Fauxbursts
11/8/2008 Copyright © 2010 James William Shine, Jr.
A little known style of sunburst finish Fender experimented with between 1966-1969 was what I call a 'faux burst'. The body of the guitar is generally made up of 4-6 pieces of wood, veneered on the face and back, sealed with Fullerplast, primered white, glazed to simulate wood grain, then sunburst finished. Fender first experimented with this type of finish in the early 60's on Musicmaster guitars with mahogany wood bodies.
UPDATE- Two Jaguars have surfaced since I wrote this that are factory refins. These are not butcher block in construction, but standard 3 piece bodies.
I have also been sent some photos of a once Dakota Red guitar factory refinished Fauxburst! The sender has become hard to find, and I would like some better shots for this page. If you are reading this, please make contact with me!
Click on thumbnails below to see examples of this finish on a Strat.
1969 Fauxburst Strat
Click on thumbnails below to look at the pathetic butch block wood found under a faux burst finish.
Fauxburst Submissions
If you have one to add, email me with good JPG images and I will add them. This has been a good topic and it seems these are a bit more common than I initially realized.
The Musicmaster above features an early version of this finishing method. The body base coat is actually Desert Sand. Transparent yellow was applied over this with no glazing. This body was mahogany wood. So thank Leo for the start of this system. Few Musicmaster family guitars received this treatment, but they are not super rare.