QUESTION

I see that this is the right time to buy a Fender black guard Telecaster. I see alot if ones for sale now at a a good price

( well compared to 3 years ago). I am a player so originality does not matter to me as much but what parts of the Telecaster are the most important parts that I should care about when buying one and also secondly how about a wood only guitar is that a good idea?

REPLY

That is alot to cover in a short blog post but here we go. First as always i am an advocate of all original guitar both for the collectors value and for aesthetically. If you can afford it go for it you will be happy in the long run. for me the two most important parts are the wood and the electronics. Having said that i would emphasis that if you are buying a guitar in whatever state it is in make sure the body is not modified if you can help it. That means no sanding , over spray or refinishing. and the decal is the most important parts for the value and to authenticate the guitar.

Old wood sounds great but not if it is covered in a thick poly finish or 10 coats of paint. On the other hand if they are stripped they may sound good but most of the value is gone. if you have to go this route make sure the body and neck dates are in tack and make sure there original. they are easy to fake. The electronics being pickups , pots and caps are the next most important things make sure they are original and that the pickups are original windings and not rewound . This plays out as follows the old electronics with the old wood if your lucky will have that magic sound and tone . These are the key players in the guitar in my opinion.

The pick guard plates , bridge, saddles, knobs , tuners  frets and so on are secondary and have nothing to due wit the tone factor. So if you are looking for a player there you go and you have to pay accordingly the more changed parts obviously the less you pay. For me i would try to get an original finished guitar with lets say changed pickuard and tuners and bridge . this way you have a real finish and a real guitar worth real electronics and the other parts you can buy over time . this way you can save  10k or more and little by little bring it back to stock and you can still get an original finish guitar that has a real value or potential value depending on how much you restore it.

The wood only scenario is your last resort and has a few dangerous speed bumps  you have to pay attention to. first the decal has to be original if it is not the neck value is worth 70% yes 70% less!!!!  original decal with over spray are hard to tell if not and expert but they are 50% less. so wait and get one with an untouched decal and the neck date should also be there

THE DECAL IS STILL THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO LOOK FOR.  The stripped body should have and original date in the neck pocket  or under lead pickup cavity.If it does not  that body is worth 70% less too. becosue there are so many fakes who can tell??? again make sure body is not routed this too is important. if you follow these two steps atleast the wood of the guitar will have some value and you always have something to fall back on. a refinished  neck and body  without a decal and body dates are usuless and i woldl not even consider buying at all. I hope this helps if you have any other questions please feel free e mail me at THE PARTSDRAWER

Thank you

Jim pasch

Great news for the vintage guitar community.  HISTORIC MAKEOVERS a  company specializing in vintage guitar restoration and aging has launched its new website and opened its new shop in Lake Mary  Florida this week to great reviews. The company located in Florida has now become the premier shop for your vintage guitar makeovers.

The company has set up a new shop with due to the back log created from his old shop and other craftsman. The new location feature state of the art shop and a staff of wood workers and painters that are even better than the old staff  in the old location. Basically they cleaned house got rid of the old staff and setup and have optimized the process and have found some amazing talent in Florida to due his makeovers.

The new estimated turn around time is 5 months . i was one of the old customers who waited 12 months for mine to get done and yes the  work was amazing and yes it looks real but 1 2 months killed me . i have two guitars in the system now at the new location and have been guaranteed a 5 month turn around. This new shop  uses the exact same techniques as teh old shop and offers the same attention to detail. Ever guitar is an individual and is delt with in a one on one basis no assembly line no mass production they are creating  a piece of art.

it really is worth taking a moment to checkout this website the work is truly amazing and Gibson guitars themselves has never made anything this good in my opinion . It is not cost effective for a big company to due and the cost of the guitar would it basically out of reach to the general public. We are talking about craftsmanship, a talent that is hard to come by these days . I do not know about you but that fact that these are hand  done one by one and gone over and over until they are perfect is a an art that is almost extinct today.

So if you really want to see the potential of your less paul come to life checkout this site and give them a call. I believe they also offer limited services if you do not want a full make over such as replacing the boards and inlays and such so if money is an object they will work with you . If you need any further info you can also contact me at the partsdrawer

Jim Pasch

QUESTION

I am doing a restoration and i see that you sell vintage guitar parts. I am looking to buy a jack plate for my guitar and I see there are many repros out there and I saw a few at a recent guitar show that were aged and look real how can I tell

REPLY

Thank you for e mail and yes that is a real problem these days there are companies making incredible repros and makes all our lives that much harder. I always say this but must repeat it buy from someone who will guarantee and stand behind what they sell you if they say no refunds as is run there is a problem.

Ok the first trick taught to me by the Jedi master uncle lou years ago was hold the jack plate up to the light and if you can see the shadow of your finer through the plastic its fake  real plates are not translucent . I have seen some of the best repros made by a company retrospec and they look to be the best and even they cannot pass this test . The ones from retrospec on a guitar are impossible to tell so be careful!!!!!

Real burst jack plates were stamped out not cut with router. some of the great repros you see today are cut with routers. The reason is because two years ago some original  rolled plastic was found in warehouse that was for making these jack plates out . i assume it was too brittle to stamp out so what they did was cut jack plates out with a router and did an excellent job i will say and so these were flooded onto the market and are really hard to tell because the plastic used was now old stock!!!!

The argument of thin verses thick is a useless one as far as i am concerned. the earlier ones were thinner yes   and the 1958 1959 were a hair thicker and i mean barley thicker. But i have seen mint 1958 goldtops with thinner jack plates let m tell you Gibson never threw anything out and once and  a while i am sure old stock was found and used. First worry about if it is real or not then if you cant sleep at night look for the thicker or thinner one you need.

I will be glad to look at an evalutate any you have for free or can give you a number of someone who swill for you if you are not sure. Just by following the few things i mentioned you shoudl be fairly safe. If you need more help contact me at  the parts drawer and i will answer all e mails within 48 hours

JIM PASCH

ji pasch