Hello!

Two weeks ago I posted an old Cadillac Eldorado on Craigslist for cash or trade for various guitars or tube amps. I only got one one call last week from a fellow who had several guitars- two acoustics and a beat up bass. He then told me the bass was an old Rickenbacker and my mind flashed to the Fireglo bass I have long lusted after. This guitar needs some help, and I am a little torn on how far to take the restoration.

Paul

Ah the things we did when we never considered collect ability. It's hard to tell from the picture but it looks like that P bass pickup's route would show if you went back to a stock pick guard. It looks like it has a cast aluminum bridge & possibly early 73' pickups. If so it would normally have had checkered binding. Does it have checkered binding? Doesn't look like it from the pic. If your thinking of restoring it to sell, considering the work & cost involved, probably wouldn't make much off it. Original patina being so important to collectors. Of course if your good at woodworking & painting, different story. If you're going to keep it & play it, might be fun as it is.

Thanks for the reply,

I am not looking to restore it to sell. On one hand, it really is a bummer that someone added those pickups to the guitar, but on the other hand, they do sound good. The pickups are also wired to a five way selector switch.

The binding appears to be intact below and at the base of the neck there is some remaining clear coat that leads me to believe it was a mapleglo finish. The paint wipes right off with a rag and some lacquer thinner.

I am leaning towards returning it to a mapleglo finish.

I also know the name of the culprit who modified the bass by the badge screwed to the back of the guitar.

One of the Gover tuners looks a little odd to me. It looks like there is a relief cut into the base of the tuners.

If the black TRC is original to the bass, there is a strong chance the bass was originally white (assuming white was an available color at that time). Given the P pickup route, I'd opt for keeping the longer pickguard, just get one made that looks more correct.

The maple glow looks good. I'd love to hear it. Nice bass,

Finishing the bass should be the easy part. Then I have to learn how to play bass.

I will definitely draw up a better looking pick guard.

There was virtually no clear coat on the bass, other than at the base of the neck. I don't have a good point of reference on how the neck was finished. Where does one tape off the neck for clear coating? Is it at the binding, or at the fingerboard?

Not sure if you're new to Ricks but the fretboard is usually clear coated also.

The Grover tuner has 4 pins that are staked to hold the cover and base together. If the pins are broken the tuner can be repaired by drilling and tapping the cover for screws. For an undetectable repair this should be done by a machinist. Your tuner looks like it has screws installed. It is not a pro repair but the tuner should work just fine. Here is one of mine:

The fret board still has the original clear coat, I am not going to mess with that.

So the tuner has been repaired, that makes perfect sense. Thanks for the image.

Paul