Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

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Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Beebe » Mon Apr 26, 2021 11:34 am

Does anyone have any pictures of a fender headstock painted on just the back and sides but not the face? I'm working on a headstock repair and it just got me thinking. You see it on Gibson's a lot because their headstocks always break. I imagine you could fade it like a burst or do a stinger... Or double stingers down the sides. I can't find any pics of any examples on the web where the face isn't painted.
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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by MrFingers » Thu Apr 29, 2021 9:24 am

Image

Image


Image

Image


Both Fender CS 1961 instruments.

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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Beebe » Sun May 02, 2021 10:52 am

MrFingers wrote:
Thu Apr 29, 2021 9:24 am
Image

Image


Image

Image


Both Fender CS 1961 instruments.
Awesome! Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!!
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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Highnumbers » Thu May 13, 2021 9:00 am

^^

God, Fender Custom Shop has truly lost it's way. They jumped the shark ages ago, with stuff like this.

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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Embenny » Sat May 15, 2021 5:17 pm

Highnumbers wrote:
Thu May 13, 2021 9:00 am
^^

God, Fender Custom Shop has truly lost it's way. They jumped the shark ages ago, with stuff like this.
It seems like, other than artist models and actual custom orders, they have two categories of guitars they make. Aged reissues of vintage guitars, and stuff that's weird or ugly just for the sake of differentiating it from standard models.

Sometimes the weird stuff ends up being kinda cool. Sometimes it's just like "hey, let's put a finish on the back of the neck and not the headstock, then sand 3/4 of that finish off like a really badly aged example if this guitar that never existed in the past."
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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Highnumbers » Mon May 17, 2021 6:56 am

mbene085 wrote:
Sat May 15, 2021 5:17 pm
Highnumbers wrote:
Thu May 13, 2021 9:00 am
^^

God, Fender Custom Shop has truly lost it's way. They jumped the shark ages ago, with stuff like this.
It seems like, other than artist models and actual custom orders, they have two categories of guitars they make. Aged reissues of vintage guitars, and stuff that's weird or ugly just for the sake of differentiating it from standard models.

Sometimes the weird stuff ends up being kinda cool. Sometimes it's just like "hey, let's put a finish on the back of the neck and not the headstock, then sand 3/4 of that finish off like a really badly aged example if this guitar that never existed in the past."
Yep, exactly.

And also, FCS apparently no longer has the ability to make a convincing aged replica.

I’m a big fan of the normal team built relics from 2002-2014 or so. Subtle aging, not over the top, and they actually feel like a old guitar. Then they replaced these with the “Journeyman” series and started heavily sanding the entire neck and simulating wear that is nothing like a real vintage Fender.

And yeah, doing a heavily aged ‘62 Strat in sunburst over paisley is all kinds of absurd. Were these designed by people who have no understanding of Fender history? Then there’s all the roasted necks, sunburst headstocks, and other nonsense.

I know, FCS does more than just make vintage relics, and the point of the Custom Shop is to do new things. But all of this stuff is in poor taste, in my humble opinion.

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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Beebe » Thu May 20, 2021 11:01 am

In my case (pic link below), I was working on a friend's guitar that had flaking poly and dents up and down the neck and some big gouges on the side of the headstock. I filled about 20 dings and dents along the back of the neck with super glue and sanded them back down... there were just too many and play still wasn't smooth, so we decided to sand and Rubio hard wax oil finish. Now it feels great. And I just couldn't get a nice color match on the filler I used on the gouges.. and wasn't about to cut in a maple block or dowel to fill. I started researching headstock repair and there are tons of Gibsons (notorious for cracked headstocks) with black painted over the repair. I'm sure we'd see it a lot more on Fenders if they had tilted headstocks. So I decided to try a completely reversible repair: shellac over existing poly, spray paint over shellac, shellac over spray paint... And hey, my girlfriend thinks it's cool so there you go. Probably a ridiculous thing to do out of a custom shop but may be a respectable repair for a player guitar.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yuUgFmJmYS1Pw9zv5
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vgskkLbWUYwEPXyX9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Sse7cBcv5ScRJgqL8
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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Beebe » Thu May 20, 2021 11:09 am

... it's also a black Tele... Ill try to post a pic of the whole thing when I have it back together.
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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by MrFingers » Wed May 26, 2021 1:42 am

Highnumbers wrote:
Thu May 13, 2021 9:00 am
^^

God, Fender Custom Shop has truly lost it's way. They jumped the shark ages ago, with stuff like this.
Fender did do those strange things in the 1960's. Bursted necks are know to exist, and the "full flake"-instruments were NAMM-specials for 1961. Showcase-instruments for a tradeshow, but they did exist.

Image

And Pat Senatore, the bassplayer of the Tijuana Brass, had a Fender Precision bass that was all-black. Matching headstock, and black neck.

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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Veitchy » Wed May 26, 2021 4:45 am

Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds play a Tele with a burst headstock (and fretboard) in the So it Goes clip. Tele also has a B-bender making it a pretty singular instrument.

https://youtu.be/YEpr8kaczck

Also a Tele bass and a Riddler jacket. Lotta cool shit going on here.

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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by jvin248 » Wed May 26, 2021 6:17 am

.

Most often you'll see the style you are looking for when someone sands off the front face to remove the logo and sticks a different logo on the front or no logo at all.

.

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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Highnumbers » Wed May 26, 2021 6:18 am

MrFingers wrote:
Wed May 26, 2021 1:42 am
Highnumbers wrote:
Thu May 13, 2021 9:00 am
^^

God, Fender Custom Shop has truly lost it's way. They jumped the shark ages ago, with stuff like this.
Fender did do those strange things in the 1960's. Bursted necks are know to exist, and the "full flake"-instruments were NAMM-specials for 1961. Showcase-instruments for a tradeshow, but they did exist.

Image

And Pat Senatore, the bassplayer of the Tijuana Brass, had a Fender Precision bass that was all-black. Matching headstock, and black neck.

So Fender decides to base its entire series on the one-off (?) oddball instead of producing the standard specs that represent 99.9999% of all original production?

Random stuff is fine and keeps people interested, but they don’t build the standard models anymore and it’s super annoying. The finish aging has gotten progressively worse and less realistic over the last 5-7 years and doing something like relic sunburst over paisley (??) serves no purpose whatsoever. They’ve jumped the shark.

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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Beebe » Fri May 28, 2021 4:56 pm

MrFingers wrote:
Wed May 26, 2021 1:42 am
Highnumbers wrote:
Thu May 13, 2021 9:00 am
^^

God, Fender Custom Shop has truly lost it's way. They jumped the shark ages ago, with stuff like this.
Fender did do those strange things in the 1960's. Bursted necks are know to exist, and the "full flake"-instruments were NAMM-specials for 1961. Showcase-instruments for a tradeshow, but they did exist.

Image

And Pat Senatore, the bassplayer of the Tijuana Brass, had a Fender Precision bass that was all-black. Matching headstock, and black neck.
This (above) is how I was planning on making it look. I even ordered the three tone lacquers I needed. I was going to sand back the neck (in pics below) and do the burst fade, but I got pressure from my girlfriend to keep the line. Reminds me a bit of black socks with all black Chuck Taylors... So maybe it has some punk rock to it. Any way it looks better than the gouges that were in it and much much better then the poorly color matched wood filler I started with. Maybe my buddy will get another 25 yrs of beating it up. I also put in all new electronics, Kinman pickups, new bridge, new tuners, shielded the control cavity, leveled the frets, and gave it a set up. Almost shimmed the neck but the action is good with the saddle height screws on the E strings removed. This leaves both E's at 5/64th. I'd like the high E a bit lower but the strings he likes are pretty light and it plays fine.

Still can't get image insert to work, so here's a link to the pics:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/U27S7rCYeEGMobDH7
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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by Beebe » Fri May 28, 2021 5:02 pm

Electronics before and after pics below... Looking tight! Put in a treble bleed and that's working nicely. Also feel free to make fun of me for the PIO tone cap, I like em.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jULgY78hsr4fSsXp9
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Re: Paint on Back and/or Sides of Headstock

Post by MrJagsquire » Sun May 30, 2021 3:08 pm

Highnumbers wrote:
Mon May 17, 2021 6:56 am
I’m a big fan of the normal team built relics from 2002-2014 or so. Subtle aging, not over the top, and they actually feel like a old guitar. Then they replaced these with the “Journeyman” series and started heavily sanding the entire neck and simulating wear that is nothing like a real vintage Fender.
That's interesting to know that the pre 2014 might have been more what I was after: I recently built a Strat because every time I found a CS 'Journeyman' for sale (the only body finish that I'd consider apart from a NOS, which they never seem to have in stock anyway) had that awful fake sanded neck thing going on. I wouldn't buy one I couldn't try first, so I gave up the idea of finding a NOS that was in the specs I wanted.

I'm not saying my DIY build is as good as a CS, but no way am I paying those prices for a badly sanded neck or ordering a NOS one that I can't play first.

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