You figured right! Man, that thing didn't fade much after all these years. Must have been stored in it's case. Beautiful!
Thank you...yes - it really pops out. Apparently, it belonged to the left-handed father of the seller (who is also a younger player) for a long time, so it’s spent much of its life in a case. There is no checking that I can detect, but the finish is original. The seller is using the funds to help with a downpayment on his first home, so that’s pretty cool as well.
My best advice is to scour the local classifieds and Craigslist daily. You won’t find them cheap anymore, but you can still find them for considerably less than on Reverb, Ebay, or from vintage dealers.
Speachless ... Dunno if this is considered blasphemous, but if you want to lessen that small chip near the bridge, a red Sharpie does wonders for a cherry finish.
I’ve never heard of using a sharpie. The chip is down to the wood, so I’d likely need to color it, fill it, and sand it. It’s not something that I’d do myself on a 59, but I have thought about getting it done professionally. I probably won’t, since it’s completely original, but I’m open to suggestions.
I am not talking about a repair, just a visual camouflage. The Sharpie will make it much less in your face. It's surprisingly close as color goes. It would look something like this. I used it between super glue filling layers on a headstock repair on my Epiphone Vintage SG.
When I play my ‘58 Reissue, it feels like an SG on steroids. Thicker body, but same great upper fret access.
