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What a pickguard for a 25th anniversary '79 Stratocaster?


bonzozz

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This is the model I'm talking about:

 

http://www.fuzzfaced.net/25th-annive...caster.html​

 

The original silver finish has become a little goldish, the original pickguard is black.

 

I'm thinking about a different black (pearl or something like that) or trying a white.

 

Can you give me any suggestions?

 

Thank you!!!

 

 

If you have one of the '79 25th Anniversary Strats, I'd recommend you just leave it stock.... but if you absolutely must have a new pickguard, I'd stick with black, or maybe black pearl like you were thinking. Tort or white would look awful against the silver paint IMHO.

 

 

 

 

PS I suspect the reason it's turning gold-ish is due to the clear coat yellowing over time, giving the underlying silver metallic finish more of a golden hue. I'll bet that looks pretty cool - do you have any pics of your Strat?

 

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I'm with Phil - I'd leave it stock.

 

I'd go one step further (based on my own personal hands on experience with Fenders from that year) and suggest you sell it and pick up a new Strat. They're making them WAY better now than when they were running down the original US factory at that time and you'll get a premium price due to the age of yours.

 

Those 25th anniversaries had bad finish issues and my theory is that they were using up all the leftover paint (think Antigua - probably a mix of a bunch of stuff). When I stripped one it was 3 pieces of really bad baseball bat ash.

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Hi Phil,

yes, I think that with time its colour is becoming warmer and I really like it.

In attachment some photos of my Stratocaster.

 

@Grant: this guitar was a gift from my brother, so I will never sell it :) Otherwise, I would think to change some parties in order to let it sound better.

Talking about improving it: what would you suggest as a first step? Bridge, Pickups, ... ?

 

Thank you guys for this wonderful forum

 

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I had one of those - although it wasn't an Anniversary model. It was a 1979 sunburst Stratocaster with a one piece maple neck similar to this photo...

230190551674-1.jpg

 

It did not have a 'Original Contour Body' sticker on it and the cuts were quite shallow compared to an older strat. The guitar was quite heavy and extremely well built. The pickguard had a full sized shield and the body cavities were shielded with conductive paint. It had pickups with flat non-staggered polepieces and the bridge pickup was a bit hotter than the other two.

 

The only things I did to it was replace the black plastic with white and added a big brass bridge similar to this one...

strat3.jpg

 

It played well and sounded great but, at the time, I wanted a fifties strat. I had played a 1954 model but couldn't afford the $4500 so I ended up selling the '79 and buying a JV strat when they came out in 1982.

 

I would compare the Anniversary strat and the '79 strats in general with the American Deluxe series as far as quality is concerned although it did not have some of the modern features.

 

I have played a few old '79s that I have found in music stores and, although they are not very popular, I find them to be very good guitars.

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Wow, that Strat has REALLY yellowed - and it looks GREAT! :philthumb:

 

I'd leave it exactly as-is. If you need to replace the pickguard because of some problem with the original, I'd hang on to the original and put another black one on it.

 

The late 70s wasn't a high point in Fender's history, but not all of them are dogs and those Anniversary guitars are only going to go up in value - even more for the ones that remain unmodified.

 

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