Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Axolotl
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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by Axolotl » Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:46 am

Yup, that looks just great as it is. Very close to some nicely faded vintage daphne (66 mustangs for example) which is my favorite. I'd absolutely leave it as it is.

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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by stevejamsecono » Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:48 am

MechaBulletBill wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:30 am
stevejamsecono wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:35 am
About a year and a half ago. It's only gotten more gruesome looking since:
Image20190909_115647 by Steve Bailey, on Flickr

9 years of honest blood, sweat, and effort into the thing.
that looks utterly sick, i love it, don't change a thing!
This is exactly why I didn't want to share photos of this thing. :fp:
And you find out life isn't like that
It's so hard to understand
Why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam

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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by MrFingers » Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:54 am

Does the wearing bother you (I think it looks very great to be honest). If not: have it stripped, and painted in a very thin nitro finish of your choice of colour. It will look the same in no-time.

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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by FrankRay » Mon Jun 07, 2021 10:09 am

You could sand the varnish off to get back to the blue underneath, if you wanted. Otherwise, finish it another colour. I vote LPB, personally, but burgundy mist or fiesta red would be pretty awesome too.

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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by stevejamsecono » Mon Jun 07, 2021 1:37 pm

MrFingers wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:54 am
Does the wearing bother you (I think it looks very great to be honest). If not: have it stripped, and painted in a very thin nitro finish of your choice of colour. It will look the same in no-time.
I don't mind the wear, just the gross color the sweat stains have created.
And you find out life isn't like that
It's so hard to understand
Why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam

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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by HNB » Mon Jun 07, 2021 2:07 pm

Mojo coloring.
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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by CaptainCrunch » Mon Jun 07, 2021 2:28 pm

It's true, Fender charges you $5k to get one that looks like that!

I was honestly envisioning something way more roached. I'd personally leave it.
If you're concerned about toxic sweat, stripping the poly sealer for a full nitro refin might not be the best. If you just hate the color and it's gotta go, I'd look into merely stripping the blue and leaving the sealer. Otherwise you'll be back to this point in about 3 years.

But that just looks like a 10y.o. guitar that works for a living to me.

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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by Pepe Silvia » Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:41 pm

stevejamsecono wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 1:37 pm
MrFingers wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:54 am
Does the wearing bother you (I think it looks very great to be honest). If not: have it stripped, and painted in a very thin nitro finish of your choice of colour. It will look the same in no-time.
I don't mind the wear, just the gross color the sweat stains have created.
Can any of it be buffed out?

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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by Embenny » Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:33 pm

Follow your heart. In terms of dollars and cents, it's cheaper to buy a new body finished the way you want than to refinish, but that argument doesn't mean much when you love a particular guitar.

If you're sentimentality attached to the guitar, and don't mind knowing that you'll never see the refinish money again if you sell, go for it. If it's your #1, it should look the way you want it to.

Just get the work done by someone you can trust, who guarantees their work.
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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by JSett » Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:36 pm

stevejamsecono wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:35 am

Image20190909_115647 by Steve Bailey, on Flickr

9 years of honest blood, sweat, and effort into the thing.
I don't even like teles as a rule but this looks great IMHO. Genuine wear and tear is part of the guitars history and this wears it well.

But I, like many others here, love guitars that look like this more than fresh and crispy ones so a large grain of salt is required on that.
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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by Embenny » Mon Jun 07, 2021 10:08 pm

I empathize with OP's fear of showing the guitar and being told how good it looks, though.

I have lots of aesthetic opinions that are controversial here. I think tort looks awful 99% of the time. I think 100% of non-vintage, non-spitfire tort looks terrible on every colour, and that the "good" stuff looks terrible on sunburst and every other colour that isn't white or certain shades of red. Not always bad enough to ruin the look of a guitar, but bad enough that the guitar would look better without it. The concept of "needs tort" comments blows my mind, because the guitar never ever does.

So go ahead and refinish away that wear. Just don't go sticking tort on it, and we can rejoice in our unpopular opinions :ph34r:
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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by andy_tchp » Mon Jun 07, 2021 10:55 pm

Needs more purple/pink sparkle.

I say go for it.
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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by Lost In Autumn » Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:28 am

stevejamsecono wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:35 am
Pepe Silvia wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 6:49 am
Yeah, that is why I was asking, I wanted to see how cool it looked. ;D

Those Daphne Blue Highway 1s are pretty uncommon, I could never find a good one when i got my sunburst highway 1. A nicely worn in Daphne Blue model must be dreamy.
I honestly had no idea they were when I got it, and they certainly got more expensive once Jack White started using one. I knew nothing about the Highway 1 series when I first picked it up, just that it sounded great and I really liked the neck on it. My bass player ran over from the other side of the GC when he heard me playing and insisted I buy it. I was a few months of rent in the hole at the time so he covered it and I came home with a winner. Fortunately my financial situation got sorted and I paid him back with his own Highway 1 a few years later :)

Anyway before -- the day I got it in 2012. That JC-120 sounds AWESOME with it.
Image906880_737940988817_1168561535_o by Steve Bailey, on Flickr

About a year and a half ago. It's only gotten more gruesome looking since:
Image20190909_115647 by Steve Bailey, on Flickr

9 years of honest blood, sweat, and effort into the thing.
People pay a lot of money to have their guitar look like that, but I totally understand wanting it to look fresh- I’m not a fan of the relic look either.

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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by Flurko » Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:40 am

You could auction off the body for all the fans of this gruesome grey blue in this thread! and buy another one in your color of choice with the proceeds ;D
But yeah, you should strip it and refin it you want another color.

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Re: Refinishing your #1 - Successes? Regrets?

Post by Jan Deal » Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:59 am

stevejamsecono wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 1:37 pm
MrFingers wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:54 am
Does the wearing bother you (I think it looks very great to be honest). If not: have it stripped, and painted in a very thin nitro finish of your choice of colour. It will look the same in no-time.
I don't mind the wear, just the gross color the sweat stains have created.
It's absolutely hoatching with vibes!
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