I have posted before and being a player my whole life who is kind of morphing into a collector while being sidelined with injuries for two years, you guys have really been a great help and the top of the line in knowledge concerning collecting. I am really into Ernie Ball Music Man Vanhalen guitars which were produced from 90 to 95 with the total amount of roughly over 6,000 guitars made during that period.
Now the guitar was offered in about 9 colors ranging in 1400 made to as little as 16 in a given color. The problem they had with these axes were they used a dye that made about two third of them fade, some colors more extreme than others. I have seen mint purple guitars that look as if they were made natural with just the slightest tint of color left.
Here is my question- Ernie Ball early on took a lot of these guitars back and would refurbish them after they corrected the problem with the dye, which was the end of the run before Vanhalen left for Peavey. I know some top collectors of these guitars including Geoff Knapp, who has the site rockandrollweekend.com and is probably the biggest collector on Vanhalen axes. Now is it ok to have your guitar refinished due to the circumstances by the company that produced them or is this a price killer the same as any refin. as they were done by the serial number which stated what color the guitar was as I have been offered a fair price to buy on that I know was and it is not what you would pay for your average refin.
One more question guys/ I had my most prized EBMM EVH ax which I bought in 92 and is the only guitar I ever bought to put away and not play out. It looks like you stepped back in time as the guitar looks like it was made a week ago. I took it to my techs store to show the guys and one of the owners asked me if he could plug in and give it a go. I said yes and watched him get his Eddie on besides offering me 5K for it which I declined. When I got home I noticed there was a slight dent the size of a pick tip that went through the gloss but not the wood. It is too deep to have buffed out. Well I guess you must all know I wanted to vomit.lol and if anyone says why did I let him play it . The guy is a friend and they have fixed my gear for cost for years. Now I am thinking should I just leave it or should I get it fixed. Besides this collecting thing is a learning progress that I never brought in an ax to get a dent fixed but since it did not hit the wood finish and just the clear I would believe this could be fixed without a trace or could it? Well this is why I come here to here what the experts have to say. THANKS GUYS.