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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:24 am
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Okay Ladies and Gents, as promised, here are pics of the returned 57 RI Strat as she looks at the present time.
As you can see, I have my work cut out for me to get her restored to her former glory.
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Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:44 am
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My God did the thief break outta jail using the guitar as a pickaxe. :shock:
All the best restoring it Harley, you got your work cut out there mate.

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:03 am
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Thats an amazing story! That kid deffinetly has some good kharma coming his way! Thanks for sharing the pics of your fenders as well. 8)

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:19 am
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Amazing story! I'm really happy for you that it turned out this way. Good luck making it yours again.


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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:46 am
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nikininja wrote:
My God did the thief break outta jail using the guitar as a pickaxe. :shock:
All the best restoring it Harley, you got your work cut out there mate.


Hi Nikininja,

Actually, the cracking and peeling on the body is from dampness due to the fact that the guitar was kept in a basement for a long period of time. There was also quite a lot of rust on the hardware when the young man who gave her back to me, got her. He did a great job cleaning that up.

My greatest concern is the finish that it worn away in the back of the neck, and the stains that are ingrained in the wood now. That will be the hardest thing to get out before sanding and refinishing the neck. I can strip the body and refinish that to the gloss black finish I had done to it in 93'.
The original finish for this guitar was a burst that looked like it was applied from a spitoon. The pups and pickguard are not original, since I liked the look of the 3-ply W/B/W, and ordered one from WD for this guitar, and the pups are a set of actual vintage 61's that I had purchased from a guy a few years before I found that guitar. He had three complete sets of old Strat pups and I bought all three from him to use in guitars that I really liked in the future.
I'm going to be taking some more pics of this guitar before I get into the full restoration process, so I'll have plenty of before and after pics when it's all finished.
I'm also going to try to do a noise mod to it when the time comes to rewire it. Hopefully this will let me get more clarity from the guitar at higher gain levels on my amps, without as much of the oppressive hum that goes with single coils.
I'll be ordering a new pickguazrd from fender similar to the one that's on it now, but with only 8 screw holes rather than 11. All the rest of the hardware that I've put on this guitar will still be used after the neck and body are finished.

-Harley 8)

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:55 am
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all_thumbs09 wrote:
Thats an amazing story! That kid deffinetly has some good kharma coming his way! Thanks for sharing the pics of your fenders as well. 8)


Hey Thumbs,

He has more than just Kharma coming his way. At the time he returned this to me, I had considered giving him my oldest tube amp that dates back to 1959-1960. After thinking about it, that just did'nt seem adequate. I've come up with another idea that I believe will come much closer to equating what he did for me by bringing my favorite Axe back to me.

He was reluctant to part with it for a few reasons. One being that he inherited it from his father's estate, so it had a sentimental value to him. The other reason was because he loved the feel and sound of it. I can't blame him there, it took me a long time to find that guitar and get it the way I wanted it to be. It's nice to know that someone else likes the ideas I had for how a Stratocaster should be.

He will be seeing me again, that is a promise I'm looking forward to keeping :!:

-Harley 8)

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 1:20 pm
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HarleyHexxe wrote:
Okay Ladies and Gents, as promised, here are pics of the returned 57 RI Strat as she looks at the present time.
As you can see, I have my work cut out for me to get her restored to her former glory.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image


Damn. She sound nice?

How does that beast play?


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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 1:56 pm
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Hi Malmstein,

Yes, it is a very sweet sounding guitar and used to be very comfortable when I had it before. Now, it's feeling a bit coarse because of the finish damage and the way the humidity has affected it.
One way or another, I'll get it to feel the way it was and look a lot better than it does now.

-Harley 8)

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 4:33 pm
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HarleyHexxe wrote:
all_thumbs09 wrote:
Thats an amazing story! That kid deffinetly has some good kharma coming his way! Thanks for sharing the pics of your fenders as well. 8)


Hey Thumbs,

He has more than just Kharma coming his way. At the time he returned this to me, I had considered giving him my oldest tube amp that dates back to 1959-1960. After thinking about it, that just did'nt seem adequate. I've come up with another idea that I believe will come much closer to equating what he did for me by bringing my favorite Axe back to me.

He was reluctant to part with it for a few reasons. One being that he inherited it from his father's estate, so it had a sentimental value to him. The other reason was because he loved the feel and sound of it. I can't blame him there, it took me a long time to find that guitar and get it the way I wanted it to be. It's nice to know that someone else likes the ideas I had for how a Stratocaster should be.

He will be seeing me again, that is a promise I'm looking forward to keeping :!:

-Harley 8)



Awesome! Its good to know there are still folks out there who value honesty. No doubt it was tough for him to do the right thing. Extremely generous of you to reward him for his actions. The world would be a better place if we had a few more of you around.

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 4:46 pm
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HarleyHexxe wrote:
Image


Harley can i ask the origins of the seafoam (maybe) strat to the right of the 57ri. I notice the maple of the neck/headstock is of far higher quality than standard fender lines. Can you spill the beans on it? My custom classic has a very similar flamed detail. Also the hue of the clay dots is away from the ordinary.

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:50 pm
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all_thumbs09 wrote:
HarleyHexxe wrote:
all_thumbs09 wrote:
Thats an amazing story! That kid deffinetly has some good kharma coming his way! Thanks for sharing the pics of your fenders as well. 8)


Hey Thumbs,

He has more than just Kharma coming his way. At the time he returned this to me, I had considered giving him my oldest tube amp that dates back to 1959-1960. After thinking about it, that just did'nt seem adequate. I've come up with another idea that I believe will come much closer to equating what he did for me by bringing my favorite Axe back to me.

He was reluctant to part with it for a few reasons. One being that he inherited it from his father's estate, so it had a sentimental value to him. The other reason was because he loved the feel and sound of it. I can't blame him there, it took me a long time to find that guitar and get it the way I wanted it to be. It's nice to know that someone else likes the ideas I had for how a Stratocaster should be.

He will be seeing me again, that is a promise I'm looking forward to keeping :!:

-Harley 8)



Awesome! Its good to know there are still folks out there who value honesty. No doubt it was tough for him to do the right thing. Extremely generous of you to reward him for his actions. The world would be a better place if we had a few more of you around.


Thank you for saying so Thumbs, that's very kind of you.

I don't feel it's going out of my way at all to do something for this young man who gave me back something I thought I had lost for good, in fact, I know exactly how hard it must have been for him to do what he did. This guitar is a very rare type of Strat that was never re-created by Fender when they moved from Fullerton to Brea. In fact, the dimensions for this particular RI guitar was lost during the move and no one at Fender could remember what the neck measurments were. I did try to get Fender and/or the Custom Shop to recreate this for me after it went missing, but they could'nt. When you consider tht the man who gave her back to me inherited this guitar from his late father, that would only make it harder.
I would spill the beans about my intentions here, but he may be reading some of these posts, so I'll have to keep mum for now.
I will post the event in here when eveything is finally ready. It will take a bit of time for me to get what I'm setting out to do ready for him and will cost a tidy sum to have it done right, but for me, it's worth it.
I'll keep everyone posted when I can.

-Harley 8)

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:07 pm
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HarleyHexxe wrote:
.

I don't feel it's going out of my way at all to do something for this young man who gave me back something I thought I had lost for good, in fact, I know exactly how hard it must have been for him to do what he did. -Harley 8)


Theres a very old saying in england that goes, "if you treat a man like a king he will likely respond like one. This guy responded like a king with no pre-emting. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for the payback, im a sucker for tear jerk stories.

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:16 pm
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Hi Nikininja,

You have a keen eye my friend. I'll be glad to tell you everything I know about the Seafoam Green Strat.

The neck is a Fender Custom Shop neck that is made of flamed Maple, with a Brazilian rosewood slab fretboard. The body of the guitar is Alder, and the SN# on the neckplate is 58884. If this were truly an authentic vintage Strat, it would date back to 1960. I wish it were, but it is'nt. I bought this guitar from Master Luthier Dan Shinn at his shop in 2001. The body I believe is from a 2000 model that he had left over from a mod he did for another guy, and the neck is a CS model that is from 1993.
Dan did the paint on the body, and also did the gold plating on all the original hardware. He had just aquired his electroplating equipment and this was his test subject do try it out on. It had a sort of 'relic'd' look to it when I first bought it, and still does. Kinda cool actually. Dan also replaced the original mother of pearl dots with the clay dots that you accurately picked up on. The guitar was not completely finished when I bought it, it still needed the electronics, and the pickguard, which I selected at the time I bought the guitar. I chose the 3-ply Mint Green pickguard because I felt it would really blend well with the Seafoam Green. Sometimes, I feel very tempted to change it to the white for a more authentic look, but so far, I still like the way it looks now.
The pickups are the Custom Shop Texas Specials which I originally bought to use in another guitar. They are wired in the Eric Johnson configuration, and they really sound like they belong in this guitar.
I gave $600 for this guitar, and I don't feel like I got a bad deal at all. I could take some more pics of it and post them if you'd like to see more. In fact, I'm going to use this guitar instead of the black one to do the noise mod on and see how it works out, since I've already shielded the pickguard, and the pups/control cavity with copper foil tape. I'm going to try the rewiring mod next to see how well that works.

-Harley 8)

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:18 pm
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nikininja wrote:
HarleyHexxe wrote:
.

I don't feel it's going out of my way at all to do something for this young man who gave me back something I thought I had lost for good, in fact, I know exactly how hard it must have been for him to do what he did. -Harley 8)


Theres a very old saying in england that goes, "if you treat a man like a king he will likely respond like one. This guy responded like a king with no pre-emting. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for the payback, im a sucker for tear jerk stories.


Where's the Candid Camera Crew when you need them?

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:19 pm
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nikininja wrote:
HarleyHexxe wrote:
.

I don't feel it's going out of my way at all to do something for this young man who gave me back something I thought I had lost for good, in fact, I know exactly how hard it must have been for him to do what he did. -Harley 8)


Theres a very old saying in england that goes, "if you treat a man like a king he will likely respond like one. This guy responded like a king with no pre-emting. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for the payback, im a sucker for tear jerk stories.



Guaranteed to be a good read. I'll be looking forward to it.

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