Shoot my Tele?

[plaintop]

I want to get my '67 Tele refinished correctly. Any idea who to contact? Also, what would be correct for this year, as far as color. I was thinking blonde or cream/white...

[James Tonguet]

You might try the Re Ranch http://www.reranch.com/ they also have a forum

[Tonebender]

Why refinish? Ice Blue looks bitchin'!

[butnut]

If that's an original Fender finish, I'd leave it. Looks to be in real nice shape too. What's not to like about it? Nice color. There's an old saying, "it's original only once." Instead of refinishing that original paint (if it is...) get a replacement body in the color you want, (you could probably find one for the cost of a refinish) and save that beauty.

[kottkewannabe]

I could see blood spilling over this, but as you address this issue you need to confront the age-old Poly v. Nitro thing. A lot of vintage purists love the tone of vintage (nitrocellulose finished) guitars and hated the poly thing when Fender used it because at that time, it was a poorly developed product nowhere near the as refined as today's technology/trial-and-error experience has provided. A lot of those large headstock Strats have the poly just caked on and that certainly killed tone. However, the nitro is a laquer and hardens through evaporation and wicking and seriously takes, say, 15 years to completely set. Even though it is dry and hard to the touch, the under-layers are still the slightest bit tacky and aren't fully cured like a rock-hard 20-year-old finish. So yeah, when you pick up an old guitar and talk about the nitro finish and how "nothin' sounds like nitro" and "they don't make 'em like they used to", it's really an ear hearing a 30 or 40 year old (or older) nitro that's set to ultimate perfection. However, modern poly finishes are incredibly thin and harden via a chemical reaction, like an epoxy...sort of like the glue syringes that have the two tubes which harden chemically as they mix on your target. A new, top-of-the-line poly is very similar to a fully cured 50 year old nitro finish.

Nitro is cool and everything, particularly on cool old guitars, but a lot of the draw to it (and some other vintage die-hard topics) is sort of like holistic medicine in that some of it yields good results some times, but it can't ever really be proven and heard in a blindfold test.

Now with all that said, the ReRanch is the very best at vintage, nitro finishes. I'm using some of their water-based dyes on a project right now and they are dead on and the finishes I have seen of theirs are really, really great looking. As for poly finishes, Roxy Finish really seems to be the very, very best. He does work for some of the most costly and prestigious builders (though his contracts forbids him from revealing who) and they go with him for good reason. I have never seen (or heard, for that matter) anything other than complete perfection from that shop.

Though you should call both shops and pick their brains, you also need to address what you mean when you say "correctly" and with that, whether you should refinish at all. I'm sure you realize that provided it currently has an original finish, that you would take quite a chunk off the vintage vibe and value of the piece. Then, you'd need to look at whether you wanted the tone and response of a new '67 (nitro from ReRanch) or of a fully cured, 35-year old finish (poly from Roxy). Is this going for a period-correct thing for vintage accuracy or is this something you're just doing for you? (that would also be a good question to come to terms with regarding the color selection)

Just my $.02...

[GuitarsfromMars]

If that is the original finish on that guitar,please leave it alone and sell it to buy another one in the color you want-that appears to be a custom color Tele-rare and very expensive...Really beautiful Tele...:tw59

[plaintop]

It's not the original finish. The guitar is in the hands of Scott Lentz. Thanks for the replys.