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Rickenbacker Neck disaster

#101
FunkHead said:
There are just so damn many necks with the clearcoat gone. Down to bare wood. Any bass that gets played alot will be worn down to bare wood. This is just another very silly anti-Ric post. Look at any vintage Fender maple neck that has been played. The clearcoat will be worn down to the wood in the heavy traffic areas. A Ric is no different. Also, Sweat more than anything else can make Clear coat lift if left on the bass. I had a nasty spot on the upper bout of my Les Paul from arm pit sweat. My fault for not waxing/protecting it. 7 or 8 year old bass with clear-coat issues on the neck is just gonna happen. 30 years old rics are gonna have exposed wood if played heavily. It's fine either way....Refinish it or ignore it.
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If you feel that this thread is an anti rick post, i am very sorry. nobody can control if somebody trolls in such a thread. I still love my rick and find this instrument compared to others superior. nevertheless i have to deal with the situation and wanted to share my feelings. I play now for 25 years and have basses of this age with now issues like this. For me it was the first time ever, I had to deal with finish problems. in conclusion I think I will ignore that issue and just play harder on that bass.
 
#102
flashgod said:
Hello guys, I used the officially rickenbacker cleaning cloth and with that was able to rub soft and smoothly down the first layer of the finish. I guess it is not about the fabric of the cleaning cloth or the cleaning process itself. The problem in my option is, that the finish of the neck and maybe the whole bass is just too soft.
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Flash - sorry to hear this is happening to your bass. I suspect its a defective finish but unfortunately I also suspect you're out of the warranty period. Apparently Ric doesn't have a good track record of taking care of these types of situations for their customers. If you've confirmed it's no longer in warranty and Ric won't do anything to correct it you only have a couple of options.
Option 1 - just play it as is and let mojo take its course - who knows, it might not get any worse.
Option 2 - scotch brite the neck to a satin finish - lots of players do this to perfectly good gloss necks to make them faster.
Option 3 - send the bass to a refinish professional - your probably looking at at least an 8 week turnaround and something in excess of $600 to have the entire bass refinished but at least it will be better than new. If you're going to the trouble of having it professionally refinished do the entire bass not just the neck. That way everything will match and you can be assured that the body won't start flaking on you down the road.
 
#103
GBassNorth said:
Flash - sorry to hear this is happening to your bass. I suspect its a defective finish but unfortunately I also suspect you're out of the warranty period. Apparently Ric doesn't have a good track record of taking care of these types of situations for their customers. If you've confirmed it's no longer in warranty and Ric won't do anything to correct it you only have a couple of options.
Option 1 - just play it as is and let mojo take its course - who knows, it might not get any worse.
Option 2 - scotch brite the neck to a satin finish - lots of players do this to perfectly good gloss necks to make them faster.
Option 3 - send the bass to a refinish professional - your probably looking at at least an 8 week turnaround and something in excess of $600 to have the entire bass refinished but at least it will be better than new. If you're going to the trouble of having it professionally refinished do the entire bass not just the neck. That way everything will match and you can be assured that the body won't start flaking on you down the road.
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Thanks very much for your nice comment. I think I will choose door number one. ROCK N ROLL
 
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#106
flashgod said:
nice car btw, your driving the better 911
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Thanks! Love it, really handles great.
My addiction to cars far exceeds my addiction to bass gear. Interestingly, a lot of my car and bass gear GAS is only satisfied with German products. After a few VWs in the '70s and 80's (Bugs and GTIs) I graduated to Audi and Mercedes in the 90's (SEC's and A4's) then moved on to BMW and Porsche around 2005. I currently have a Cayenne S for hauling the family and baggage around and the Cayman S for spirited driving and club events. My wife wants to add a 914-6 to the stable but I'm trying to talk her into a 1995 911 instead. IMHO Germany makes the best cars in the world, and their Warwick basses are darn nice too. I'll keep my Thumb BO5 and Vampyre LTD until the day I die.
Obviously I'm doing my part to keep the German economy strong.;)
 
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#107
GBassNorth said:
Thanks! Love it, really handles great.
My addiction to cars far exceeds my addiction to bass gear. Interestingly, a lot of my car and bass gear GAS is only satisfied with German products. After a few VWs in the '70s and 80's (Bugs and GTIs) I graduated to Audi and Mercedes in the 90's (SEC's and A4's) then moved on to BMW and Porsche around 2005. I currently have a Cayenne S for hauling the family and baggage around and the Cayman S for spirited driving and club events. My wife wants to add a 914-6 to the stable but I'm trying to talk her into a 1995 911 instead. IMHO Germany makes the best cars in the world, and their Warwick basses are darn nice too. I'll keep my Thumb BO5 and Vampyre LTD until the day I die.
Obviously I'm doing my part to keep the German economy strong.;)
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Funny how I am keeping the US economy strong with my basses like Fender, Musicman or Rickenbacker. Even with cars i am into US production like BMW X6 and Z4 M Coupe, which is a pretty little beast. Compared with the Cayman S a nice alternative to have a lot of fun for cheap money. And totally rare with only appr. 5000 units, they have build in Spartanburg. At the end it seems we have similar preferences :)
 
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#110
flashgod said:
If you feel that this thread is an anti rick post, i am very sorry. nobody can control if somebody trolls in such a thread. I still love my rick and find this instrument compared to others superior. nevertheless i have to deal with the situation and wanted to share my feelings. I play now for 25 years and have basses of this age with now issues like this. For me it was the first time ever, I had to deal with finish problems. in conclusion I think I will ignore that issue and just play harder on that bass.
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The thread itself is not an anti-Ric post but some of the ridiculous comments are. However after 7-8 years it is very hard to outright blame Ric QC for a clearcoat problem. There are just too many variables. Sweat from four hands is a very strong possibility as the culprit. I would love to know exactly what the cause of the problem is but it's all really just speculation this late in the game. The fact is that the clearcoat wears off of all necks over time Not just Rics. Some much worse than others.
 
#111
lfmn16 said:
I would write that down, but I'm sure you'll join every thread that mentions Rickenbacker and let us know over and over how you think they aren't worth the money. :rollno:
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We shall see am I a Ric haters by my posts and activity.

One thing worth to know, I love Ric tone. Their bridge pickup tone is very distinguish.

And if I love to hate Ric, I already bashing the entire Ric forums. But no, I love Ric tone, just not a fan of the other aspects from the instrument itself.
 
#112
Rio Haride said:
We shall see am I a Ric haters by my posts and activity....And if I love to hate Ric, I already bashing the entire Ric forums....not a fan of...the instrument itself.
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There are fine instruments made in Indonesia, why not buy something locally made and just be happy with it. Why bash something you don't own; just love what you have and leave the rest alone to enjoy what they have?
 
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#113
Jeff Scott said:
There are fine instruments made in Indonesia, why not buy something locally made and just be happy with it. Why bash something you don't own; just love what you have and leave the rest alone to enjoy what they have?
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Why and why?

First why, Indonesia makes a lot of nice instruments. But their availability in here is almost zero. Why? Cause Indonesian don't appreciate their local builder, so our local builder's get sick with this phenomena and sell pretty much all of their instruments to international. Except Indonesia.

If you want an instrument made by Indonesia, you have to import it from somewhere in the Asia.

That's why I end up bought a Mexican Jazz.

Second why, read my previous posts.
 
#114
The top clear coat came off my Fender very quickly. Yes, it is a Road Worn, so it's supposed to look like that, but there's a clear coat over the entire instrument when it's new. The "wear" is just part of the finish pattern. So, maybe we should bash Fender for clear coats that come off quickly. It's not just Ric. One other thing - I hit the back of nearly every neck I get with a light scrub using very fine steel wool. The reason is to make them less sticky. It doesn't go through the clear, and eventually, the shine seems to come back but not the stickiness. Go figure. I did it to the Ric when I got it. Even though it was more than ten years old, the neck was still sticky. Maybe the previous owner was just sticky. Maybe it was the finish. I don't know, but it's not sticky now, and the shine came back. I'm pretty sure it will wear through eventually.
 
#115
Rio Haride said:
Why and why?

First why, Indonesia makes a lot of nice instruments. But their availability in here is almost zero. Why? Cause Indonesian don't appreciate their local builder, so our local builder's get sick with this phenomena and sell pretty much all of their instruments to international. Except Indonesia.

If you want an instrument made by Indonesia, you have to import it from somewhere in the Asia.

That's why I end up bought a Mexican Jazz.
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That's really quite interesting, that you can't buy a locally made product in your own country. Oh well, I guess it's kind of like Fosters beer, all of it is for export, Aussies won't drink the stuff!
 
#119
Gaolee said:
The top clear coat came off my Fender very quickly. Yes, it is a Road Worn, so it's supposed to look like that, but there's a clear coat over the entire instrument when it's new. The "wear" is just part of the finish pattern. So, maybe we should bash Fender for clear coats that come off quickly. It's not just Ric.
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The road worn is supposed to wear. Same with the highway ones. I like Rics just fine but they scratch easier than other guitars IMO. Out of the big guitar makers they dont really use a heavy finish. Really its probably a good thing.
 

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