A moral question concerning a vintage duo sonic

Chaseth · Post by **Chaseth** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 5:53 am

I bought a 65 vintage fender duo sonic on Craigslist last year. Sometime in the 80's somebody tried to make a shredder. Installed a locking strat tremolo and placed a couple hot pickups including a humbucker in the bridge. The neck they placed one of those floyd rose bar things instead of a string tree. Well I stripped it and trying to save some of its original character. Swapped out pickups for a lollar humbucker and neck single coil. I am painting the body black. On the neck I swelled the floyd rose bar holes. My question should I sand the original decal off and match it to my body by painting it black and thus cover up the holes? Here's a picture

Chaseth · Post by **Chaseth** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 5:59 am

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Nick · Post by **Nick** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 11:06 am

I never like to cover up a guitar's history. Those holes add character and would show the world how you rid it of goofy 80's hardware.

IMHO that pickup ring looks kinda wack tho, if you're gonna be concerned about aesthetics I would probably have a new pickguard cut

George · Post by **George** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 11:26 am

i think it's all fair game so long as you declare everything when selling it on. it's totally up to you and what you'd prefer.

Johnny Alien · Post by **Johnny Alien** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 11:44 am

It's refinished and hacked for mods....the financial and historical damage has already been done. So if a matching headstock feels better to you then go for it and get a reproduction decal for it. You won't be able to easily cover all of the other mods though so it just depends how much that specific issue bothers you.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 4:00 pm

I'd leave the headstock. I'd rather have the decal and live with the holes.

Chaseth · Post by **Chaseth** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 6:47 pm

All good arguments. I going to keep it and not sale it on. The neck is like brand new. The best vintage neck I have. The frets are perfect. I ordered a special Schaller tremolo that's not as deep to fit the thinner duo sonic body which I have pictured. I also dowelled the hole where the Floyd rose bridge had been. I further routed out the neck pickup if I ever wanted to put a second humbucker in there. As for the head stock the holes aren't too noticeable. I'll take a better picture and post it. My other question is that I'm refinishing it black and was wondering if I should pin stripe it like a competition mustang? Or is that dumb?

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 7:38 pm

I don't think I've seen a comp black that I've liked but mostly because people get the stripes wrong (angle, width, spacing)

Chaseth · Post by **Chaseth** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 7:41 pm

Well I'd be careful. I bought some vinyl stickers on eBay that are supposed to be the Shit. After I get it painted I'll lay it out and get opinions.