Nekkid Headstock

Thanks for this post!

Still, where are these Authorized Service Centers? I'm thinking this is to help out overseas customers, and that FMIC provides such Centers there - I could be mistaken but I don't know there's any of them in the USA these days.

 

I got a great deal on a lightly used Allparts Fat. It was finished in tru oil and had a personalized headstock decal. I didn’t want the decal so I sanded down the face.

I sprayed the whole neck with nitro (after a light sanding of the whole thing). The headstock face was lighter than the rest because it had been sanded pretty hard. I snuck up the color match by doing additional coats on the face. Worked out just fine.

 

https://shop.fender.com/on/demandwa..._US/Dealers-ServiceCenters-Country?country=US

 

Seal it. Decal or not, I think wood should be sealed, even if just oil

 

Sorry, couldn't resist. Really would like to see a pic of the git though.

I go by Bill. 73, OM

 

I have one such headstock for a project I’m doing for my brother. Gonna look like this pretty quick.

Granted, it may clash a bit with the body in your case. Maybe.

 

Get artistic!

But a Hello Kitty motif gets you eighty-sixed from TDPRI in perpetuity.

 

I see that as different, as u are watching material w/o paying for it and they lose money. If i have a neck regardless of the make and i put a decal on it, fender loses nothing. If however i sell it as a fender then they may be losing a sale. So morally i see no problem with it. Whether it's legal or not i can't say but i doubt it is until u try and sell it as a fender. I have seen that said before so i tend to believe it is legal. Plus i just cannot imagine fender winning a case against me if i put a decal on my guitar that is my personal property to do with as i please. I have never heard it mentioned anywhere that things of this nature are illegal unless they are talking about using it to profit.. Look at paddleheads....it's illegal to sell a neck with fender shaped head unless it's licensed, yet it's not illegal to sell a paddlehead that people cut to a fender shape for your personal guitar. I just don't think any of this is illegal for personal use.

 

I seriously doubt there will ever be a meeting of the minds on this, between you and I. Law school and years of practice just teach a student of this to think in a different manner.

But look at one small thing. You know how if everyone calls a copy machine a "Xerox" machine and every facial tissue is a "Kleenex", then the company owning the trade right to such names can end up losing 'em? Don't you figure that if just about every headstock out there says "Fender" on it, that FMIC could see some intellectual property rights go away? Remember, I paid full price for that tissue and that piece of office machinery - I didn't mean to steal a thing.

Again, I'm not trying to close the 1,000 mile gap between you and me, all in one post. Just trying for maybe 3 yards - one increment at a time.

 

7 to 10 years huh? man imagine what it would have been if he had cut the head off the neck!

 

Well, all I am trying to say is copyrights/patents really have one purpose and one only....to disallow others from profiting on your patented/copyrighted idea and affecting that company's bottom line. Putting a decal on my guitar has nothing to do in any way shape or form with affecting fender's profits from their patents/copyrights unless i sell it like that. Theres no logic that suggests putting a decal on MY guitar affects fender negatively In any way unless i sell it like that that i can see. I'm sure you could find one that's just too diluted to matter, but the truth is unless you sell it with the decal it's just not going to affect fender negatively in any measurable way. In fact, i'd bet the farm that that if fender knew there were a gazillion guys out there with fake decals, as long as they never sold them like that they'd be HAPPY about it because the more people see others playing fenders the more free advertising they get.

 

If you cant prove its a Fender, you probably should just destroy it.

If it has the shape of a Fender and a pickup configuration of a Fender and the headstock shape of a Fender but doesn't say "Fender" and you have no proof of what it is, then its just not worth risking it.

There's more to stealing than just the name on the headstock.



And you sure don't want 7 inches just hanging out there naked.

 

I don't agree.

Besides, none of us have a crystal ball and few know what impact taking out a patent will have on the activity of others.

Look at Leo Fender's seemingly clumsy failure to tie up the basic Telecaster and Stratocaster body styles. Let's suppose he'd been more anal, more vigilant - would it surprise some of us if the later manufacturers of rival guitars - they could've chosen other available shapes, that people could have gotten used to and in this alternate universe, the "decrepit" FEIC shapes would be relatively unimportant. And I'm sure there's inventions that never would have happened at all, except the creators of an early form of invention been willing to spend fortunes blocking others from access to this design or that form.

My Dad sold or assigned the rights to all of the patented items he played a role in, to his employer or partner or what have you. While some of his friends and contemporaries kept most every small thing they did locked down. People copied their stuff anyway. I would estimate my Dad came out ahead of them. Patents and other intellectual property devices can be useful, and they can make money or they can mean you get left behind in a cul de sac. In the end, a businessman's conscience is the most valuable thing he possesses.

 

I was being facetious. I think you should put what makes you happy on it and then wear out the frets playing it.