Fender American Vintage II - black overspray inside 3 tone burst?

I think its good. I see what you mean. I like it. In the future it may be worth more.

 

I like it, too.

 

Interesting. I'm not sure if that is vintage accurate or not.

Would you mind doing a short review? Not much info out there on these yet.

 

How does the top side look?

Burst finishes tend to have the element of approximation, with the randomness of the hand, and subjectivity so, in that sense, it might be judged as accurate. They weren't painted by robots and they still aren't.

Back in Leo Fender's day, maybe that would have passed, or maybe it would have been set aside to be over-sprayed for a special/upgrade ordered custom color.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm not sure based on the limitations of the two images but I think I like this one. I've always preferred more subdued or darker burst finishes; 2-tone and so-called 2-1/2 tone/faded vintage, and chocolate bursts than super bright, colorful 3-tone bursts more synonymous with mid to late '60s Fenders.

However, it's your choice. What matters is, do you like it?

 

how does it play?

 

It would be cool if Fender would agree to take it back, and over-spray it with a classic custom color of your choice, accurate for 1960, for a reasonable up-charge, but that's my daydreaming.

 

It looks fine.

 

Sounds dark too.


P.S.

Wear a big belt buckle, play it lots, and much of that could be scratched off in a few years.

 

Fwiw, my AO 50’s doesn’t have that (it’s also 2T tho), but I much prefer your finish. Looks sweet!

 

It’s not technically the 1960s at the moment so no, it’s not accurate in any way.

It’s manufactured by Fender which makes it 100% accurate in every way.

I don’t see the problem.

 

I personally think it looks great. Just random variation to an unscientific type of paint job. If it otherwise plays, sounds, and feels good I would stick with it. If you look at enough vintage burst guitars and basses you'll see a good bit of variation with over spray, or the black border being real thick or real thin etc. All part of the charm of having something that isn't built entirely by a robot and isn't exactly the same every time.

 

There's definitely a lot of variation in burst finishes. Just the nature of the beast.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't like that either. I seen a few "Dark Knight" paint jobs that just looked like an over-spray mess too. Looked like a dirty spray nozzle was sputtering paint all over the place.

 

My hunch would be that the hand sprayer took the gun a little too close to the edge and overspray was the result. Could a new employee spraying be responsible? That would be my first guess.

It’s also possible that it might have been caused by a build-up of material on the fluid tip by a damaged fluid tip or ill-fitting needle/fluid tip combination or indeed a damaged air cap. Usually that build up finally results in little specs or blobs shot across the finish. That would be my second most likely guess.

In an industrial spray booth, the overspray should be sucked away by a strong airflow draught, so it’s equally possible that there was a problem with the air filtering and draught suction plant, that the booth relies upon, as such issues do happen and that can result in such problems, but would be less likely and my third guess.

All the factory spraying facilities in guitar plants I personally have seen, even with big brand manufacturers appear to be pretty basic in wider industrial terms. Often, my observation has been that the proper personal protection equipment that should be used, is not properly enforced. So, a too casual working culture compared altogether to other industries.

Think about it, the yellow material is applied, then the red is applied, then the black is applied and the overspray occurs. At that point, the instrument is about to be passed to the clear coat stage. If they notice the problem, they might be able to class that body as a reject, but I doubt they even had the facilities to re-route the product.

So, if a problem occurs the product simply moves to the next process where the excess overspray is buried uber the clear coat and the instrument is either passed at final inspection or rejected. Factory managers are under pressure to build predetermined daily qualities to fulfil prescheduled orders. They have to have sufficient quantities of the correct paint material, properly filtered and mixed for the orders that day.

Someone made a “business decision” in regard to the quality versus quantity balance in the factories favour, rather than the customer’s favour.


The bottom line is that the instruments finish is clearly not as intended by virtue of traditional design parameters, which if I understand the marketing spiel correctly, is rather the point of this model range.

Whether that causes you, purchasing a premium costing instrument, enough dismay to return it or not might depend on two factors. How much this defect bothers you and how happy you are with every other aspect of the instrument.

It may be an exceptional bass in every other respect, but only you can tell and answer such questions to your personal satisfaction.

I would be surprised if anything other than the issues I initially outlined was responsible for the overspray.

I'm laying out the probable causes, in the hope that insight, will help you make a decision.

 

Looks great, adds some nice texture to the golden part.

 

Are you enjoying drafting your I'm loving this bass, I'm wanting to keep it, but there's something eating into its resale value.... email?

 

I like it.

 

Sunbursts are like snowflakes ... every one is different and there's no "official" 60's sunburst. It looks like that overspray can only be seen up close. It's a good looking finish in my book.