Stripped vintage fenders

[lojo]

Seems there was a craze of owners stripping their fenders back to wood in the past, and some do look great.

Was wondering though now these vintage instruments are being offered up for sale, how much does this effect the price say over a good condition paint finish or an aged but original finish

Its hard to gauge, anyone in the know have any opinions ?

[Chris Horton]

I personally prefer the original finish on fenders.
It was very fashionable back in the day to strip em back to a natural finish.

I would say that striping the original finish is going to de-value the bass a fair bit especially if the bass was originally a rare colour / model etc.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Chris Horton

[chris_b]

A stripped vintage Fender will always be worth less.

[TheGreek]

I prefer a natural finish bass but I doubt whether I'd pay more either way..

[gareth]

i think it had a lot to do with the lack of respect fenders were held in during the 70's and 80's

during these decades bass players were into slap, etc (YUK!) and looking for something new other than (what they perceived as being boring) fenders - alembics, headless basses, and jap thrunecks

i myself remembering selling what must have been a pre-cbs p bass (that had been refinished in purple - not by me) for £195 and buying first a thruneck aria , then a thruneck yammy - a BB1200 that i still have

all these non-fender basses tended to have natural finishes

so i believe that guys that kept their fenders tended to strip them in order to emulate the looks of the non-fender basses

i think some of the above is borne out by the that fender themselves started to produce natural finish basses in this period

in terms of value a stripped bass probably knocks the value in half i am afraid

[chris_b]

Nothing to do with lack of respect.

Fenders were the bass of choice for most professional players, because they sounded right, but because of that everyone looked the same. So basses were stripped, this started in the 60’s, as the cheapest and easiest option to make them more personal and to stand out from the crowd.

You didn't get many natural wood basses back then and stripped looked cool. When real exotic woods started being used stripped Fenders didn't look so cool, but by then it was too late.

Edited May 4, 2012 by chris_b

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1336155433' post='1641950']
So basses were stripped, this started in the 60’s, as the cheapest and easiest option to make them more personal and to stand out from the crowd. You didn't get many natural wood basses back then and stripped looked cool. [/quote]
[quote name='gareth' timestamp='1336154397' post='1641927']
all these non-fender basses tended to have natural finishes so i believe that guys that kept their fenders tended to strip them in order to emulate the looks of the non-fender basses
[/quote]

Other reasons I've heard of:
[list]
[*]Lennon stripped his Casino, so everyone followed suit
[*]'Natural' wood appealed to hippies who were getting their macrobiotic sh*t together in the country
[*]Players disliked the post CBS heavy poly finish on Fenders so stripped it off to 'let the instrument breathe'
[*]Few if any independent guitar re-finishers around in the 60's-70's, so DIY stripping was easier
[*]Aftermarket factory-matched paint was unavailable back then, so when the finish got a bit ratty DIY-ers went for the natural look.
[/list]
Probably all of the above and more.

Either way, it's worth less than a clean example, until the wheel of fashion turns again

[3below]

Did my 77 P bass in about 1979, what a b'stard to do, under the sunburst was some sort of polyurethane? filler, clear and rock hard (fullerplast?) However the wood was stunning when stripped. Amazingly (IMO) I got a really good finish afterwards even though DIY. Bass had bad accident later, broken neck, sold bits and was quids in. For 70s Fender, was well built but not great setup. Once sorted, no complaints.

[martin8708]

I have heard the hippies and flower power people stripped the finish off their guitars for a more natural look. I have three pre-CBS Fenders that have fell foul of the Nitromoors /heatgun . (bought them that way ) . Jimmy Coppolo also mentions this "hippy - era " and has started building natural finish basses .
The American vintage market considers a stripped or Re-fin instrument to be approx half the value of a 100% original instrument , but I suppose it will depend if it was a rare custom colour or just a plain old TSB .

[Stacker]

I like a natural finish if the grain is allowed to come through, which usually means a stain, then sanded back again. I'm not really a P-bass fan but there was a nice one floating around Edinburgh in the late '80s that had been stripped back and given an oil finish. Think it was a '69 and I tried to buy it a couple of times but no go.

[Shaggy]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1336156338' post='1641967'] Other reasons I've heard of: [list] [*]Lennon stripped his Casino, so everyone followed suit [/list] [/quote] Seems it was Donovan's fault, the naughty hippy hurdy-gurdy-warbling loon.....; http://www.vintageguitar.com/5485/the-beatles%E2%80%99-casinos/ The only stripped vintage bass I had was a pre-EB MM Sabre - looked lovely, but it does hurt a bit knowing that that missing half a gram's worth of paint / varnish is worth close on a grand.......

Edited May 5, 2012 by Shaggy