Proud New BreezySound Owner!

After a few years watching and waiting I finally managed to find myself a BreezySound at a reasonable price ($NZ450). As far as I can make out form the registry info here I'm pretty sure it's an 84 model based on the number (L298438) and the headstock logo (pictured below).

The only problem is that a previous owner seems to have started sanding off the paintwork on it - presumably with the intention of re-painting it. :roll:

My question to the more knowledgable of you around here is this: should I continue stripping the paint off and re-finish it or would it be better to just leave it as it is? Also, if the answer is that I should re-finish it what kind of finish would you suggest? (I'm thinking just natural wood with some kind of quality oil or wax?)

Cheers and nice to be here.

Simon

Simple Simon said:

After a few years watching and waiting I finally managed to find myself a BreezySound at a reasonable price ($NZ450). As far as I can make out form the registry info here I'm pretty sure it's an 84 model based on the number (L298438) and the headstock logo (pictured below).

The only problem is that a previous owner seems to have started sanding off the paintwork on it - presumably with the intention of re-painting it. :roll:

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LOL! Congrats, btw.

Simple Simon said:

My question to the more knowledgable of you around here is this: should I continue stripping the paint off and re-finish it or would it be better to just leave it as it is? Also, if the answer is that I should re-finish it what kind of finish would you suggest? (I'm thinking just natural wood with some kind of quality oil or wax?)

Click to expand...

Well, do you like it as-is? Or is it bothering you?

Whether you refinish it or not is your decision. If you decide to refinish it, then there are several ways to go: solid color, sunburst, natural, etc. The easiest thing to do is to paint a solid color over what you already have. This is time consuming though. You have to let the paint dry a really long time (several weeks) and then there's the time consuming issue of how many coats of clear you put on it. The more you do, the better protected your refinish becomes.

If you decide to strip off the rest of the paint (to do a natural or sunburst finish), then the way I see it, I let the wood decide what I do. What I mean by that is, if the wood has a very striking grain pattern, then a natural finish will really showcase that (sunburst will too, to a degree). If the wood is more plain looking, then Sunburst it is. Keep in mind that if you decide to strip off the rest of the paint, you'll need to re-apply grain filler (maybe), sanding sealer, and then proceed w/ your finish color. Not a job for the faint-of-heart or a novice...(you may get frustrated w/ the whole process, and end up with some worse than when you started!)

If it were me, I'd play it as-is and enjoy the new toy for a while, then if it's really bothering you, do a refinish.

Thanks, mate!

No, it's not really bothering me as it is, but I'd quite like to get the neck etc set up better and if I was going to bother refinishing the body I figured it would make sense to do that first.

At the risk of sounding mercenary I guess my main consideration is how it might affect any potential resale value down the road if i was to re-finish the body. Not that I envisage parting with this baby anytime soon, but ya just never know where life might lead.

congrats Simon. so far, the best tele I've ever tried are tokai breezy sounds...

leave it as it is...imo.

Thanks, toybitz, I'm starting to think you might be right about leaving it as it is (the body at least). It might look a bit rough but maybe that just adds to the character. But then there's a part of me that would love to take it back to the grain and just see what's under there. :roll: :lol:

Ya know it's funny, I've never really played a Tele before so it's a whole new experience for me. I've always been a bit of a Strat man (same Strat for about 25 years)and I'm finding the Tele demands a whole different approach and feel from what I'm used to. It's a good challenge.