I wish I could see better pictures of the body.

Restored (ie, refinished, re-decaled) it could be worth upwards of $10K.
The market has come down some recently.

As it is, boy, I'd be hard pressed to put a good value on it. It depends on what original parts you have, etc ... but that said, I have had vintage Strats restored and gotten great use out of them (let my kids sell them when I'm dead).

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

orvilleowner,
I've put a couple of full size pics of the body here:
http://2wheeln.com/strat/front.jpg
http://2wheeln.com/strat/back.jpg

I can take more from different angles if you'd like.

I have all the original parts except the strap buttons. The pic of the tuner you saw was the best one. The others are rusted more. The bridges are in sad shape as well. I think the front 2 pickups are good (resistance measurement) but the bridge pickup is open.

I must say I like like that. I would get it back together and just see what needs to be done to get playable as is

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

I gotta say, I think it looks cool as is in those photos. I wouldn't do a thing with it. I'd just put it back together.

Totally agree.

You might want to do a new (more careful) clearcoat - or just leave as is. I'm not big on the relicing thing - but you have the genuine article and that's a whole different matter! Very pretty.

Two ways to go with the hardware. One is to save all the original pieces to reunite with the guitar in the future; but rebuild with new, well chosen hardware to make the guitar play the very best it can.

The other is to restore the existing hardware and use all or as much of it as possible. We haven't seen your bridge parts, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are a lot more fixable than you might imagine. Mr Cvilleira is probably the best person to advise you on that - I'm guessing it will involve soaking in things like naphtha and WD40!

In this particular case I simply have no idea whether Fender will sell you a replacement decal for the headstock or not. Contact Customer Services or talk to an Authorised Fender Dealer, after reading this page:

http://www.fender.com/support/faqs.php#q9

If not, then leave it as is. Please don't put a fake decal on there! It would be aesthetically wrong, as well as very much devaluing the instrument.

I think it would be a very cool instrument indeed when reassembled and gently tweaked for playability. No idea if it has significant monetary value - but I'd be delighted to own and play that one!

Cheers - C

Thanks for the link to those pictures, hogwildls.

The body looks right! A nice two-piece body. Of course, having the original parts is important for a restoration.

As for value, in present condition, parted out, or restoration, I would contact Dave at Dave's Guitar Shop in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Thanks all for the great advice.

I have a few more pics posted here: http://2wheeln.com/strat/index.html

This option sounds pretty good.

Will a 62 RI neck fit my body?

The original neck is in really poor condition. I could have it refretted but if I replace the neck with another one, the original will stay intact.

Comments?

No, no - keep the neck on! By all means have it refretted: I am not remotely experienced in the vintage guitar world, but I believe refrets are accepted as necessary without unduly affecting the instrument's value. (I stand to be corrected on that.)

Now we can see the hardware, well, those electrics are never going to fly again, are they? A wire missing from the bridge pickup, and who knows what going on inside the pups and pots. If you plan to make the guitar playable then I'd put the entire unit to one side untouched to reunify with the guitar later if you ever want to sell, and install an entirely new loaded pickguard. One thing (which you may need to consult a tech over); it would be important that the new guard exactly fits the existing mounting screw holes, so's you don't need to damage those (let alone redrill) to get it on. Custom cut pickguards are easy to make or order from a supplier such as WD Music: that's not a biggy and nothing to get worried about.

Far as the rest of the hardware goes: I'm finding it lipsmackingly attractive, but I suspect the bridge may similarly need putting carefully to one side. You may be able to get the screws working again but the hex tops on the saddle height screws do look pretty wrecked. Save it, and buy an exact replica from Callaham Guitars online. Check the spacing of those six screws: it can almost definitely be matched, but again you need to get it right and not damage the wood further.

I'm assuming you are leaning to making this guitar playable rather than selling? It kinda feels that way. If so, one of our most highly respected members of the Forum, Mr Orvilleowner, might be kind enough to tell you a bit about his 1954 Strat. What I think we all admire about that one is that he has done what's necessary to make it playable - and he does play it. Which seems vastly preferable to merely selling to a collector to put on a wall.

Even so, I'd write out that story of yours in the first post and send it along with your really excellent photographs to one of the dealers that's been mentioned here and see what they have to say about it. Proper expert advice would be well worth having.

Dunno, I'm just more and more taken with this guitar by the second - what do we think, guys?

Cheers - C

Yes! Unless the neck is twisted or damaged (like a broken truss rod), it could be made playable.



Without getting my hands on it, it's hard to know if the pots are still workable (rust is not a friend of electronics). The bridge pickup could be restored rather easily if it's just the lead wire that's missing. Otherwise, it could be completely rewound.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

You know much more than me, but isn't that something where a potential buyer would rather it was just left untouched? I've seen guys looking at solder joints through jeweller's eye pieces to make sure they're kosher. If the guit indeed has some dollar value it's in these kindsa things, no?

Go on, tell the gentleman (and lots of others) about your '54, why not. Do I remember that the pups are switched out on that one?

Cheers - C

I think that re-fretted and refinished it's worth less to a collector than if you left it alone. I think the dollar value of this one is in the parts.

If you want to keep it for yourself go ahead and restore it.
If you don't want to keep it, parts that sucker out on Ebay and make some coin.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

The cat's already out of the bag on this one, ceri. It's already at 50% of the value that an untouched original would have. So IMO it's a matter of getting what's there working. Soldering a new lead to the original pickup is slightly better than putting in a replacement pickup.



When you get a "basket case" like this and you want to play it, you do whatever you have to do. I didn't have the original pickguard, pickups, or electronics on my '54. So I have a set of Texas Specials and the electronics are early '70s.

I would have it painted a three-tone sunburst to show off that body (the pictures he has help prove it's an original body: the dowels, nail holes, etc.).

Both of these have been restored to some extent (the white one is a lot more original than the sunburst), but both headstocks were okay:

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Sorry for taking so long to get back, lot of things going on.

Thanks everyone for the great feedback


I called the shop, didn't get to talk to Dave but was advised that since it has already been through a refinish (even a bad one) it has already lost its "original" value so a refinish will not hurt its value from where it is now. Just like orvilleowner said!

As far as parting it out, its a toss up as to whether the value is higer in parts or refinished.


Not sure about twisted. Is there an easy way I could check this myself?

The truss rod is free and operable. The fretboard has grooves worn into it from playing that are fairly deep in places. Would this need to be corrected or will it work as is?

At this point I'm thinking get it working. Pre-wired pick guard, check the neck for twist if OK - re-fret, get replacement tremolo and maybe tuners. Try to get a new decal from Fender and have it repainted.

I have added pics of the tuners and nut and first 2 frets. http://2wheeln.com/strat/index.html

Thanks for the great pics orvilleowner! I would be very proud of these!

Excellent! That's ideal, to my mind. And personally I wouldn't touch the finish: I think it is really beautiful as is.

From your remarkably good photographs (amongst the best we see here) those are surprisingly even grooves worn into those frets from treble to bass across the width. Normally much more on the treble side. I expect that tells us something about the music that's been played on that guitar...

Far as the old parts are concerned, I'd just put them all carefully away in a box, maybe wrapped in tissue. I'm not quite as convinced as the others that this thing doesn't have a certain vibe value as a complete article. Obviously it isn't worth a fraction of what a good condition '62 would be, but it is just so fine looking in its own - wrecked - right, I have a notion someone might be interested in it if they actually laid eyes on it.

Whichever: it does you no harm to keep those parts stored carefully for the future. It would sure look fabulous on a wall some day! (Not my usual attitude to vintage guitars, but there's always exceptions...)

Thanks so much for sharing this with us. It has turned into one of the most interesting of these kinds of threads I can remember. Very best of luck to you!

Cheers - C