So it's a 1966 that was refinished a long time ago. Not the best refinish job, but it has some character and is old enough that it's checking in places. I might refinish it if the natural look doesn't grow on me. Oly White?
I was pretty surprised when it arrived and apart from the refinish (and possibly one tuner) it was all original. Pickups, bridge, pots, switch, guard, guard shield, shielding, trem, etc. all check out. I was nervous that it would show up with AVRI pickups or massacred wiring, but nope! One strange thing, though, is that the low E tuner is not a split shaft. ?!? Bizarre. It's definitely vintage though (right Pat. No., knob shaft extends below the tuner, no plastic bushing inside, right thickness). Maybe the shaft was replaced at some point? I'll include a photo of the headstock.
The really strange thing was the finish on the neck. It arrived with a really thick coat of lacquer on the back and sides of the headstock (and a little on the front) as well as on the heel. There were literally lines where this thick finish had been cut off along the actual playing surface of the back of the neck, and the original worn finish was still there. You could see the original finish under the thick extra lacquer on the back of the headstock and heel. I remembered Dan (Danocaster) saying that he carefully used a razor blade to get the strange finish off the back of his "Paisley-Master" so I decided to see if it would work. Sure enough it would flake right off, leaving the original finish underneath it! It took a few hours but I got it all off there. The only bummer is that the original finish left under that thick lacquer doesn't perfectly match the original finish that was on the exposed area due to years of playing, but it's pretty close. There are still visible lines, but you can barely feel them. I might try to even it out a bit more, but I can't decide if I want to mess with the original finish that was exposed. Thoughts?
Anyway, here she is!
Here's the neck as it looked when it arrived:
And here is the removal process and detritus:
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