Same here on the RG strat - I was very disappointed when I saw one close up. The cracks in the scratch-plate were painted on, for example! And the finish, hmmm...
I've got a picture somewhere (b&w) of him with it when it had paint - I think it was a pic of the Fontana or Impact showband, (whichever was first?).
Philly, if you're thinking of the remastered CD cover for Irish Tour - that's a late 70's early 80's pic (REALLY annoyed me how his brother repackaged and generally mangled the entire cannon a few years... :x - that's my "Rant No 1"!! and DO NOT GET ME STARTED on what he did to Jinx - can we have the original album back please, Mr DG, now that you've F'd it good and proper by mixing up out-of-time accoustic guitars that Rory obviously mixed down/out cos he didn't think they worked??? - stop fannying about!! very shoddy and upsetting work).
Deep breath...
But yeah, when I first saw him in 1980, the strat hadn't changed much in the previous 5 years - it suffered quite a bit more after that. I saw him in one gig where there was a load of gaffa tape holding the scratchplate on!! I understand that it got nicked and turned up under a hedgerow somewhere, and was never quite the same again.
I heard him say somewhere that, early on, his use of a harmonica rack caused a lot of the initial damage. And I heard too that he had acid sweat (I do, it rots strings something terrible).
But he did used to do a fair amount of kicking it around the stage as well, or banging it on the drum riser to make a point!! (That's one (a very minor one) of the reasons why I like strats, you can really mistreat them in a rock and roll frenzy (:roll:) and still get to finish the set with them, usually in tune... Try that with an SG and it's busted pretty quick. Try it with an LP and you'll do a lot of damage - possibly to yourself!!).
Up close, his looked like it had suffered some sort of fire damage to the finish (Jimi borrowed it one night mebbe? :lol:). Another possibility that I've wondered in recent years is that perhaps the finish wasn't actually that good in the first place, so it fell off quite naturally? I suspect that the finish on my 62 re-issue, if I started gigging, would go pretty quickly, and when it does, it's going to come off in chunks like worn paint on a door-frame.
And Kilby, you're right about looking for truths!!
Funnily enough though, and I never realised this until I read your post, if I was still gigging, and if I had a real 62 or wotever, I would take it out and play it. I tend not to look at things in terms of "re-sell value" (possibly cos I never sell anything), so I wouldn't be worried about damaging that value - if it was cute, sounded cute, I'd want to play it in public. (What I wouldn't do is pay the asking price to get one in the first place!! :lol:)
