New Guitar Day Before and After

[Californiaman 384]

I went into a Pawn Shop a couple of days ago and picked up this 2002 Made in Mexico Telecaster for just $75.00.  Check out the pictures and you'll see why.  It's literally beat to schit and all boogered up.  Boogered, I like that term.

 

[Californiaman 384]

So you can see it's missing a tuning key, a switch tip and knobs.  It also has lots of chips in the paint.

So for the money, it's a good buy for me.  I went about replacing the stock tuning keys with Fender locking tuners ($60.00), two knobs ($10,00), I had an extra switch tip and a set of strings on hand and set about cleaning it up.

[Californiaman 384]

Here she is all clean and ready to rock, or twang. For roughly $150.00 I have a Made in Mexico Telecaster that sounds absolutely great. I'm very pleased.

[rct 1,687]

I would have done the very same thing.  Well, not the locking things but yeah, NICE JOB!!!

rct

[Ed Zeplin 24]

Nice cleanup job. A real bargain. What was on the fretboard?  Looks like it got wet. 

[Californiaman 384]

Thanks.

The fretboard was covered with years of oily goo from playing and never cleaning it. 

[Rabs 1,340]

Sweet.. Love the colour 

[Californiaman 384]

Blue Agave

[Retired 971]

Big difference. Yo did a great job. 

[Californiaman 384]

Thank you brotherman. 

[jaxson50 641]

Sweet deal! Looks great after the clean up, 

Make that thang twang! 

[sparquelito 661]

A beautiful job, good sir!!

And a great guitar. 
😛

[badbluesplayer 649]

Nice!

[Dub-T-123 546]

Why put the strings on backwards like that?

[01GT eibach 223]

Cool guitar.  I am surprised the Paw Shop did not invest the small amount to make it workable again so that they could sell at a higher price point.  Good for you, though.  Great color!

[RowdyMoon 137]

Nice find!

[merciful-evans 955]

Nice find/ project / rescue / guitar!

Certainly looks the business now 👌

[Californiaman 384]

I've never really considered the Mexican made guitars before, but after this, I've certainly become a believer.

You know I'm always looking for a Gibson to pick up on the cheap.  Maybe even the right Epiphone.  I like the idea of finding and fixing them up.

 

[Dub-T-123 546]

I think the SG Special can be a really good value for a nice US made guitar

 

Nothing wrong with the Mexican fenders though. Even the Squiers are nice guitars. Sometimes the really cheap ones have bad tuners or things like that but generally it’s all easy to fix up

[sparquelito 661]

On 1/1/2021 at 8:45 AM, 01GT eibach said:

Cool guitar.  I am surprised the Paw Shop did not invest the small amount to make it workable again so that they could sell at a higher price point.  Good for you, though.  Great color!

Very few pawn shops I have visited understand the first thing about cleaning up guitars, setting them up, or even keeping them in tune. 
It's amazingly bad business, but it's good for us consumers in the long run, usually. 

"Well, I'd like to pay $150 for this guitar, but it sure needs cleaned up and set up correctly, the volume pot is scratchy, and these strings are going to have to be changed."

"So, what do you want to pay?"

"Will you take $110 for it?"

"$120."

"Okay, it's a deal."

And then I take it home, take the strings off, wax it clean and shiny, spritz some DeOxit in the pots, restring it, and it's a brand new guitar again. 

🙂



 
 

[Californiaman 384]

I fully understand what you're talking about sparquelito.

I will forever be on the look out for Fender and Squire guitars to buy on the cheap and fix up now.  Always thought I could do it and now know I can.

Here's something else that now needs to be considered with a lot of Fenders.  The company has switched over to those Pao Faro fret boards instead of rosewood and some of their guitars have the most beautiful, dark rosewood boards on the neck.  I saw one so dark and lovely that I want the entire guitar, just because of the fret board.  I don't care if it's Mexican made or Asian, if it's got a beautiful rosewood fret board, I'm going to consider it.

[Ceptorman 67]

Nice job, be cool to find a stream of abused instruments to rebuild. I think you could make decent money, and get to play with guitars all day.

[mihcmac 780]

A good guitar is where ever you find it, but sometimes that means bringing one home that has possibilities within your realm of ability.

All of mine are asian, which allows me to experiment on them without concern..

[Californiaman 384]

14 minutes ago, mihcmac said:

All of mine are asian, which allows me to experiment on them without concern..

Experiment on them?  Well, aren't you the mad scientist.  I like that.

[mihcmac 780]

41 minutes ago, Californiaman said:

Experiment on them?  Well, aren't you the mad scientist.  I like that.

Hmmm you might like my Frankensplorer.

Pretty much nothing of mine is stock, because very few guitars are built with the components I want.