Fender Decals on ebay from time to time.

Dude, i didnt bother to read the other posts, so there may be some redundencies here. I built a couple Strats and Teles, most with Warmoth parts except the one i built the body starting with a blank. My guitars will bury any factory made one at twice the price.
At first i was going to get a decal, but after playing the first one i built, that i spent A LONG TIME building, and all the work i did; I got a quartersawn neck, from Warmoth, fretted, but with only a really rough profile. I shaped it down to a thick V-profile, than plaed it for an hour and a half, after every 10 minutes or so id pull the sanding block out, nad take wood off the treble side shoulder. This was done so now it fits my hand like a glove. I also thinned the headstock out, so that w/the locking tuners, and the staggered posts, i have no need for string trees, and it has a livelier sound. The body is made out of an exceptionally light ( 4.1Lbs) 1-piece body, KCG high mass Brass block with the heavy brass claw, and Callaham tremolo, custom wiring, custom wound pickups made specifically for me.

After all that i figured; "why would I want to give anybody else credit for this guitar?" Its like buying cloths for a name on it, kind of shallow. But i was there with you, and only came to the decision well after it was built, and all my player friends were willing to trade me their guitars, which were worth about twice what mine was (in parts, it cost me about $1000), and you would HAVE to go to a Custom Shop to get close to it (not many productions guitars use 1 piece bodies).

Think up your own decal, and make it YOURS.

Actually, Warmoth doesn't logo their headstocks. People buy them and put logos on them. I'm pretty sure the waterslides aren't licensed by Fender, due to the amount of fakes already out there. The neck is legal, the logo isn't.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

And if you read Warmoth's page, you'll learn that they will not place a Fender logo, or ANY logo, not even their own, in the "traditional name place" on the licensed headstock. Putting ANY logo there would violate their license with Fender. They'll send you Warmoth decal if YOU want to put one on, but they won't. I asked them to place my self-designed decal under the finish of a neck I ordered from them and they said "no."

It's 0% legal.

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

Do it.

People will say this is illegal but in all honesty- whats going to be done about it- nothing. I cannot think of one lawyer in this world who who is that desperate for work will chase you out of the woods for your guitar logo. Just make sure you don't try to fool anyone when trying to re-sell, make sure you stipulate that this is not a real fender neck, do the right thing. They also don't look genuine either because it won't have a serial#.

What y'all forget- it's not illegal to put a logo of any kind on a neck. It's illegal to make a profit- and I mean by large mass produced scale like the chinese counterfeits.. even then, there is little you can do about it.

Let's not start something here- OP was just asking a simple question

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With all due respect, this is terrible advice. Just because you (likely) wont be sued by Fender or suffer any legal repercussions doesn't make it right. Granted that the body is authentic; what satisfaction would you get out of a guitar with "fake" Fender neck? Nothing against Warmoth - they do make excellent necks - but you really should not attempt to pass it off as a Fender neck even for non-commercial purposes. But at the end of the day, we are not the Fender police and aren't going to report you so you will have to make the decision on your own. FWIW, I've seen a few Blacktop Strat necks on the Bay for under $200. Heck, there are people who have real Fenders where the logo has worn away and they seem to feel no need to re-decal the neck.

Why is it terrible?



..it doesn't make it wrong either, unless it is illegal- which it isn't till there is profit made.. like I said, even so- who's going to sue him or drag him through the judiciary system and throw him in jail?

Bearing in mind, OP only just wants to satisfy himself, because he doesn't want to feel like he doesn't want to re-fret as the expense is too high and remember, he came for advice- if he was going to rip someone off he would already have done that by now without the need to ask anyone.

He doesn't want to loose the decal as he feels he doesn't feel he has a fender anymore if he installs a warmoth neck- which he wants because they are superior. He doesn't want to rip someone off. Some get creative and put their own interpretation into the decal also as some forum members have- such as Orcist.

At least, he actually asked for advice- he certainly didn't expect such backlash for 'counterfeit'.

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The act of creating the fake decal or placing it on a guitar is a violation of trademark law. You don't have to misrepresent the guitar in a sale to make it illegal: that is another crime called "fraud." I dont know where people get the idea that money has to change hands before the damage is done, but like most people offering legal advice on the Internet, you don't know what you're talking about. Trademark law is about controlling one's trade dress, not only to prevent fraud but to prevent confusion in the marketplace or damage to the reputation of the brand. The short version is this: Fender owns their trademark, they have complete control over where and how it appears, and you don't get to violate that control just because you feel insecure about your guitar if it doesn't have a famous name on it.

Can you get away with it? Sure. I can get away with shoplifting, but it's still wrong.

Also, I think that advocating or encouraging blatant trademark violation on Fender's own forum might be a good way to get booted. I know of one much-beloved character on this board who has created a bunch of fake Strats, posted pictures of them, and even has a cute nickname for the fake decals he buys or creates... and even though I find the practice childish, he's not stupid enough to brag about it here.

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

I would have never guessed that a re-fret would have cost so much. Honestly I do not care what my headstock says or doesn't say. I used to have a Squier and it's neck was broken. I contacted Warmoth for a replacement. They said that they could build me a replacement neck, but by law they could not put Squier on the headstock. I played it for another 8 years until I bought my Highway 1.

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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

I've done several refrets,it typically comes out to about $10/fret I usully with charge that for a refret o a rosewood fretoard, this is as long as it isn't a fretless wonder, that will get pricy because of the extra benchtime due to the difficulty of removing the bad frets. Maple will also cost more because the fretboards have a finish on them. The finish makes fret removal a bit more difficult to get off withoug damaging the finish, or worse pulling out a fret with a chip of the finish stuck to it. That happens more with guitars who had the finish sprayed over the frets.
I always recommend when someone calls and asks me if they should get a new neck or refret it;unless you really want a different neck, like rosewood to replace maple, or a different profile; refret the neck. Its always best to keep as much stock as possible.
The strats I've built are built with the best materials; my main is a light wieght 1-piece body, quartersawn maple neck with a custom hand shaped profile, among all top wiring, switches, nitor laquer etc. To get a guitar to touch it, you have to go with a custom shop, and with thins like profiles neck to fit my hand, and 1-piece body, you're looking at spending thousands. After plauing a couple $4000 strats that weren't built as well, ifigure as Fender, it'd be over $500o, parts cost me $1000. But, its not a Fender, and as much work I put into say; the neck, I know that a neck off a Fender Clapton will sell for much more than my neck.
I personally don't care about the name on the headstocks, or if everything, or my case anything is stock. But, iy I had a complete strat and I was good with the fell of the neck, it refret it.

Excuse any typos, I'm trying to right this on my phone.

Kinda sorta maybe just a lil bit off topic here, but I've seen a couple people mention that they think Warmoth necks are better than actual Fender necks. I know people will have different opinions on this, but do alot of people really feel this way?

Reason I ask is because I have an old MIM Standard that I won't part with. I upgraded the pickups and electronics and I'm looking to do something about the neck. I want a V shaped neck for the guitar and I'm looking into what's out there. Does Warmoth seem to be the top choice?

When I got my Japanese 1968 re issue, the stratocaster part of the logo was put on kinked , it wasn't in a straight line and bugged the hell out of me, so when I had the neck re fretted and re finished ,I asked for a new logo to be put on, but the only logos available (without me waiting weeks), were the transitional logos
I jumped at this, because to me, the orginal Large gold Fender and small stratocaster from 1968, never filled the large headstock enough, so now mine does
Is it still a real fender? You bet, it's stil got everything stock (including the neck, albeit refinished)

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

I, and think this is one of those posts where everyone needs to step back and take a couple deep breaths. While I personally wouldnt/haven't put Fender decals on my builds, id ont see anything illegal, or wrong. (Morally) in doing it. I wouldent do it for the reasons I posted before; I put a lot more work into my builds than just boltinh a neck to a body, and ended up w/ guitars that. Are so good, and so ME, that I've yet to find a strat; CS, MIA or other that I would trade for one of them. With all the thought that went int the plans on hoiw it was going to be built, plus the hours of careful work and love that went into it; I don't want people to think I bought a Fender. Its not a shot at Fender, but I BUILT these instruments, and I'm proud of them and want people to know that I built them.

I may have considered a logo if I just bolted a replacement neck on it. Look, companies I think could care less if some guy stuck a fender neck onto a warmoth body, so what's the difference if its the neck that was replaced? As long as the owner isn't selling it as a Fender, and he's not trying to pass it off as one whick might have some financial gain, and isn't going around selling it as a fender neck, he's in no way hurting fender.

And who cares what the guy wants to do anyway? I mean, fender has enough corporate legal protection, that this one dude putting a bootleg fender logo on a warmoth strap, just because he wants oneisnt something they'll even give is a second thought.

Besides how manu strat style guitar players have different necks on their bodies that have a manufacturers name on it who didn't axtually build it, I mean; Both SRV, nad my favorite david gilmour, at certain times had Charvel necks on their strats, that had Fender logos on them. Or EVH who early into hisendorsment deal with Kramer, had the Kramer logo on the franlenstrat, even though the neck, and early on the guitar, had no Kramer parts in it except for the floyd rose w/@ the time was a Kramer exclusive.

So not only does it happen, at times its encouraged. Thr way id look at if I was a Fender Corp executive, and some somewhat popular guitarist (because if they were actually thinking aout this in regards to a single person, lest saythe OP in this instance would have to beat least a little famous ir it wouldn't even come across their radar) had a Fender decal on a different guitar, and again weren't selling it, to them its free advertising.

So I think we should let this guy, or encourage him, to do whatever he wants to do with HIS guitar.

I wouldn't do it and I don't get the attraction to having a decal on a guitar that you know doesn't belong there. What I don't understand is why Fender really makes no attempt at stopping the sale of these. You see them in every issue of Vintage Guitar magazine for $13. Just to muddy the water do you think anyone ever removes the Fender logo when putting a Fender neck on a non Fender body. While it would be nice to think so I doubt it ever happens.

They did a fine job, Ted. And with that single patent number style of decal and the large black logo, the guitar now looks more like a '69.

Rawk on!



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY