Here's the senerio:
You've just gotton ahold of a vintage Strat or Tele, let's say a 1965 or older. The bridge is rusty and the overall chrome is tarnished. The stainless steel parts are rusty. The body has dirt and wax buildup on it, along with years of smoky bars leaving thier stains. Do you buff up the chrome, clean off the rust from the stainless steel parts, clean the body, or just leave it alone? I know it would depend on if you were going to gig with it, display it or resell it. Any thoughts? I've always had the habit of wanting to try and clean up anything old I get.

_________________
Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

clean her up...make her pristine again...

Well, it depends on the kind of "feel" you're going for.

"Vintage" or "like new"?

Personally, I would keep it looking the way it does--it provides character.

UNLESS if the hardware is so tarnished and rusted that it makes it almost unplayable/unplayable, then by all means, clean it up.

....

And maybe get rid of the wax residue.

_________________
"If it's planned, it's boring." - Freddie Mercury

I would clean it to keep it from further deteriorating, but I would not refinish anything.

'Personally think of gear as pets amd friends. If you got a rescue animal which was smelly and dirty and unkempt, don't you owe it to the creature's soul to care well for that which you were entrusted with?

Besides that, tobacco smoke is toxic not only to human lungs and mouths and throats, but when the residue is taken in through your skin, it's also poisonous. And remember the Neil Young line, "Rust never sleeps."

Yeah, I'm on the clean it up side. Not refinishing but get rid of the rust and dirt and crap. Any other wear marks are part of the character and history of the guitar. I mean it IS an instrument as opposed to say, a shovel.

Peace
Gridlok

I would clean it up, remove all the grime. I would not refinish the guitar, just clean it up real good.

RK

_________________
RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

gridlok,
Take a look at the pictures KONG left on the Telecaster parts of this site. Amazing what some elbow grease and care can do.

Happy week-end,
John.E

+ 1 Clean her up.

Well it is a catch 22 question. The obvious thing to say would be to clean it up, but if you brought it to a vintage shop and the tech said the changes you make would make a $25,000 ax worth $15,000 I believe everyone would be hesitant to do it. I would be more inclined to sell it for as much as I could get and buy myself a few new custom shop axes that would suit me much better. You could buy three beautiful custom shop guitars with those beautiful necks and bodies and pups to your specs that I believe would outplay 80% of those vintage axes and still have a good chunk of change left over. Older does not always mean better.

Thanks John. I too love a project like this. I also vote with at least trying the electronics. It would be really cool if they worked. Good advice about the ohm meter.

Gridlok

i say just give it a light little cleanup, of course addressing anything that might cause issues going forward, but just enough of a clean up to maintain the vintage look it sounds like it has. Post some pics if you can too!

1) Refinish nothing. Leave all various patinas intact. Patinas can take decades to form, and sometimes can up to double the value of the guitar.
2) All rust has to go. Rust is a type of oxidation (think of it as a fire in ulta-slow motion).
3) Light clean only.

_________________
Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Clean it up.

_________________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."-John Wayne

+1

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.