Fender & Others

Here’s an early 60’s Mary Kaye model I built from a bunch of old parts I had lying around…

Sometimes we are asked to take a brand new Fender or Gibson and make it look like an old original. Case in point is this baritone jaguar owned by guitarist extrordinaire Bill Frisell. It had a thick poly sunburst finish, and although it’s a cool guitar, it wasn’t much in the vibe department. Bill and […]

Who doesn’t love custom colour strats??? The guitar on the left is a ’61 aged Inca Silver replica built for Nick S. of Idaho.The guitar on the right is my early 60’s aged Surf Green parts guitar built around a 1959 slab board neck. By the way…the green nitrate guard on the Surf Green guitar had 2 […]

Here’s a 1950 Nocaster that we restored for our good friend Joe R. of Tacoma. This is the oldest Fender I have worked on so far…I could almost feel the presence of Leo Fender peering myopically over my shoulder , saying ” Ah yes…I remember this one”!!

This one was a neck and body restoration […]

Here’s a 57 Tele we redid for all around great dude Martin D.
Moderate forearm wear and light checking make for a classic Tele look.

Here’s a 57 strat I restored for my friend Greg Johnson.

I’ve always loved orange Gretsches with DeArmonds. This guitar left the factory as a sunburst Double Anniversary. When I got it, it sported a metallic green finish. When I stripped it I was in for a nasty shock… both the headstock and the heel had been cracked and repaired with a dark epoxy. The neck […]

This is a Strat I put together around a bunch of early 60’s parts I had kicking around. The body is a lightweight alder one from Allparts, finished in a faded Sonic Blue nitro lacquer with lots of cool checking and forearm wear. The neck is a beautiful flame-maple sample from Allparts. We dye the […]

I bought this Jazz Bass from Southworth Music about 6 months ago. The headstock finish is an original heavily ambered Olympic White, but the body had been stripped and stained an ugly brown color.

We sprayed the body to match the headstock and did some heavy checking and edge wear consistent with the condition of the […]

Wow, was this guitar a mess when it arrived! It had been sprayed with 30 coats of poly back in the 70’s, and the finish was a full 1/16th of an inch thick!

The neck had also been sprayed with poly, and it was a challenge to redo the front and back of the headstock and […]