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I have seen photos of a guitar in a book somewhere which had “LPB” crudely scratched under the pickguard, the LPB covering a sunburst. I think this was a factory refin though. I’d guess most would be showing the original paint, if not on wear and chips on the body, then small areas in the neck pocket?
Maybe Selmer bought a batch of Strats with consecutive serial numbers? That might be the only clue. Are there any still around in the original salmon pink paint? I’ve never seen one.
Some will say the refin was down to handle the demand created for 'fiesta red' due to the Shadows - Yet sometime around the early 60's and The Shads were moving towards white
At the time Fender were imported by Jennings, then Selmer, yet most/all guitars were shipped in a carton with no case - Some will say that any refin was undertaken due to shipping damage - Selmer sold most with their own cases
Some will say any refin was undertaken by Dick Knight in the basement at the Selmer store on Charring Cross Rd - Some talk about them undertaken under a railway arch in Bethnal Green
Some will even say there were no refin's undertaken by Selmer - I believe I've heard comments that say this is endorsed by Clive Brown as well - Don't quote me gospel on this but I've heard it more than once from different sources
The mystery continues on the Coral Pink, Flamingo Pink, Salmon Pink and Fiesta Red story - In part - The early 'Custom Color' models were done in whatever Dupont car paint was available at the time. When the paint can was empty in the spraying booth, a worker would rush down to the nearby paint store, for any colour paint that matched, or could be mixed up there and then - It appears that Fender had no paint stock control at the time
So it all adds to the myth
My question has always been, that let's assume there was a Selmer refin, then how do you tell this is an early 60's Selmer refin, over any other refin, be it 60's or 70's refin, undertaken by Tom, Dick or Harry - Why should we add any value to a 'Selmer' refin as against the one carried out by Tom, Dick or harry - Both are a refin and as far as I know there is no/little actual clear cut provenance that goes with any 'Selmer refin'
Look at a Fender Custom Colour chart of 1960 and no Salmon Pink or Coral Pink listed - So are these nick names later acquired for varies shades of fiesta red, that Fender painted at the time, from a different 'mixed' run/supply, hence the variations - Or from fading, UV, nicotine staining etc etc or indeed refins from a different paint source, or a different run of 'mixed' paint
http://www.guitarhq.com/fenderc.html - one of the best sources to read - Not even sure if all is 100% correct, but certainly a lot of good info
It's never goign to be the colour alone that is used to identify an apparent Selmer refin... but if you have a pink one in a selmer case and a bit of additional provenance then you can start to consider it.
Fading of red pigment can happen very fast, but you would expect them to fade at different rates and whist there is some variation I don't think there is enough for that to be the real explanation.
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I'd forgotten about the whole salmon pink story, it seemed to die down when the internet started, possibly because it always was just a myth and the ability to research and cross check killed it.