Fender Duo-Sonic officially an offset? I hope so!

[gringopig]

I bought a Fender Duo-Sonic from a pawn shop in Toronto in 1989 and brought it back to Scotland with me. Obviously Quaaludes being quite the thing in the '70's, someone had seen fit to take the paint off and stain it a lovely turd brown colour, replace the knobs and drill holes in the pickup covers to make it into some form of wee Stratocaster:
EDIT: Hope the pics aren't too big. If they are I can resize them!



Once the 'Ludes wore off, I hope the miscreant felt ashamed. So a few years ago I decided to throw the wheel of time in reverse and put it back to how it would have been had Mr. Druggie not ruined it. Full refret, repro pickup covers, new aged knobs, new Fender '64 Telecaster bridge saddles and Chris Richards of 3RGuitars doing a nitro refinish and relic job in the original Olympic white as seen in the neck pocket:



and here it is:





I have a Fano Alt de Facto JM6 but next on gringo's hitlist is a vintage 1963 or 1964 Jaguar!

[Pacafeliz]

good golly that's NICE!!!

welcome aboard, great restaurations are always a nice way to come in!

[Pogue Mahone]

Helluva save! Would love to find a Duo-Sonic II to restore like that!

[debudavid]

Very nice! I have a soft spot for the old Duo-Sonics.

[amv]

You did a fantastic job, but I can't pretend a part of me isn't sad to see the demise of the world's only Elvis Costello Duo-Sonic.

[Paul-T]

Great job. Nice, pretty subtle paint job too, did you do it yourself? (Might have to take notes for my Mustang bass).

[gringopig]

I got Chris Richards of 3RGuitars to do it. I sent away the body and with a wee bit of discussion of relic level and some example photographs he did a superb job of imagining it as it would have looked without the Elvis Costello treatment. It really was a nasty poo brown!
I think it was a nice job getting the yellowing of the clear coat spot on:

[Acidhouse]

It’s like two different guitars.

[gringopig]

My thought exactly, I was stunned when I put it back together but this is how it should have looked. It was an original olympic white and apart from the refinish, 2 aged correct knobs, new Fender pickup covers and bridge saddles, it's original. The pickups are original and dated June '64:



It changes the look completely though, yes!

[Don_Karnage]

Looks fantastic, congrats!

[Surfysonic]

Lovely! Excellent restoration!