago in winter time when air was super dry and I did not have any humidifier in a room where I kept the bass.
Difference in temperature creates thermal expansion/contraction. This is different for different materials (wood vs plastic, that is). Consequence is shear load between those two and that stress is transfered by the glue. And dry air weakens teh glue, imo.
I was upset when I've noticed it for the first time. But now I'm just,
meh.
 
#11
Are these Rickenbackers open grained in that bare wood shows or areas are unpainted. clear coated or sealed?

If not - then how's the moisture transmigrating from-to the wood?

I can see temps - RADICAL temp changes making this happen; moisture may not be the answer.

I bound a Fender headstock a year ago and where it was done (Sunny - HOT/DRY SoCal) and then moved to Montana and went through a period of two day time of sub 10ºF in the moving van and it had suffered NO damages or delamination - well ---> that makes me think there's another dynamic going on here.

Poor glue? Maybe - but I only used acetone, which is not a glue, although it made a great bond with the plastic to the wood for me.

Of course, I clear coated the hell outta it when I was done - so there's the possibility that there's some sort of variable permeability in the Rickenbacker finish.

Odd that they'd have this going on with all their manufacturing experience by now. :hmm:
 

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