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I acquired the Stripper 'Stang ('66 Fender Mustang) from mbene85 (Mike) here on OSG in a trade. I couldn't resist that beautiful, flamed neck. After a few months, I finally got her back from my guitar tech who did an amazing job of restoring this old gal to her beauty as she was in her glory days.

Refinished in Olympic White, my guitar tech had quite a job removing the old lacquer. In a previous ownership, the body had a wavy, uneven surface on the front due to sanding with the bridge left on. My tech had to sand down the front of the guitar quite a bit to get it all smooth and even again. Happy byproduct of this is the tremolo doesn't rock so bad to knock it out of tune.







Next, the stripper glitter painstakingly removed from the original pickguard...at least, I think it's the original pickguard. In any case, it looks great.



My tech put in my new control switches and set it up for Bridge - Bridge & Neck - Neck on the back switch and on the front switch the ability to choose either series or parallel (when back switch is set to middle position). I think it makes some other cool tonal variations but I haven't had a chance to sit down with it for an extensive period of time yet.

Unrecognizable!! Oh man, I'm SO happy to see it properly rehabbed! It looks absolutely fantastic! Wow. Just...incredible. You really did it justice.

Thanks, Mike.

Sorry mods, I just realized that this thread should be moved to the Vintage Restorations section. My bad. Please move if necessary.

That's a great looking Mustang. And yeah, that's a helluva neck.

That neck is insane

Magic! Great to see it back as nature intended.

Thanks, guys, yeah, it's a sweet neck. Here's some more photos...

(L-R): '63 Jaguar, '66 Mustang, Vintera '60s Jazzmaster, and '65 Mustang



(L-R) Fender OWs: '63 Jaguar, '66 Mustang, Vintera '60s Jazzmaster, and American Original '60s Precision Bass (I seem to have a lot of OW-finished guitars at the moment - I'll have to do the entire OW collection soon):



(L-R) Mustangs, Mustangs, Everywhere... (sorry for the bit of glare on the Squier Vintage Modified Mustang from my PC): '65 Mustang, '66 Mustang, Squier VM Mustang, Offset Player Mustang, and Parts-Build Mustang

You've got great taste. Quite the collection, as rapidly-evolving as it is!

How much did the restoration work set you back? He did such a phenomenal job.

mbene085 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:34 pm

You've got great taste. Quite the collection, as rapidly-evolving as it is!

How much did the restoration work set you back? He did such a phenomenal job.

Thanks! LOL, I'm supposed to be reducing my gear, but the partsbuilds and refinishing projects seem to building up my stuff.

It cost a little more than a usual job since there was so much lacquer removal and level sanding needed, plus the wiring up the new controls. It came out to be about $430 US. We've been friends for several years now, so of course he gave me a wee bit of a discount. He has a killer paint booth setup with a heating system.

If I had just taken a guitar for a straight refin job like just to cover over a poly body, it's probably only be about $300. Of course, I'm doing that now on my own. He's been giving me great tips which I appreciate since I am nowhere near the level of expertise that Keirn is (Keirn Hilleary of Lucky Pick Guitars - http://www.luckypickguitars.com/index.html.

He's also being super kind by offering to let me to bring in my refin work to use his big buffing wheel, which I'll gladly make use of to do a bit more buff/polish work on the Squier J Mascis (shell pink) and my other current projects:

• Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar in sherwood green with matching headstock

• Telecaster in lake placid blue with matching headstock

• '69 RI Telecaster Thinline in daphne blue

Thanks for the move to the Vintage Restorations section, much appreciated!

I just had a look on Stew-Mac to check out their Guitar Buffer set up - https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-a ... utfit.html. Might be worth investing in if I do more refinish projects (along with my current ones). Gonna need to sell some gear to swing it, though.

I love that old pickguard!

That looks great. Nice job. The neck on that is gorgeous.

Its funny how subjective how something looks is. I hate that old pickguard. I'm glad you went traditional with that.