Photoflame?

[holmis63]

Is this a Photoflame or a solid wood body strat or what, the tag is really atractive! Maybe hard to tell from a pic but....

[holmis63]

Ok, the thread for the pic may be conveniant if you want to have an opinion! Sorry!

http://www.blocket.se/vi/19032140.htm?ca=15_s

[Offshore Angler]

Only the Hamburgler knows.

[hudpucker]

[holmis63]

Hamburgler? Is it something i miss here or what? Ok, i´m from Sweden, Hamburgler may be a local joke or something but i don´t understand soo... Enlighten me!

[ch willie]

Because it's got colors associated with the McDonalds character / clown Ronald McDonald.

I think it's a nice looking guitar. Some folks just don't like that color combo.

[holmis63]

Ok, thanks! Well, i´m not going to eat the guitar so that´s no problem for me! But is it a photoflame, anybody who can interprete that from a pic??

[Totally bored]

I thought the Photo in PhotoFlame mean't picture and thats a pic on top of that strat and it's not the real wood.
I could be wrong but thats what I'm going with for now.


Here's the Hamburglar on the left. He's a McDonalds cartoon Character. He steals Hamburgers are something like that.

[refin]

It's a FotoFlame,IMHO.I have seen too many of those.
Basically a pic of very flamey maple embossed on a basswood body.They looked cool and sounded pretty good,and even the necks were done that way (I have a strat neck from a FF--big,fat,and flamey!).

Here is my Foto Flame tele done as my "Messquire".

[Sage]

I happen to own one, maybe I can help.

Foto Flame was a process whereby the wood was wrapped in a clear film. The film was treated with a chemical that reacted to light (hence the "Foto" in the name), and then exposed to a pattern that looked like flamed maple. In order to look realistic it had to be overlayed atop a wood with no visible grain, usually basswood. So the guitar itself is actually an alder body with a basswood top. Also, all the Foto Flame Strats that I know of are actually 1962 Reissue Strats. I bought mine new around 1995 for about $500.

That guitar definitely looks like a Foto Flame, and they did come in that color. My own is a darker colored sunburst, but I remember that the lighter color seen in that picture was the other choice my music shop offered when I bought mine.

The only thing is, the Foto Flame guitars were all made in Japan, not in Mexico as that link indicates. And all the ones I've seen came with a pearl pickguard, whereas the one in the link just has a plain white pickguard. One way to confirm that it's real is if it has a silver "Foto Flame" logo on the back of the headstock.

The Hamburglar joke is a reference to a rumor that someone at Fender Japan inserted a picture of the Hamburglar's face into the grain on the back of the neck and was subsequently fired for it. Probably not a true story.

[Erock_Germany]

Photo Flame - definitely Japan, definitely basswood and definitely a similar to a 62 MIJ RI at the time (see pickguard screw placement). Tried one out back in the day (was real friendly with the local guitar shop) and it was quite nice quality and tone wise - a good MIJ as most are.

Looked a little cheesy up close but from a distance looked cool. Not my cup of tea though......

Good guitar - hold on to it and watch out for the Hamburgler....

[ch willie]

Oops. I didn't get that Hamburgler reference.

Didn't know that about the fotoflame process. Sort of cheapens them, doesn't it?

[holmis63]

Thanks for the responses, that´s settle the case, i want solid wood Guitars! Or the real thing if you want to put it that way, maybe picky but...

[Erock_Germany]

Thanks for the responses, that´s settle the case, i want solid wood Guitars! Or the real thing if you want to put it that way, maybe picky but...

But it is a solid wood guitar - all basswood (not as bad as most think) with a somewhat strange paint job......

[melody]

I had a fotoflame Tele that rocked I wish I never sold it there are good and bad one's just like any model guitar..Good luck!

[Direstraits]

It's solid Basswood with the fotoflame effect applied on top, before the (poly?) lacquer is applied. It will sound like any other MIJ strat with the same p/ups (everything else being equal). I guess it comes down to whether you can afford a real custom shop flame top ( which would probably be a maple veneer over the contouring) or would be satisfied with a flame effect that doesn't move with the light.
My MIJ Basswood Strat isn't any "worse" sounding than my USA (Ash) artist series. It just has a different tone within the variations that occur normally in Strats due to the different wood & p/ups involved.

[coldsteal2]

Ive never heard of fotoflame?

[Direstraits]

They come in a variety of colours. I've also seen it described as a "transfer print process"

(try googling Fender foto-flame stratocasters)

[coldsteal2]

thats kind of crappy not to use the real thing

[phantomman]

That kind of "crappy" doesn't cost twenty-five hunnert bucks......

[Sage]

thats kind of crappy not to use the real thing

The real thing would have been massively more expensive. The flame on the Foto-Flame guitars is really gorgeous, and it's not really easy to find such good flamed maple in large enough quantities to be consistent and inexpensive. Take a look at the 10 tops on PRS guitars today; they look nowhere near as good as they did 15 years ago before demand really skyrocketed for those guitars.

Besides, whether you use real maple or not, it's a purely cosmetic thing. If it looks the same then what's the problem? The alder body with basswood cap is still solid wood, just as it would be if you used maple. The only thing that's fake is the grain.

[DanD]

But it is a solid wood guitar - all basswood (not as bad as most think)......

+1

I've owned a coupla' Basswood bodied MIJ Strats and they were both excellent guitars. My daughter still has the Blue Floral RI Strat I gave her.

She loves it. She pestered, begged, pleaded, and eventually convinced me that she liked it more than I did and that she'd take care of it.

She's taken excellent care of it for over 4 years now and it's her number 1.

[holmis63]

I think i already own one basswood strat, i got a squier silver series strat and i´m quite shure that body is made of basswood!? And i got one ´79 ash strat, weigh a ton but sounds real nice. But no maple strat or alder for that matter so far and that is what i was hoping this one would fulfill. But the hunt goes on and that is half the fun, isn´t it!!?

[Don]

To some, it's beautiful and good enough. To others, it's cheesy, fake and totally unnecessary.

[coldsteal2]

I didnt mean to say that they are Crappy, but
that its Crappy that they dont just sell the real thing.
I have seen very nice flame curly and pillow wood on Warmoth bodies for not al that much,
($225-$350) but i guess Fender isnt selling them for those prices

I have just never known there was such a thing as
Photoflame till just this week,........you learn something
new all the time, it kind of hit me weird like when i found out
new Les Pauls were chambered

[Kap'n]

Were you surprised when the panels on your Country Squire wagon weren't real wood?

Photoflame guitars were around $450 when new, IIRC. A bolt on PRS at that point was around $1,500.

[phantomman]

Were you surprised when the panels on your Country Squire wagon weren't real wood?

Aw c'mon, Kap'n......tha's like sayin' WWF wrestling is fake!

[cbrothy]

I own one too, exactly as Sage described. It was a birthday present that I got around 95-96. I still have it becasue it's sentimental to me now (it was my first strat, first 'real' guitar) but if I came across it today, i would keep looking. Nothing aginst the guitar, its just that I think there may be better options for me persoanlly. Its sturdy and it sounds great too...for what it's worth....

[matei]

I had a blue Photoflame Strat, back in '93. As I was young and naive, I didn't know it was a decal, and I thought it was real wood.

Imagine my surprise when my roadie dropped the guitar on an asphalt incline (not his fault, the case opened unexpectedly) and the "grain" started to come off! Oh well... always read the fine print!

I really liked the neck on mine, maple, with 22 jumbo frets, but it was very, very "unstable". The neck would twist and warp at the slightest change in humidity, I've never owned a guitar that problematic.

I put EMGs in it, and eventually sold it because it was just too hard to keep properly adjusted.

[redcoats1976]

they are actually not very common,if its in good shape and plays well id be happy with it...

[ajwain]

I have a Photoflame Telecaster, and it's really nice. It doesn't feel quite as sumptuously finished as my '52 vintage re-issue, but it sounds very well indeed. If anything, it has a more gutsy sound.

Mine has a pearl pickguard, but I replaced that myself. Originally, it was the same as a MIJ 50's Telecaster, with a 'V' shaped matt-finished maple neck (quite darkly stained) and a single-ply white pickguard.

The switchgear is quite poor and needs replacing - it crackles a bit now, but the pickups and the medium-weight, poly gloss-finished body sound great.

I bought it because I liked it then, and I still like it now, and wouldn't part with it.