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NDB: 1961 Fender Precision

#48
The ash grain is interesting. It looks like ash which has been heated. Superficial blasting with an open flame will selectively darken some parts of ash grain. Ash baseball bats are sometimes treated that way. I recall seeing a production line for Louisville Sluggers which actually had a monster gas torch passed rapidly along the bats while they were still on lathes. I recall it vividly, as I personally have enough experience with factory personnel to respect the mischief they can get themselves into, especially when things like open flames are involved, and I was impressed that they hadn't yet burned the whole factory down.

So I was a bit mystified when I saw this photo, as I've never seen a Fender ash body with such a strong grain pattern, but the fact that it's a refin could explain it; it would be a simple matter to toast the wood slightly while the original finish is off. It could even have happened accidentally if a heat gun was used to soften the old finish.

Well, just a thought. It's been decades since I've dicked around with flame-treated ash myself and my memories of its looks are getting a bit dim.
 
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#56
DavidBassista said:
I think I'm going to keep it natural for now! Though I think some sort of transparent nitro finish could look cool. Maybe blond. Thoughts?
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Congrats! Great score and really, really nice grain to the ash. 99% chance it would have been blonde originally. There are some great refinishers who can nail this finish now like Carson Hess and Joe Riggio - probably MJT, too. Many get it wrong particularly as there was a subtle burst to how they were done originally at that time - they go opaque at the edges to cover the end-grain.

DavidBassista said:
Regarding your comment earlier about the thickness of the black layer of the guard and second generation torts, I'm not sure if I follow. I compared my guard to some other photos of early 60s guards and it looks the same. For example, check out posts 71 and 75 in my 1963 restoration thread posted above.

Here is the dark area that I'm talking about. Thoughts on what caused this? I assumed it was the edge of the three tone sunburst from unremoved paint.
View attachment 4073651
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I don't think this was sunburst. Looks like the router hump may have been sanded when it was stripped as was common (maybe it's just the angle on this photo) and, if so, it would have gone well through any original finish. Maybe a walnut stain or similar - like flame as rantbot suggests - and this was sometimes done to bring out the grain more on ash. As 2F/2F says, the black from a burst would not have penetrated the sealer (Fullerplast started a bit later but they used different sealers before that - especially on ash).

Love the flame on the neck and beautiful tort guard. Nice weight. Excellent score!
 
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