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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:14 am
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Xhefri that undercoat is pretty awesome without the red (or blue) overcoat.


As a Bl/Sil Burst I'm liking it.


I'd vote for a Limited Run of "Snowstorm" finishes. (that's one) :oops:


How about it Finish Specialists? Is that "Silverish" material really a mystery? 8)


Mind you, Finish Aficianados and Pro's, nae Norweejans. :lol:

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:15 am
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Wow, very interesting.

It makes me think that an "Icestorm" would have been way easy for Fender: just use a transparent Blue instead of the transparent Red. That assumes there are transparent Blue paints ...

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:25 am
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Well...this makes the whole thing easier to discuss for me.

Until I saw the "real" finish, I too thought the "fake" finish was kinda cool looking. Side-by-side, they look different...something about the red:black ratio and the thickness of the striations...but hard to really describe.

Once I saw the sparkling undercoat...that is what make the original really POP. That's why it is more special than the others...by comparison the others just look flat.

I really like this thread...thanks.

Cheers.

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:26 am
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Xhefri wrote:
Ceri wrote:
Twelvebar wrote:
Is it bad that this thread makes me kinda want to try do one of these finishes?

Do it on an Ibanez. That'll confuse the archeologists! :D
Cheers - C

Well to help you out, check out this Fender Firestorm guitar. It looks like an Ibanez!!!! Fender made these like two years around the same time the other ones were produced (1990-1991). This is a Heavy Metal Strat, with Lace sensors like an Ultra in a Firestorm finish (real deal) with all the HM appointments! So yes, all of us archeologists will be baffled!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Image
Image


HM Ultras are rare enough to begin with; one in Firestorm definitely has to be among the rarest of the rare.


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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:35 am
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Yeppers, there are some storied floating around about these finishes (beside all this controversy!) One story of interest is there was a guy worked at Fender for about 2+ years and he was the only one there who knew how to do these finishes. He quit his job, so production stopped... so the legend goes. In trying to verify this story, I tried to locate the original painter at Fender did the actual Firestorm finish. I talked talked with Rob Schwarz about it and he said he did not know who it was that did these finishes and pointed out that they only had records indicating that the Firestorm finishes were listed available in 1991 - 1992. I then I contacted Fender legend, John Page, (of former Fender Custom Shop fame back in the mid-1980s onward) and he said that was just too many years ago to remember much about who it was that made these finishes or anything about them. I even tried, with no success, to contact Dan Smith, the man who tried to turn Fender's lagging quality around in the early 1980s, to no avail! So the story has never been verified. Some say this was some kind of aluminum type material under the finish. Sure looks like it!

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:44 am
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Xhefri wrote:
Yeppers, there are some storied floating around about these finishes (beside all this controversy!) One story of interest is there was a guy worked at Fender for about 2+ years and he was the only one there who knew how to do these finishes. He quit his job, so production stopped... so the legend goes. In trying to verify this story, I tried to locate the original painter at Fender did the actual Firestorm finish. I talked talked with Rob Schwarz about it and he said he did not know who it was that did these finishes and pointed out that they only had records indicating that the Firestorm finishes were listed available in 1991 - 1992. I then I contacted Fender legend, John Page, (of former Fender Custom Shop fame back in the mid-1980s onward) and he said that was just too many years ago to remember much about who it was that made these finishes or anything about them. I even tried, with no success, to contact Dan Smith, the man who tried to turn Fender's lagging quality around in the early 1980s, to no avail! So the story has never been verified. Some say this was some kind of aluminum type material under the finish. Sure looks like it!

John C wrote:
Twelvebar wrote:
Is it bad that this thread makes me kinda want to try do one of these finishes?

HM Ultras are rare enough to begin with; one in Firestorm definitely has to be among the rarest of the rare.


+1 Time for a CS reissue.

John C; was the Firestorm HM Ultra a US version?

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 11:42 am
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danagos wrote:
+1 Time for a CS reissue.

John C; was the Firestorm HM Ultra a US version?

I know you were asking John C. but yes these were made in USA. The one pictured I almost bought, but then the guy sold it to someone else before I jumped!!! (BTW John C is "one of" our most knowledgeable people about guitar history on this forum!)

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 11:58 am
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Xhefri wrote:
danagos wrote:
+1 Time for a CS reissue.

John C; was the Firestorm HM Ultra a US version?

I know you were asking John C. but yes these were made in USA. The one pictured I almost bought, but then the guy sold it to someone else before I jumped!!! (BTW John C is "one of" our most knowledgeable people about guitar history on this forum!)

Thanks Xhefri, I thought US...didn't MIJ have similar guitars or strat name?

John C's replies are always factual and well thought, a pleasure to read, especially if it's your own question.

As ever, thanks to you both. Good thread, too.

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 1:42 pm
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danagos wrote:
Xhefri wrote:
danagos wrote:
+1 Time for a CS reissue.

John C; was the Firestorm HM Ultra a US version?

I know you were asking John C. but yes these were made in USA. The one pictured I almost bought, but then the guy sold it to someone else before I jumped!!! (BTW John C is "one of" our most knowledgeable people about guitar history on this forum!)

Thanks Xhefri, I thought US...didn't MIJ have similar guitars or strat name?

John C's replies are always factual and well thought, a pleasure to read, especially if it's your own question.

As ever, thanks to you both. Good thread, too.


Well they were called "USA" as were the regular HM Strats of this design (dinky body, 25.1" scale/24-fret necks) but we also know the regular HMs have FujiGen part stamps on the neck heel and in the neck pocket. I would suspect that for the HM Ultras in Firestorm the bodies were shipped to the USA unfinished, while the other colors were shipped finished like the "regular" HMs. I think we would have to see an HM Ultra with the neck removed to see if they also have the FujiGen part stamps.

I have personally only seen one HM Ultra in the flesh and it was a tobacco burst; I spotted it at Akron Music circa November 1991/January 1992 before they closed their downtown store that was about 2 blocks from my office at the time. It came and went during their "moving" sale, as they were moving that location to a much larger space out in one of the burbs - Cuyahoga Falls.


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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 2:37 pm
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That neck looks very Japanese to me. The inlays are identical to the Talon models and so the squared off fretboard..

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 3:19 pm
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Xhefri wrote:
Ok here is some more clear cut evidence in case anyone is really still doubting. Here is a picture of the FAKE Firestorm that has been stripped. Please note the White base coat, followed by the Red color coat in which black stripes are airbrushed on then clear coated:

Image
Image

Now look at this damaged REAL Firestorm. You can see how Fender applied some sort of silverish material with black streaks in it, then sprayed with a Candy type transparent Red color coat, which then is clear coated. Way different process than the guitars painted by Rod Essex.

Image
Image


Xephri It looks like it was a black base, and then a metallic silver coat that was manipulated with foil, not unlike a refinish I did on my old Ibanez. Then a candy red over top, then clear.(here's an old shot of that Ibanez, partially done:)
Image

This is pretty close to how I thought about doing it, though I might have used gold instead of silver.

Maybe I should do one in Green, and we can sell fake Snotstorms on ebay?

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:23 pm
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I'm thinking similar to twelvebar, except I would have thought - silver paint first, then the black, wiped off (foil sounds about right), followed by clear red, then black burst edges.
This gives the genuine ones that Candy apple effect that the fakes don't have.
This difference has always been glaringly obvious to me. He was an unpleasant person (the troll) but I could always see where he was coming from.


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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 5:17 am
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So help me to understand. If someone does a white one we call it a Snowstorm. If you do a green one we call it a Snotstorm. What do we call a pink one? :mrgreen:

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 5:33 am
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Xhefri wrote:
What do we call a pink one? :mrgreen:

HelloKittyStorm

...must be!

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Post subject: Re: Oh Boy! More About Firestorm finishes!
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:21 am
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Marianeq wrote:
Xhefri wrote:
What do we call a pink one? :mrgreen:

HelloKittyStorm

...must be!

:D +1 :D

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