The time has come... (Poll)

[OffYourFace]

... to refinish the Indomaster. I'm so sick of this cracked out red refin. It's like it was brushed on. These pics show just how bad it really is. I got it on ebay for $400 back in 2006. Those were the days

Voting Ends Friday January 19 at 11pm PST

The question is, should I just have it refin'd black or something else? It's from January 1960 but I don't really care about sticking to the year appropriate colors. A refin is a refin. But also remember, it has a black anodized pickguard so not any color will do.

The only thing that bugs me, but just a little bit, is the over-sanded part on the lower cutaway on the back (pic 3). If I was going to sell it, I'd get it fixed but that's not the plan. Before anyone suggests it, I did ask Collin aka Highnumbers if he had time to fix that for me but he does not. I thought it would be a fun OSG thing if he could do it but that's ok, it's not important

As you can see, it was originally sunburst but I'm not going to make it sunburst again. There's plenty of SB JMs in the world. I removed the original finish from the neck pocket back in like 2007 cuz i wanted wood on wood contact.

Anyway, here are the pics along with some inspo pics:




OLD PIC:

My Old 59 GG:

Ideas:

[Fiddy]

Paint it white.

[Flurko]

I thought the only jazzmaster color allowed for an OG OSG mod was black, but I'm showing my age in this website

[OffYourFace]

I thought the only jazzmaster color allowed for an OG OSG mod was black, but I'm showing my age in this website

Haha true. My old 59 gold guard was refin'd black and I later had a refin'd '63 so you're not wrong. zhivago, Jay and mezcalhead have black JMs too. I wouldn't call myself an OG mod but it's been a long time...

here's a pic of the Red JM and my old 59 Gold Guard before the black refin. This is from May 2007 when I first joined OSG

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Are you set on the Black Anodized Guard?
It‘s a great look and goes well with many colours but only looks amazing with some.

I personally like it very much with Vintage White (Desert Sand to match the 59 prototype aesthetics comes to mind) - but also really dig it with shades of turquoise/green/blue (and Sunburst, but that‘s off the table) - like Larry‘s Jazzmaster:

I have black, anyway:

I also had a (regular, not anodized) black guard on my Vintera and loved it!

Also Black Guards look extremely good on „walnut“ stained bodies and on Golden Bodies (Firemist, Shoreline or even something Sparkly?!)
Not precisely a Jazzmaster - but JM Body Shape (and mine)

[Veitchy]

Damn they look nice. What is the actual finish of that 59? Looks almost like a varnish/furniture finish.

Incidentally, I reckon paint it black. Black on black looks great IMO. I'd love to get a maple neck JM one day and do a JM twist on David Gilmour's Black Strat.

[zhivago]

I totally get where you are coming from Mike...the black refin on my '61 isn't the greatest either as I sprayed it myself such a long time ago, I've been toying with the idea of getting mine redone too at some point, but I am unsure I want to go for black again.

Desert Sand as mentioned above could look insanely cool and have the JM "prototype" vibe...



....but black anodised guard on Black could also look totally menacing and badass!

Tricky decision for sure!

[MechaBulletBill]

Paint it white.

yeh i like white w/ black guard. but honestly, i don't hate the knackered gnarly red either!

[level3]

If you're keeping the black guard, I'd say have it properly refinished in red.

[rumfoord]

hm
CFM but BMM headstock
ymmv

[Chippertheripper]

Inca.

[GilmourD]

If you're keeping the black guard, I'd say have it properly refinished in red.

Yeah, I think the pickguard is the deciding factor. Are you keeping what you've got and locked in or is that up for change with the color?

[Pacafeliz]

Nooooo....!

[OffYourFace]

I’ll answer a few questions real quick.

-Am I keeping the guard? Yes. For those who don’t know, the pickguard is an extremely rare authentic 1959 black anodized guard. Probably one of the rarest vintage Fender parts one can find. Does it belong on this body? No but I don’t care. I’ve become accustomed to the sound and look.

-Since the guard is naturally aged, whatever finish I choose will be tastefully aged to look the part. Black just seems like the easiest color to do that with. And yeah it’ll look badass and match the aesthetic of the band I’m in.

-If I had a proper ‘59 routed body, I’d most likely do the creamy white with black pickup covers. But also maybe not because real 59 black JM pickup covers don’t seem to exist outside of the prototype guitars. I got excited years ago when I discovered those 8 pole steel/slide guitar pickups that look like big JM pickups wondering if there were 6 string versions but nope. My pickups and covers are from 1959 so picture aged white covers. (59 covers don’t get as yellow as later covers).

-Other colors that I’m considering are CFM, Inca, a darkened CAR, and last but not least: ever since I got my first Gold Guard that went from poo brown stain to black, I was obsessed with the elusive San Marino Blue . I think I’m still curious how that would look but maybe that would be better with a gold guard. But maybe someone has a better idea that might inspire me.

[OffYourFace]

Nooooo....!

Don’t ever change Pat