Sold! Fender , donation to follow. Please close

[Jim Watts]

1955 Fender Deluxe 8, 221/2" scale with legs. Blend knob and pickups work well - nothin' wrong with this guitar. Legs included and OHSC. Sounds and plays as good as it looks.Sorry no trades, downsizing. $999 you pay to ship. Thanks for looking.

[Jim Watts]

Howdy folks - This is the underside, closeup of the only blemish. Thanks fer lookin'
[/img]

[Mark Helm]

PM sent-- Original finish?!

[Mark Helm]

Sweet guitar--wish I could swing it. Thanks for the look! Best of luck with the sale!

[Jim Watts]

Howdy again folks - jury still out on the finish. I can't say but it looks right to me. Decide for yourself. In the meantime I pulled the pan and here is what the well shows. This guitar originally belonged to Jim Connelly of Anderson, Indiana. Long time and well known player and teacher in that area. It is still for sale. Thanks!

[Mark Helm]

Well, this is something of a conundrum! Who made that mark under the pan? It wasn't done in the Fender factory--so, because the "etching" is under the new finish, we can at least say for sure that it's been refinished--for what reason, we'll never know.

One mystery almost certainly solved, more still unresolved.

What about the dates? If the guitar is from Non '55, what does the 1956 date mean?

What we can know is that--finish or not, it's a nice guitar!

Steel Forum experts, please weigh in!

[Jim Watts]

Indeed Folks - I love a good mystery. I welcome all comments and will also welcome reasonable offers. Cheers. Jim

[Ricky Davis]

Ok I'll weigh in on my experience with.
I have never seen this finish on a deluxe-8 and stringmaster from this era of that tweed case. Yes that Case is from anywhere 1956-1959. The etching under the tuning pan; I believe, comes from the person that refinished this body; as the date was always written in pencil there and so they etched the information that was there; but a little extra with the name of the man that owned it. So I believe 12-3-56 is the actual Date that was originally written before refinish(I don't know why NOV 1955 was etched).
BUT this still is a "Swamp Ash" made Deluxe-8 stringmaster with the original case...and the best sounding one ever made and then they went to regular ash wood in the 60's with black case...and they lost many things including sound...by then...ha....
Ricky

[Mark Helm]

But what still bugs me: Why refinish a perfectly good guitar? Maybe he could only get a blonde model and he's was more into brunettes? Maybe his band switched to a darker color scheme? Or, I suppose the walnut finish that originally came with the guitar could just have been really beat up from years of play (as we've all seen on these) and the owner wanted to give it a fresh facelift? The latter seems most likely.

Good to know the wood is period correct, at least.

One thing the owner who did the refinishing couldn't know is how much stripping the guitar's original finish would impact its sale/resale value decades down the road.

Well, someone's gonna end up with a sweet little ride either way!

[Ricky Davis]

No; it was never stained walnut originally. Originally the finish is that blonde paint on ALL those until 1961.
Ricky

[Mark Helm]

Wow--see, because Fender offered the Walnut finish on the 1950s single neck Deluxe models (with the trapezoidal pickup & lollipop tuners), I figured that they would have made it available on these too. I think that little fact would have settled the matter of whether or not the guitar was refinished immediately. Well, one more bit of knowledge to file away for future reference.

Always great to learn something new— thanks!

[Jim Watts]

$999 Still avaiable