1954 Stratocaster, real, replica, details, fakes and famous.

Eagle said:
It's the one I have here. It's the closest to an original there is. Crazy parts still have some of their stuff but they sell it as Black Country Guitar Parts. None of it is still in production but their neck plates are identical to originals too.
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I love crazy parts, so much cool stuff on there. I was going to ask if your knobs and scratchplate had come from there. Most of their knobs are just too dirty looking for my non aged strat but the ones you posted above look perfect.
 
SillyOctpuss said:
I love crazy parts, so much cool stuff on there. I was going to ask if your knobs and scratchplate had come from there. Most of their knobs are just too dirty looking for my non aged strat but the ones you posted above look perfect.
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I age the parts myself . The knobs are Fender’s own custom shop supplies that I age but it is very difficult to get the 54 style. The Fender pure vintage brand is very good in terms of details. I always prefer to age them myself because companies always overdo it or do it badly.
 
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People complain about relics but some old fenders are destroyed. This is real👆🏻. I don’t mind as long as it looks possible and that is backed up realistically plausible wear patterns.
This fingerboard is terrible;
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It doesn’t reflect the chord shapes that cause the wear.
 
That’s something that always cracks me up when the relic haters start going off about guitars being dragged behind a car, I’m guessing they haven’t played that many vintage guitars that actually feel like they’ve been dragged behind a car, submerged under water for a decade and then dragged behind a car again to dry out. I’ve been fortunate to have played maybe 10-15 50’s Strats and maybe 3 of them were playable across the entire neck.

That said, I played an amazing ‘58 at Gruhn’s in Nashville that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life for not owning.
 
DrewJD82 said:
That’s something that always cracks me up when the relic haters start going off about guitars being dragged behind a car, I’m guessing they haven’t played that many vintage guitars that actually feel like they’ve been dragged behind a car, submerged under water for a decade and then dragged behind a car again to dry out. I’ve been fortunate to have played maybe 10-15 50’s Strats and maybe 3 of them were playable across the entire neck.

That said, I played an amazing ‘58 at Gruhn’s in Nashville that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life for not owning.
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I've not had the best experiences with vintage guitars. I've played a spectacular 53 tele, two great strats and 58 les paul junior. The rest of the vintage guitars I've played have been distinctly meh. Especially the 1960 les Paul I got to play, it was a basketcase and it's currently worth about the same money as my bungalow. :rofl

Like you though the 53 tele will haunt me for the rest of my days.
 
You can find some amazing sounding instruments but they often play decidedly meh. Many are also just flat out bad. I get to play pretty much everything in the course of my work and it helps to remind me not to over enthuse about the history other than as a collectable. I instead chose to build replicas for myself that pay homage to the classics (and also the OCD train spotter in me) but I unashamedly build them with flat radius fingerboards and put my favourite frets in them. This stuff (the A list anyway) is now the fine art market and prices are reflecting it. The whole vintage market needs to wake up and reflect this and create a standards body that sets out requirements for evidence of authenticity. At the moment they can't even agree what 8/10 means. They also carefully avoid making binding claims about authenticity altogether . This is flat out unacceptable for stuff that can easily cost £50k. When I started doing this you could buy a real 57 gold top for less than £2k and a 54 strat for about £1k. You also came across quite a lot from just second hand sales in papers and generic second hand shops. This is long gone.
 
My idea of a vintage guitar is personal to me;
This
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This;
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This;
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And if 25 years old is vintage;
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Buy the vintage that means something to you, not as an investment because it almost never is.
Oh and play it.
 
Eagle said:
53 Strat ?
Yes here it is;
View attachment 29272
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Pretty sure I had that book, is it the one with a black and white pic of the 0001 Strat?

And what's you're take on the vintage timeline? I see over at TGP that "vintage" pretty much stops dead after 1975 and nothing built after can be considered "vintage", like a '95 Strat Plus in 2075 will still just be a '95 Strat Plus, not a Vintage Strat Plus.
 
DrewJD82 said:
Pretty sure I had that book, is it the one with a black and white pic of the 0001 Strat?

And what's you're take on the vintage timeline? I see over at TGP that "vintage" pretty much stops dead after 1975 and nothing built after can be considered "vintage", like a '95 Strat Plus in 2075 will still just be a '95 Strat Plus, not a Vintage Strat Plus.
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That’s just TGP BS . 25 years is the standard but it is hard to look at a 99 Strat and see anything. But in Strat world there are plenty of vintage collectibles newer than 75. It’s a big list actually. So as usual TGP is not even close to what is happening in the vintage market.
 
Eagle said:
That’s just TGP BS . 25 years is the standard but it is hard to look at a 99 Strat and see anything. But in Strat world there are plenty of vintage collectibles newer than 75. It’s a big list actually. So as usual TGP is not even close to what is happening in the vintage market.
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That's how I've felt about it as well, but I don't pay attention to the vintage market to know if it were an all around thing or just a TGP thing. :rofl

I think that means I need to start buying up some 80's Fender MIJ's before they jump up another several hundred bucks. 3 years ago you could snag ST-54's, 57's and 62's all day long for $450-$550, they've all jumped up.
 
Body details done and I think it’s ready for grain filler.
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The template dowel holes that are on all original added;
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The other one at the bottom is visible in the first picture. They go right through and were used to locate the rear trem rout . They are hardly ever included even on fakes but knowledge of the exact position is useful to identify originals.
Pin router marks also.
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These are also useful but the position is not fixed.
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And a 59 to demonstrate;
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Eagle said:
Body details done and I think it’s ready for grain filler.
View attachment 29472
The template dowel holes that are on all original added;
View attachment 29473
The other one at the bottom is visible in the first picture. They go right through and were used to locate the rear trem rout . They are hardly ever included even on fakes but knowledge of the exact position is useful to identify originals.
Pin router marks also.
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These are also useful but the position is not fixed.
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And a 59 to demonstrate;
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That looks great. Did you make this yourself?
 
Resources for the project are going to have to be later guitars because I simply don’t see this finish very often and it is practically always 57-9.
Here is a nice original 58 that would be a great reference for the paint. Unfortunately not my pictures .
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I think this is the look I want.
 
Eagle said:
Resources for the project are going to have to be later guitars because I simply don’t see this finish very often and it is practically always 57-9.
Here is a nice original 58 that would be a great reference for the paint. Unfortunately not my pictures .
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I think this is the look I want.
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That's an awesome look too. I really love the balance of colors and patina.
 
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