Dual Pro refinishing question

[Peter Krebs]

Hey! I have a late 40’s Fender Dual Pro guitar body which I’d be interested in getting refinished in a period-correct Fender color (walnut, if possible). Anyone have any leads on folks that specialize in this? I sent an email to Fiesta Finishes, but I’m unsure if they're still in business. Thanks in advance! Pete

[Garry Vanderlinde]

Well... in most cases the way to keep the most value of an item is to keep it as close to original as humanly possible.
Refinished guitars are a tough sell

[Duane Becker]

I have an early Fender console three neck, pretty beat up as far as the finish, but it plays great. I dont plan on ever refinishing it. Do you just have the wood body without the hardware and strings, maybe a project steel? I ask because you mention having a wood body.

[Peter Krebs]

Sorry - I should have been more clear. The steel body in question has already been refinished (in brick red house paint) and I’d like to return it to a 40’s/50’s Fender blond or walnut. I’d never refinish it, were it original.

[Ken Pippus]

Dual Pro with a steel body?

Very odd.

[Garry Vanderlinde]

Dual Pro with a steel body?

Very odd.

[Garry Vanderlinde]

If you are a DIY guy, you might want to talk to the folks at Stew-Mac, they have lots of retro refinishing supplies including nitro-cellulose finishes. I bought a '59 Fender Champ which the previous owner painted black and I re-finished it to Desert Sand. The hardest part was finding the period correct decal.

[Dave Mudgett]

There's nothing 'weird' about refinishing an already poorly refinished guitar. It will probably add value, and certainly improve your enjoyment of the guitar.

Also not sure he meant that the body was made out of steel - it is a steel (guitar) body.

I looked up refinishing in PDX - looks pretty expensive to me. For example - http://www.portlandfretworks.com/price-list.html

I haven't actually had MJT refinish a guitar for me, but I have had a few guitars with their finish jobs on them. I found them first rate, and their refinish prices seem reasonable - https://www.mjtagedfinishes.com/vintage-refinishes. Not sure what they'd charge for a doubleneck steel guitar body, but it sounds like it'd be less expensive than doing it locally. Provided you don't mind shipping them the body. If you can strip it yourself, you'll save some additional bucks. I've done it, it's a PITA, but not that difficult. But an important part of refinishing is preparing the body, so it does need to be taken very seriously. At least you wouldn't be shipping a whole, assembled guitar. I wouldn't hesitate to send just a guitar body to them if I needed a refin. Butterscotch or Blonde refins should work pretty good if the body is prepared well. They do good aging, but I wouldn't personally want anything more than very light aging, if I wanted it at all. But there is that option and the list specifies that their prices do include aging.

Another possibility would be to do it yourself with spray cans from an appropriate supplier. Reranch used to be the go-to, but there seem to be issues. See these threads for other options - https://www.tdpri.com/threads/is-reranc ... d.1153800/ or https://www.tdpri.com/threads/reranch.1104860/ - on that last thread, "Silverface" was our own Jim Sliff, who passed away in the last year or two. He's correct that seriously doing refinishing requires good equipment. But I have seen people to aerosol can refins that worked out fine. The key is to be very patient, watch a bunch of tutorial videos, buy extra cans of paint/clearcoat, stick with nitrocellulose, and practice on scrap until things start looking good.

[Jerry Overstreet]

Would be nice and maybe to your benefit if you could finish it in the original but aged Fender walnut tint.

I looked at a bunch of Fender paint charts but found nothing in walnut. I guess the charts I found are all for electric guitars and basses.

[HowardR]

About 22 years ago I bought a short scale Fender Stringmaster D8.......it was very poorly finished in a wine color.......I sent it off to a guy (I believe he did automotive finishing) in California and he did, IMO, a beautiful finish job......I didn't restore it to any standard Fender color......I can't remember the name of the guy or the company, but he did a lot of guitars.......

fender refin 4 (2).jpg

fender refin 3 (2).jpg

[Peter Krebs]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. If I stumble on a good solution, I’ll post it. Just out of curiosity, does anyone if there were any other factory color options on the early Dual pros besides the walnut and blonde finishes? I’m assuming not, but you never know. thanks! Pete

[Tim Whitlock]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. If I stumble on a good solution, I’ll post it. Just out of curiosity, does anyone if there were any other factory color options on the early Dual pros besides the walnut and blonde finishes? I’m assuming not, but you never know. thanks! Pete

Wanut and blonde were the two options for nearly all the 50s Fender steel guitars. Very rarely they would do a custom color, such as Lean's "Cimmaron Red" steel, as shown in this thread viewtopic.php?t=286430

[Glenn Wilde]

I see some nitro blonde available but not the brown. My '50 Deluxe S8 is blonde and it looks great, not opposed to the brown though, if I ran across a S6 in brown I'd probably grab it.

[Bill Ladd]

Kayton Roberts had a red one from the factory

IMG_1023.jpeg

[Mike Christensen]

That is one heckuva cool picture. Love those red boots too. Thanks