Teachable Moment or Original Finish?
Wow, is this guitar shiny or what. But is the finish original and buffed out or a refinish or respray?
I just bought a 66 ES 345 that was advertised as mint. Those of you who read me all the time know how I feel about the term “mint”. I could tell from the photos that it wasn’t mint but it sure looked pretty good to me and the price was right. When I got the guitar I was astonished at how clean the finish was. There were no pick marks on the lacquer. There were a couple of chips here and there but was it ever shiny. The back of the neck had virtually no wear at all-just one chip. The fingerboard, however, seemed like the guitar had been rode hard and put away wet. The guitar appears to have been refretted. That would mean that the original owner, who owned it from 1966 until 2010 had played it through at least a full set of frets and maybe half of the set on the guitar now. The guitar had rubbing compound and polish everywhere. The gentleman I bought it from-not the owner-told me a story about the guy he bought it from. he said the guy picked the guitar up with a polishing cloth and a towel. He was apparently constantly polishing and cleaning the guitar. That would explain the lack of pick marks. It would perhaps explain the condition of the body but bear with me here. Wouldn’t this same owner keep the fretboard clean? It looked like the guitar was played by Pigpen (from the comic not the Dead). It had dirt piled up on every fret and polish in all the cracks and crevices. There was a ton of dried polish under the pickguard and under the truss rod cover. On the “it’s an original finish” side of the coin-the electronics were completely untouched-no broken solder. I don’t think you could do a refinish without removing at least the pickups from the harness. But you could probably do an overspray which I think is possible. If it was oversprayed, it was done brilliantly. There’s a small flaw on the back but that’s quite possibly factory since the guitar is marked “2” for second which usually denotes a small finish flaw and not a problem with the functionality. So, I’m concerned since finishes are a bit outside my level of expertise. It sure looks original but it looks too good for the amount of wear on the gold and on the fingerboard. On the other hand, if the guy was nutty about polishing his prized possession, then it may make some sense. The teachable moment part is don’t just look at the finish, look at the rest of the guitar. Does it make sense that the finish is in such great shape and the hardware and fingerboard are showing a great deal of wear? That’s one of the first things I learned about how to tell a guitar has been professionally refinished. The fact that there was polish under everything says that the guy certainly liked to polish his guitar. It also means that he NEVER took these parts off after it was presumably refinished. That makes no sense. If someone is trying to pass off a refin as original, you can bet he’s going to go over the thing and make sure there are no signs of polish or rubbing compound. So, I lean toward the guitar being original. I need to decide whether to return it in a few days. The seller has agreed to take it back and he has agreed to give me the phone number of the original owner so I can discuss it with him. The fact that the refret wasn’t disclosed by either of them gives me pause however. This is hard. Judge for yourself.
Refret? I think so. Look at that crud on the 'board.
Look at the crap that was left under the pickguard. It appeared to have been there for very long time. Also note the amount of wear on the gold pickup covers.
You thought the front was shiny? Yikes. I had to put on sunglasses.
