Headstock Re-Finish

[Balrog]

Not sure if this the right forum...but, over the years the headstock on my Dinky has sustained some finish damage. A good friend of mine does custom paint and I'm thinking of having him strip and re-spray it. I found a link on here to get new a new Jackson decal (I assume the "Made in USA" as well?). Is there anything I need to know before I dive into this? Seems like a simple thing, but. Also, give me some opinions regarding the color, should I stick with black/white logo/gloss clear coat...or...maple/black logo/satin clear coat?

[Newc]

Those decals are cheap and illegal imitations that some people try to use for forgeries, but some use them for the applications you suggest. Not sure if they're 100% accurate to the original (hope not) but they should be close enough for a refin.

[Balrog]

I'm not sure if I'm interested if they are not the real deal. So what are my options? Send it back to the factory? Will they do a re-finish on a 17 year old axe?

[Balrog]

......bump

[Balrog]

Still not sure what I want to do with this, I sent best-decals.com an e-mail but haven't heard back (not sure I want to go this route anyway). I'm going to send Jackson an e-mail to see what options they have. I assume they won't sell me the decals and that sending the neck back for a refin will be big $$$. Funny part is, I was at a Jackson dealer talking to the guitar tech and before I could mention changing the headstock color to maple he says..."you know what would look bad ass, carefully sand the headstock down to the maple and use black logos and satin clear coat". I like the idea but haven't found picks of a guitar like mine with a maple HS to see if I like it...and the logo thing is a PITA. Thanks a lot counterfeiters!!!!

[YetAnotherOne]

How bad and of what sort is the damage? If it's just cracking / peeling clear any good paint guy should be able to re-shoot the headstock & clean it up pretty well. I've had that done with finish repairs a couple of times with very good results.

[Spivonious]

Yeah I doubt Jackson will send you a genuine logo.

What's the problem with the imitation logos? They might not be 100% identical, but you know it's a Jackson, and others aren't going to compare it to the real thing.

[rjohnstone]

Here's something else to keep in mind. Some head stocks had a phenolic (plastic) cap on them.
You cannot just sand the headstock to reveal the Maple as it has a cap on it.
The black part is not paint, it's essentially a 1/16" thick piece of plastic.
So going Maple may be more work for you.

As for the logo... there are good fakes out there. You just have to keep your eyes open.
Your particular guitar has the logo screened on. It's not a decal.

[Axewielder]

The last time I was in that situation, I did a refin on the body and neck, and had had the headstock paint only touched up and re-cleared. If done correctly, it comes out looking nice and minty.

[Balrog]

Thanks for the responses everyone. The initial problem was with what I've always thought was the paint/clearcoat lifting around the edge, which I didn't notice until fairly large pieces had chipped off. This was probably 5 or 6 years after I bought it. I attempted to fix it myself and had done a fairly decent job, but wasn't satisfied so I tried again and sanded through the black, revealing some maple by the tuners. So my dumb ass actually caused the current issue. It's not terrible, I touched it up so it's not so obvious, but I thought it might be a nice little project to try and repair correctly, at least to redeem my error.

rjohnstone, you have me thinking this may actually be the phenolic cap, based on my memory of what the chips looked like. The area under the chips looked like flat black paint. I sanded through the cap pretty easily though, so I don't know if that's what it is or not.

A lot of my motivation to do this is that I'm itching for a new guitar and spending a few grand on what I want is not a good idea right now as I don't know how much longer I'm going to have a job. So I thought a few tastefull updates to my baby might tide me over for a while. A pick-up change is forth-coming as well.

[rjohnstone]

If you sanded through it with relative ease, it was just paint.
Those caps are a bitch to get through.

[Balrog]

That's what I'm hoping. I've decided to order both a black set of decals and a white set to keep on hand. This way if I don't like the maple look after a while I can change it back to black.

[stevoc]

..."you know what would look bad ass, carefully sand the headstock down to the maple and use black logos and satin clear coat".

Is it a bolt on neck? You could find a DK2M neck and replace yours if so. Of course, that will be changing the fretboard to maple as well and I'm not sure that's alright with you. Speaking from experience, the DK2M necks are awesome!

Also, it wouldn't have the "made in usa" lettering either.

[Balrog]

Yep, it's a bolt-on but I'd prefer to stick with the ebony fretboard. Thanks for the idea anyway though stevoc.

Btw, the decals are ordered, I'll post pics when it's finished.

[stevoc]

After having a DK1 with an ebony fretboard for some time, I don't think I would want to swap out either. Good choice.