Taking a vintage guitar apart....

peteri

I think there are two schools of thought:

a. People who talk about such stuff on forums

b. The real world

In my experience dealers when you're selling to them are in camp A. and then switch to camp B. when you're buying.

I have a simply wonderful 66 Strat which is (to my knowledge) on it's third switch, which actually fits - to have a guitar with the lacquer worn away off most of the neck from playing but not having worn out a 'bought to a budget' switch makes no sense and worries me far more.

Similarly with re-frets, and again I think the a/b choice above applies

ICBM

Gassage said:

the neck plate screws are even more important. Each one should go back into the same hole every time. The bottom neck side one on a preCBS guitar should always be the most worn by a mile. If I don’t see this, then I know the guitar hasn’t been cared for properly 

I once refused a guarantee on a set-up I'd done, which the owner brought back complaining that it wasn't playing right, because as soon as I picked it up I knew the neck had been off again - the screws were in the wrong holes. The owner stuck me out that it hadn't, until I pointed this out and explained why there was no way it left the shop like that... it transpired that his friend had wanted to check the date - but hadn't realised what the little piece of business card in there was for .

jpfamps

TheGuitarWeasel said:

skaguitar said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

My big eye opener came when I did pickup work for a rather famous touring band ... one that features lots of lip smacking  vintage guitars. Flight case drawers full of vintage fender and gibson pickups that were swapped out as necessary ... rubbing shoulders with modern recreations ... because you couldn't have instruments down with a show to do. No precious attitude, just nice old tools kept in tip top gigging notch by skilled guitar techs.
Stripping down vintage Fenders is a necessity, and usually they play better after a tuneup ... not worse. I'm assuming the OP wouldn't feel comfortable with a refret either ... in which case his hypothetical vintage guitar becomes unplayable with wear ... that's it ... it's the glass cabinet or landfill, as all the mojo would get thrown away with the knackered frets! :-). 

you shouldn't assume anything... if my goldtop tele that I gig now needed a refret I would get it done...it's not a vintage guitar worth thousands of pounds though...and also if I had a vintage guitar that I gigged regularly that needed work doing to keep it playable of course I would get it done... but what I'm saying is if it was taken apart to do that...and I knew it had been then I might perceive that it played differently...even if it didn't... I'm not precious about stuff and get all that everyone is saying...it's just my perception and my quirk...but hey... it's not life or death is it..

and 'mojo' is in the player not the guitar

As someone who rewinds vintage pickups as part of my living I'm pretty used to handling nice and valuable old gear ... and I'm aware that mojo in the instrument is a crock of s--t. Of course you are right, it comes from the player, and I really wasn't taking a swipe at you. 

A Story that happened a little while ago: A guitarist came to visit my workshop to have a couple of new pickups popped into his fairly new Les paul. I saw he had brought two cases, and asked what was in the other one. He told me he'd brought one of his other guitars because he knew I liked old instruments, and to open up the case and take a look. Inside was a gorgeous sunburst 62 Strat, a bit roadworn ... but honest wear, not trashed. I asked if I could plug it in and try it, and he said to go ahead, but it wasn't really worth it. I asked why, and he said that the neck and middle pickups hadn't worked for over ten years, bit he wasn't going to open it up as he wanted to keep it all original. So I had in my hand a fairly useless one pickup Strat, or a very expensive door stop. No way would he want the switch checked ... or god forbid a pickup rewound. I see this all the time, and it makes me rather sad, as lovely instruments are there to be played.

The average Stradivarius violin is worth several times the value of a 62 Strat, yet they remain in players hands, with replacement fingerboards as needed, sound posts reset etc etc ...     

All the Stradvarii chellos apart from one have been cut down in size.

The equivalent of cutting a J200 down to a Dove.

jpfamps

ICBM said:

guitars4you said:

haven't they had the scale length changed as well ? - from baroque to modern orchestral - effectively like changing a 12 fret Martin to 14 Fret - Or an LP at 24.75 to Fender-esq 25.5

I've read that too, but I can't see how unless the neck is replaced - the bridge doesn't get moved either. Unless it's just the marginal increase - there will be a small one - caused by increasing the neck angle and using a higher bridge which is tilted slightly the other way.

I know a expert in dating violins, so I'll ask him next time I see him.

FelineGuitars

peteri said:

I think there are two schools of thought:

a. People who talk about such stuff on forums

b. The real world

In my experience dealers when you're selling to them are in camp A. and then switch to camp B. when you're buying.

I have a simply wonderful 66 Strat which is (to my knowledge) on it's third switch, which actually fits - to have a guitar with the lacquer worn away off most of the neck from playing but not having worn out a 'bought to a budget' switch makes no sense and worries me far more.

Similarly with re-frets, and again I think the a/b choice above applies

Bang on the money......

Much of the "vintage original" talk originates from buyers or dealers looking to knock a few 100s or even 1000s off what they need to pay you for your guitar.

And if you take the pickguard off an old strat you let all the Fullerton air out.

We seem to put WAY too much faith in the care with which these PRODUCTION LINE guitars were assembled back in the day. 

These were just guys (on low to medium wages ) working a "9-5" and needing to get a certain number of them assembled before the end of the day to keep their productivity targets up.
Bear in mind also that Leo Fender originally thought that if you wore a neck (or rather the frets) out, then you'd just take the old neck off and put a new one on, so he didn't intend players to be so precious about the guitars