rickenbacher DW-16 : finish question

[Alex Cattaneo]

Recently acquired this lovely guitar, and when I removed the control plate, I noticed the finish looked quite different underneath. As you can see on the picture, the area close to the controls is a darker shade of brown. That surface was underneath the control plate. Is there any to make the whole guitar look like that?

[Andrew Roblin]

I think the fading is probably due to age and sun.
Short of refinishing--which may not look precisely as you hope--I don't know of any fix.
If you ask me, leave it alone and enjoy the vintage aging of this beautiful Rickenbacker steel.

[Tim Whitlock]

I agree with Andrew. I would not refinish a vintage instrument for very typical fading. IMO it adds to the character and charm you can only get from the finish aging over time.

[Alex Cattaneo]

I wasn’t thinking about a refinish. I was wondering if there might be some kind of furniture polish that would suitable for this type of job, to get rid of the sort of milky, cloudy sheen and bring it back to a darker brown.

[Gary Meixner]

Alex,

There isn't much you can do to the existing finish to restore the original color. The aniline dyes that were used in the past to color lacquer were not very colorfast and would react with sunlight and fade over time. That is why the area that was covered is still a little bit darker.

The value in aniline dyes is they can be made in a wide variety of bright colors (sunburst) and wood tones. When applied directly to figured woods they make the grain really pop. They are also very transparent and allow the grain to show through even when heavily applied.

You could take the guitar to a shop that does finishing and have them over spray it with colored lacquer to freshen it up. That is generally frowned upon, but its your guitar so do what you want. You might get some improvement by buffing with a very fine abrasive polish and then waxing but I wouldn't expect much change.

Good luck,

Gary Meixner

[Michael Johnstone]

It doesn't look near thrashed enough to warrant a refinish. I would start by cleaning it up and getting the dust and nightclub funk off of it. For that I'd use non-alcohol baby wipes and dry with a soft cloth. Then I'd just use some guitar polish like what you'd use on an acoustic flat top and again, polish it with a clean, soft cloth. That won't change the color, but it will add some shine to the color you have.