Has anyone replaced their genuine Fender decal?

victorludorum

Maybe because the original one was damaged or because it was very badly aligned. It seems to be a very grey area out there...

Offset

Yep.  Mine was replaced when my Tele was refinished.  So was the serial number and the 'Made in USA' decal.

Do you mean 'grey' in terms of legality?  I must say that's never concerned me as I'll never sell the guitar but I understand your point if so.

randella

I've put a few on, the tricky part is finding compatible clearcoat and going with a very light mist at first. After that it's no different from any other refinishing job.

I've never sold a guitar in my life (to my wife's credit she's only occasionally irritated by this) so it doesn't bother me at all. Both of the necks were Fender licensed, went on Fender guitars, and I hate blank headstocks.

Rules apply in the classifieds here of course - to the point I think a replaced decal might be a no-no.

TeleMaster

Yea I've had my CS refinishrd a couple of times and once they refinished the whole neck and the decal was replaced.

No grey area for me really and as long as it's disclosed I wouldn't care. 

WezV

Well I once refinished an old guitar where  some idiot had scratched the decal off and scribbled their own name next to it.

Leo somebody or other???

victorludorum

It's a genuine Fender that has a very wonky decal and I'd like to re-do it. The ones I've seen on ebay look pretty rubbish and I'm not sure Rothko and Frost are doing Fender ones now.

Corvus

Crox have a load of styles

http://www.croxguitars.com/decstratusa.htm

Had a couple that were spot on, used in neck refins.

victorludorum

Corvus said:

Crox have a load of styles

http://www.croxguitars.com/decstratusa.htm

Had a couple that were spot on, used in neck refins.

That's great, cheers :-)

ALR

I stripped and refinished a Squier strat last year and replaced it with another Squier logo. I could have gone with Fender, certainly the refin and hardware quality are at least equal to a USA but I didn’t feel the need. Looks exactly like the genuine article.

Decorativeed

I've done a couple from various sources and they have turned out great.

I am considering sanding down and refinishing the neck on my 90s MIJ Jaguar though, and would like to be able to reproduce and replace the serial number and 'Made in Japan' script as accurately as possible. 

Anyone aware of places that can do that? 

OilCityPickups

If a guitar has a slightly wonky genuine fender logo I would leave it strictly alone if you ever want to sell the guitar. 

SquireJapan

@Corvus ;;^this is helpful for me too! 

Previous owner of my Japanese squier tele badly scraped off the “decal”. 

I’m proud of my Squier!

victorludorum

OilCityPickups said:

If a guitar has a slightly wonky genuine fender logo I would leave it strictly alone if you ever want to sell the guitar. 

Slightly wonky I can live with, very wonky I can't.

Voxman

The Fender logo on my 69 Strat is damaged (it was like that when I bought it nearly 50yrs ago) but I wouldn't dream of changing it.

OilCityPickups

Partially intact or wonky logos don't make a guitar play any worse ... I really don't get it. 

@Voxman 's Strat is gorgeous and original and has had a 'life' wonky stuff is character and 'honest' ... if I'm buying, replaced logos will always set my alarm bells ringing.and get me asking what else about the instrument is a bit moody? 

victorludorum

For an original '69 it would never be a question, but for a modern Japanese reissue I'd change the logo if it bothered me. Horses for courses and all that.

BahHumbug

victorludorum said:

It's a genuine Fender that has a very wonky decal and I'd like to re-do it. The ones I've seen on ebay look pretty rubbish and I'm not sure Rothko and Frost are doing Fender ones now.

I had a Jaguar refinished earlier this year.  The head stock decal was in very poor condition.  I got a replacement from Rothko and Frost.  Perfect.

randella

Just as a point of order - if it's the 'Original Contour Body' bit that's on the piss, it'd be more unusual to see a straight one!

CarbonCopy

I'm a proud owner of a Fender TE E STER courtesy of a headstock tuner.

I didn't really think about how delicate the decal is when it's applied above the finish!

As far as I can tell though, the guitar sounds and plays the same as it did when the logo was in tact.

victorludorum

Missing bits don't really bother me, but misaligned bits do. I'm the same with string tree. I blame my years of Technical Drawing at school!

p90fool

Just bear in mind that if the guitar is a few years old there'll be a visible, lighter "untanned" area where the original decal was, which the new, properly-aligned one won't cover.