Fender AVRI 65 Aztec Gold: Failure?

[edwardskim]

I've been looking at the AVRI 65 Aztec Gold (not the Thin Skin, just the regular one from a few years back).

Went through countless threads just reading up on them: reviews, NGD posts, and pretty much any threads on OSG and other places containing the phrases Aztec Gold.

A few reoccurring posts I've seen about them is that they didn't sell very well? Is this true?

I find this hard to believe considering on the used market they're quite high in value retention ($1500-1800) and they don't come up too often. There's one on Guitar Center used for $1749, and I know the last few months a couple sold on Reverb.

Anyone shed some light on this?


P.S. Bonus points if someone can differentiate Shoreline Gold vs. Aztec Gold... I can't tell the difference on Jazzmasters.

[BlueMelody]

Those are so gorgeous, any kind of failure seems unexplainable to me!

[TeenageShutdown!]

Poor sales or not, that is a straight up beautiful & timeless guitar. I even don’t mind there’s no matching headstock.

[redchapterjubilee]

It seemed like an interesting color for a Fender to launch the series with. I love mine. I bought mine several years back used for super cheap. Haven’t seen another AV65 used for less. Seemed like no one liked the color.

[vistavision]

P.S. Bonus points if someone can differentiate Shoreline Gold vs. Aztec Gold... I can't tell the difference on Jazzmasters.

Aztec Gold tends to be a straight up gold color. Shoreline Gold is really a bronze/brown thing.

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/paintdetail ... old%7C7372

[Marc]

I think they didn't make many in that colour. They were part of the first run of '65 reissues. I played one in a store in Denmark St in London back in 2013 and it was beautiful visually and a truly great guitar. Quite a chunky neck on the one I played but they vary a little.

I honestly don't know why they didn't do another run of them and went with pretty standard white and sunburst after that. I got lucky and last year bought a mint condition used one in Firemist Silver which they did a limited run of around 200 also in 2013. I was actually looking for a gold one and, at the time there was only one on eBay which was quite expensive plus had a bit of wear and tear. The one I bought eventually was advertised for quite a while at around £1400 and was amazed when some weeks later I managed to scrape some cash together and got it for a bit less. This is a standard '65 AVRI not Thinskin. The neck is thinner than the gold one I tried out but it is still the same shape,

There has been a near mint gold one on eBay UK for quite a while but the seller wants in the region of £2k (UK Pounds) for it which is why it hasn't sold.

At that kind of price used the Wildwood thinksins would be the best option. They still have a few left. If I had the choice I would have preferred the bigger frets and 9.5" radius but I am super pleased with my Firemist other than the pickups being a bit bright and not enough mid so eventually I will try I set made to CBS specs.

To answer your question about gold finishes I would summarise them as follows:

Firemist Gold - Darker and more bronze/brown. The metallic particles are a bit less obvious.
Shoreline Gold - as the name suggests it is a lighter more sandy colour
Aztec Gold - the most 'yellow' of the golds - metallic particles are more obvious. It isn't garish though it is a great colour on a JM and works equally well with the parchment white guard or the green nitrate style guard (like Wildwood's take on it - they have been doing some great colours in that range).

Hope this helps.

**Edit** - I don't know if anyone saw the yellow/gold sparkle finish that was done on the Mexican Classic Player Strat? Really nice guitars with custom shop pickups and the 2 point trem... anyway that colour would have been great on a Jazzmaster. Totally Las Vegas.