1973 Fender Coronado II

[Jazzmastervsjaguar]

Surfing through reverb and stumbled upon this little project. Thought the price was reasonable and knowing I could never afford this guitar in restored condition I figured I'd pull the trigger and get it pieced back together. So here goes:

The good:
All original body and neck with vintage custom color (my first!)
All original pickups and controls

The Bad: or what I need to source:
Tail piece/ Bigsby
Bridge
Switch tip (long)
F style tuners
Pickguard
Case

I was debating about putting a Bigsby on this as I know that some Coronado's came with this stock from time to time and I prefer the Bigsby to the stock Fender trapeze tailpiece. I'm guessing a B3 would work. Does anyone have a vintage one or know which Bigsby were put on these?

Also I can't seem to find a good source for the long switch tip. I know I can pick up a Rickenbacker switch tip but they seem to only come in black and I want to try to find a white one. Does anyone have a good source on these?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Now on to the fun stuff:

[Danley]

Cool guitar. Isn’t the Coronado vibrato different than a Bigsby? Not that you couldn’t slap the Bigsby, but iirc the Coronado Unit was totally different construction/operation. As far as tuners - did those Grovers require alteration of the holes? If so reissue F-tuners ought to fit out of the box. If your holes are virgin and you don’t want to ream them out, you can do what I did on my Mustang project thread and grind the collar on the reissue tuners (and ferrules) with a file.

[Larry Mal]

Look into the Kluson Revolution F style tuners.

Personally, I’d never put a Bigsby on that.

[Danley]

Look into the Kluson Revolution F style tuners.

Supposedly you need to search far and wide to find them without the collar; someone mentioned WD Music?

[Jazzmastervsjaguar]

From what I can tell and have seen Fender put two types of vibratos on these Coronado's the Coronado "Mustang" Style seen here:


And the Bigsby:


I would love to find a Fender Coronado Vibrato but I think the chances of actually finding one are rare (although there is a lefty on ebay right now). Personally I think they look much better with a bigsby and the B3 does not require drilling any holes on to the top of the body.

[Danley]

I think the Coronado vib. tailpiece uses a bent piece of metal, so isn’t similar to Mustang.

[Jazzmastervsjaguar]

I was just speaking on the cigar tube used on Mustangs, yes the design is different for sure.

[Larry Mal]

Look into the Kluson Revolution F style tuners.

Supposedly you need to search far and wide to find them without the collar; someone mentioned WD Music?

Maybe try Philadelphia Luthier Tools.

[Gavanti]

Congrats on the project. Is that the translucent red or the CAR? Usually the matching headstocks are CAR. It looks like it has the older Dearmond pickups, and I think the checkerboard binding was only used on the earliest models too. If that's a '73, they were using leftover parts at the end of the run, or it's been pieced together. I think it's more likely a '66 or '67. I have an IBM '67, and it's one of my favorite guitars. [edit: I just found the Reverb listing and saw the neck plate is '73. Have you pulled the neck yet to see if there's a stamp? My guess is the seller didn't do that].

Sadly, but fortuitously, Coros get parted out pretty regularly on eBay, so you should be able to gather anything you need including the vibrato unit and the rocking bridge/bridge cups that went with it. I've even seen some of those selling unused in their original packages. I would definitely recommend getting one of the original vibratos over a Bigsby. The Mustang-ish ones look great, have great action, and you'll maintain or even increase the guitar's value. There's a gold pickguard on eBay now that would look good on that.

Have fun!

[Jazzmastervsjaguar]

Thanks. Yeah I'm not certain of the year. I was going by the listing but after doing a bit of research on the internet it looks like Fender may have stopped making them in '72. Once I get it I'll take it apart and look for all the usual signs to date it proper.

Definitely CAR with the matching head stock. I'm not opposed to holding out for a Coro vibrato tail piece but I don't want to spend a small fortune on one either, but we'll see. I think a gold guard would be correct but I have seen them with white guards too. But I will be going with Gold if I can help it.

[krib]

My guess would be 66-67 too unless some parts have been swapped, those are the years they used those all chrome pickups.
Custom colors were offered from october 1966, and since it has matching headstock im guessing its custom color.

[krib]

And i forgot to add, Coronados were dropped from price lists 1971.

[mgeek]

This looks great, love the crazing to the paint.

Not sure I'd do much to this...can that tailpiece be fixed?

[kapepper]

Congrats on the project. Is that the translucent red or the CAR? Usually the matching headstocks are CAR. It looks like it has the older Dearmond pickups, and I think the checkerboard binding was only used on the earliest models too. If that's a '73, they were using leftover parts at the end of the run, or it's been pieced together. I think it's more likely a '66 or '67. I have an IBM '67, and it's one of my favorite guitars. [edit: I just found the Reverb listing and saw the neck plate is '73. Have you pulled the neck yet to see if there's a stamp? My guess is the seller didn't do that].

Sadly, but fortuitously, Coros get parted out pretty regularly on eBay, so you should be able to gather anything you need including the vibrato unit and the rocking bridge/bridge cups that went with it. I've even seen some of those selling unused in their original packages. I would definitely recommend getting one of the original vibratos over a Bigsby. The Mustang-ish ones look great, have great action, and you'll maintain or even increase the guitar's value. There's a gold pickguard on eBay now that would look good on that.

Have fun!

correct and most checkerboard binding coros hace a 500 serial Number made early 66

[Jazzmastervsjaguar]

Small update...Pictures to come in a bit.

So I received the guitar. From the neck stamp it is from 1966. I also pulled the grovers out and luckily the replacement F tuners can be installed without any repair bushings! So I'm pretty happy. Hopefully will have time to clean it up a bit and take some pictures this weekend.