Headstock logos for Partscasters?

[Maria]

So, I need some clarity on this. I recently started picking up really beat-up (but otherwise decent quality) guitars at pawn shops, completely stripping them down to the bare wood, and making a new guitar starting with the neck and body. New finish, new hardware, new pickups, new wiring/pots/switches, fret level/polish, complete set-up. I've even started experimenting with unique pickguards (like lacquered canvas and such).

My friends and my band love this new hobby of mine, and I'm building(?) (rebuilding? assembling?) guitars for most of my band members now. They end up with a high-quality instrument customized for them for around $350 (they're my friends, so I'm not charging for labor).

My question is, what do I put on the headstock? I'm not as cool as mapleglo - I'm not starting with blank, beautiful wood. Obviously, if I start with a used Squier, and at the end, I've changed everything except the wood of the body and the wood of the neck and fretboard, I can't put a Squier logo back on the headstock. It's not a Squier anymore. I'd like to put my own logo... but if I put my own logo, isn't that kind of misleading also? I'm not exactly a luthier. Fender made the body and neck, not me.

What do you all think?

 

[stratocarlster]

How about this?

 

[gibsonsmu]

Why put a logo? I like bare headstocks

 

[Rastus]

How about this? View attachment 172674

I like that !

Maybe "Born Again" in the same script could work too....

 

[tmcgee]

Here you go: http://www.guitarfetish.com/Headstock-Decals-_c_605.html

 

[Vinnie1971]

Perfect for a partscaster

 

[sumran]

I think the work you are doing is worthy of your own logo. You are using the original as a parts source. That isn't much different than ordering a body, neck, pickups, etc. and putting on a logo when done.

You are working in a small scale and people know what they are getting.

 

[nungesser]

nothing wrong with putting your own decal on the headstock, i'm interested in your pickguard idea, if you've got any ready for viewing would love to see what you've come up with

 

[Bodean]

Here you go: http://www.guitarfetish.com/Headstock-Decals-_c_605.html

Cool, did not know they started doing this.

 

[Maria]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I saw those guitarfetish decals while I was shopping for parts, I was amused

Gibsonsmu, it's true I could do no logo, but I guess I want to claim the work I do somehow, so that there's a difference between what I'm making and any of the other guitars out there with blank headstocks (which vary from awesome partscasters to guitars you buy at Walmart). I do my best to build high-quality stuff.

Nungesser, I'll def start a thread once I have some pickguards done! All I have right now are a few works-in-progress, trying to figure out what process works best.

Born Again and Reborn are good ones, I also thought of "Resurrection"... and then it occurred to me that I sounded like a super-Christian guitar company lol. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it would just be false advertising in my case. So I'm thinking I'll go with a symbol of some kind. I have a star tattoo on my forearm that I got when I was 21, that I'm pretty attached to. I think I might use that.

 

[albala]

I wanted something that made people do a double take.

It kinda looks like a Fender logo from the 80s but...

 

[jaybones]

Back in the early 90's my bandmate had a Stratocaster built for him by a luthier. He decided he wanted it to be a F*cker sphincterblaster. The F*cker looked enough like Fender and sphincterblater was small enough that if you weren't looking closely it looked like Stratocaster.

People all the time were noticing it and asking about it.

I have a Sammick body with a Fender CBS style headstock on it. I think I'm going to refinish the headstock and put a gold 70's style Fender decal on it. The neck is a Fender, the body is the same factory that made MIJ Fenders, PG is Fender, HW is mostly Fender, pups are Lace reds, so its mostly a Fender.