Thrift Shop Gold - "New" Fauxcaster

[XYRN]

I was bumming around town with my son yesterday and we popped into a new thrift store that a friend of mine just opened.
Wasn't planning on buying anything, just wanted to say hi and give support.

Of course my 5 year old spotted a $2 knicknack case that he can use to hold rocks and other treasures and I spotted a $2 AM/FM radio and we headed up to the till.

Sheri, my friend, asked if we were all set and I glanced around and spotted this guitar, and grabbed it without a second thought or any inspection.





We were on bicycles so I drove back later and picked up the guitar, the radio and the knicknack case; also stopped at Target and bought their sole pack of electric strings.

Then I took a closer look.
Loose pots, grime all over, three rusty strings, some odd pickguard 'art', finish cracks, and brown frets.
It looked very ratty and if it didn't work at all at the least I could hang it on the wall in my music room/man-cave. But I've been wanting an electric so I thought it was worth the ten dollar gamble.

The frets were rusty but a little elbow grease and 4-0 steel wool took care of that.





There are multiple cracks in the finish, but I don't think they extend into the body. They are hard to photograph.

The pots were very loose and the knobs were grimey so I tightened the nuts and while the knobs were off I soaked them with dish soap and then brushed them clean.

Before:


After:


After cleaning I could kind of make out the model name where the defaced decal had been.



I found another example online.


I have no idea what somebody carved into the pickguard.


But a little Sharpie makes it much less noticeable.
In this photo you can also see some of the finish cracking.


After I put on the “Adam Levine Signature Super Xtra Light” .09’s and adjusted the action slightly I plugged it into my Tascam CD/GT-1MkII guitar trainer/effects machine and gave it the first strum.
IT WORKS!!!!!

All in all, for ten bucks, I think I scored!



🤘🙂🤘

[jricc]

Sweet find for $50! Amazing find for $10!!!
very cool.

[Kerbie]

Congratulations! Best $10 you've ever spent? Nice clean-up job... looking good.

[XYRN]

Originally Posted by Kerbie

Congratulations! Best $10 you've ever spent? Nice clean-up job... looking good.

Yeah I'd say so!

And thanks!

[Yamaha Man]

I knew a guitar teacher one time who owned a Cort Les Paul copy...he loved it, said it was a very fine guitar. He didn't want a real Les Paul, he was happy with his Cort. I believe he said he paid around $400 for it.

[perttime]

Looks like you did something about the intonation, too. In the first photos the positions of the bridge pieces looked a bit extreme.

I believe Cort has made some pretty good electrics, and some very cheap ones. No clue what this one was in its early days. If it plays, good. If it sounds OK, even better.

[harpspitfire]

nice- i found a similar model- just dirty for $15, after clean-up, it plays as good as any other

[XYRN]

Originally Posted by perttime

Looks like you did something about the intonation, too. In the first photos the positions of the bridge pieces looked a bit extreme.

I believe Cort has made some pretty good electrics, and some very cheap ones. No clue what this one was in its early days. If it plays, good. If it sounds OK, even better.

Three of the strings were broken so their saddles were slack.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by XYRN

I have no idea what somebody carved into the pickguard.




������

Maybe it once belonged to Albert Collins?

Maybe some AC/DC fan was carving the band's name into the pickguard & suddenly realized he could have planned it a bit better?

Nice score anyhow!

[FrankHudson]

I suspect the carving may have been an Stevie Ray Vaughn/SRV in big letters on his pickguard effect. His image/playing sold a lot of Strats and Strat-likes at one time.

I love a cheap electric guitar, and I believe there is less difference between inexpensive solid-body electric guitars and expensive ones than many believe. And part of the brilliance in Leo Fender's early designs was to make the electric guitar a thing that could made, maintained, and repaired cheaply.

If you don't have any neck issues, the frets aren't dinged up, and the electronics work, you have a screaming bargain there, and every one of those things is fixable.

I have a Cort branded, lower-end line, bolt-on neck LP type that might have replaced/upgraded pickups when I bought it used. I can't figure it out. It sounds great, not the same, but just as valid, as my Gibson Les Paul or Fender dual humbucker Strat. I can explain in 20 ways why is shouldn't sound good at all, but it doesn't listen to me.

[maxtheaxe]

Ten Bucks! Can't go wrong with that...at the price, you could put a loaded pickguard on there with some nice Fender Custom Shop pups, a nice set of Schaller locking tuners...looks like someone already put roller string trees on that.

You'd still come in under 3 bills for an awesome custom Strat!

[guitararmy]

Nice work there! Looks like it would take a standard Fender pickguard if you wanted to change it. I have a yellowed one you can have for the cost of shipping...

[XYRN]

The original black pickguard looked awful, even though I used black Sharpie on the carving.
So today I stopped into Twin Town Guitars in Mpls and found a used pickguard, for ten bucks. Now I've doubled my investment!

I much prefer the ‘banana cream’ look, and for the new strings I picked up some D’Addario EXL110 10’s. I am used to 12-13's on my acoustics and 09's felt too thin.

[Yamaha Man]

lush !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[XYRN]

Originally Posted by guitararmy

Nice work there! Looks like it would take a standard Fender pickguard if you wanted to change it. I have a yellowed one you can have for the cost of shipping...

Dang I woulda taken you up on that.
Thanks, though!