Hallo folks... first posting. I am the lucky owner of a '68 Strat acquired in a market in Jakarta for the princely sum of around US$ 25.00 yup, no typo!

Whoever had it before painted it purple with gold flecks, and I mean everywhere - pick-up cavities included. They even painted the pick guard though this is in a pretty grubby white colour. This was a long time ago (1999) and I am now looking to have the guitar completely restored to original condition. I would prefer Fender to handle this so I can get proper certification for it and hopefully add to its value - is anyone aware whether they undertake this kind of work?

Cheers,

I'm inclined to agree with Nevin here...if it's been repainted as you describe, how do you know for sure this is a legitimate '68? Please remember that there are -A LOT- of fakes out there and in this day and age, you can't always rely on a serial number as any kind of "proof".

That said, the first thing I would do it take it to a few shops and see if you can get it certified as being authentic before you have it refinished. Finishes in regards to the value of a genuine vintage instrument can be a tricky thing. Most serious collectors prefer the original...or as close to the original finish as possible. Refinishing an instrument, even if it's a good, proper and professional refinish, typically will seriously diminish the value of a genuine collector's piece. In other words, if the money value of this instrument is your primary concern, you may actually damage that value by having it refinished again.

Now I would add that personally I think a guitar is a guitar...to me, it's "real" value is as a musical instrument and how it makes the musician who owns it feel. A lot of people think I'm nuts here so PLEASE take this as being extremely subjective but personally if I had a guitar in the condition you describe...authentic or not, I would personally refinish it. Purple with gold flecks? Oye! LOL!!! Let me at that sucker! LOL!!! It always breaks my heart to see an instrument left in poor condition because some "collector" seems to think it's worth more money that way. To me a guitar has very little "real" value if it's not playable. Seriously...it's your guitar, so it's -your- choice. You just need to decide whether you're a collector or a musician .

Now to answer your question directly here...I really don't know for sure if Fender will refinish an instrument of the nature, but I seriously doubt it. It may be possible to have the Custom Shop do it but be prepared to jump through hoops and to fork out a really huge chunk of dough. If it were me...remembering that most folks think I'm nuts...if I really believed it was an authentic '68, then I would first get certification saying so. After that I would get pictures of EVERY LAST DETAIL of that instrument in the condition it's in now so as to document the instrument in it's current condition. After that is when I would consider refinishing. Personally I would refinish it myself...but then I've also done a number of guitar finishes at this point and I feel very confident in my abilities to do something like that...I realize that most folks don't know how to do this. That being the case, if Fender/Custom Shop won't do the work for you...or you simply can't afford the 17 pints of blood and your first male born child, then you'll need to shop around. Start with dealers who handle vintage instruments and ask -lots- of questions.

Now there is one other thing I would like to add here....refinish vs. restoring. It's very difficult to say without seeing it in person but this purple with gold flecks paint job you describe doesn't sound like it was a "professional" refinish...and it's possible that this could work in your favor. There are a number of factors to consider here...what type of paint was used? How was it applied? What type of prep work was done to the instrument before it was painted that purple? It's been my experience that in many cases where someone decides to repaint their guitar, said person really has no clue what they are doing and very often will simply spray something like "Rustolium" over the top of the original finish and sometimes...if you're very lucky and VERY careful...you can remove the repaint and get back to the original finish. My wife has a short scale bass that was like this.

The bass itself isn't really a big deal...my guess is that it's an old Kay or Harmony and wasn't worth much money to begin with. She had gotten it for a friend of hers back in her teens when she was in her first band. When the band broke up, the bass ended up sitting at my wife's house for a lot of years until I came along. When we first pulled it out of the attic, it was painted this horrid blue (and the pickguard was painted red). It literally looked like someone just brushed on some kind of blue latex or something....really really bad job. My best guess is that someone at some point had stolen this bass and tried to paint it so that it wouldn't be easily recognized. Either way, one night my wife sat down and started "picking" at the finish a bit with her finger nail (under the pickguard where it wouldn't be noticeable) and she found that she was able to get down to the original finish. After that she started using stuff like turpentine and mineral spirits on the heavier spots and while it took her close to a month, she was able to get the whole thing back to it's original finish. The original finish was kind of beat but it still looks a far sight better than it did painted as it was.

Now honestly, this bass really was NOT worth that much effort...again it's just a cheapy off brand at best. But it was my wife's bass and to her it was well worth the effort and she's very proud (and rightfully so) of the work she did on it. The point is that it could be possible to restore some of the original finish...which could make the instrument more valuable to a collector than even a proper refinish.

I would also point out that "value" can be a somewhat subjective term in itself. This last year I picked up a Yamaha Motion B bass at a guitar show for $30. In this case, the instrument had not only been refinished a couple of times, it had in fact been through a fire...it was still structurally sound and everything seemed to work but the paint was badly bubbled, most of the plastic parts were badly melted, etc.. In this case I stripped it down to the bare wood (there were at least 3 finishes on top of the factory finish which was "hot pink") and refinished in a black acrylic lacquer. I replaced all of the melted parts (including the pickup covers) and I even restored the original "Motion B" logo on the body....cost for this instrument after the refinish was about $80 total...again $30 for the bass itself and about $50 in refinishing supplies and parts and such. I've recently had -2- offers to buy it from me for $400. Granted, again we're not talking about a "vintage" instrument here but considering my total investment...along with the fact that this bass plays and sounds quite lovely...I'm happy. Further, even if this had of been a genuine vintage instrument perhaps worth a great deal of money, it had still been through a fire...nothing would have changed that. It still would have needed a great deal of work regardless of when it was made.

The problem here of course is that the moment a guitar is considered to be "vintage" people start getting all weird about things. People seem to think differently about guitars than they do a lot of other things. Take cars for example...if someone were to buy say a "vintage" '65 Mustang and the whole body had been stripped and maybe even primed, most people would spend hours and a lot of money refinishing that car...virtually no one would let it sit there covered in surface rust. What's more is if the car was already/recently refinished (assuming it had been done well), it would be worth considerably more money than it would be sitting there covered with surface rust. A '65 Strat however...some folks consider it total blasphemy to touch that instrument in -ANY- way. A brand new Mexican made Standard Strat? Who cares....do what you want. H@ll...if you can get someone to do a really nice custom paint job on it, it may actually increase the value! LOL! But the moment it becomes a "vintage instrument" folks will start saying "gee...what a shame someone refinished it...". Rather fickle mentality if you ask me, LOL! .

So to wrap that all up, the first thing would be to verify the authenticity of this instrument. Again personally I would get it "certified" -before- I did anything else to it. Whether you're able to and/or choose to try and restore it or refinish it, it's probably a good idea to know exactly what you have and what it's worth before you proceed..if nothing else you don't want to put even a few hundred dollars in to an instrument that -could- be a fake worth less than $100. -If- the instrument does indeed turn out to be genuine, then you need to ask some questions...what is it worth -now-? How will a restore or refinish affect that value? What is this all worth to -you- personally? After that, the rest just tends to fall in to place

These are just my own personal opinions as always and should only be taken as such...I hope they help.

Peace,
Jim

Wow! That was an interesting post, and I'm not even contemplating redoing any of my older guitars. Thanks for the enlightenment!!

Hi timbo1962, welcome to the Forum.

In addition to what the others have said, let us know approximately where in the world you are and someone may be able to recommend a good refinisher within reach.

There are some very fine people out there doing this sort of work: no need to get that guit all the way over to Corona even if Fender were prepared to repaint it for you...

Cheers - C

Welcome to the Forum,I'd be VERY suspect of a guitar that had all the info in the body cavity obliterated.Fender does have a repair facility in Tennessee (at least I believe it's in Tennessee)and they do at least rewind Fender pups to original specs for $160 however I don't know if they get into total restorations.You could try by contacting Mr. Jeff Krause at Fender, sorry I don't know his email address but I'm sure he'd be able to point you in the right direction.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.