Fender’s Switch from Nitrocellulose Lacquer to Polyurethane in 1968 – Ask Zac 163

AKA you know him as Dano Caster we're at
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his shop
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and we had a wide variety of 50s 60s and
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70s fenders and so I kind of wanted to
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take a chance to show you the difference
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between
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Nitro and polyurethane polyester kind of
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finishes and so
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and and don't think I'm saying I'm an
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all-out expert here there's some things
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that we just don't know because we
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weren't there when these were made but
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we're gonna try not to jump to a bunch
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of conclusions and just going to show
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you some examples
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and really the big transition year is
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1968. that's kind of where you're going
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to see a big change in the Finish
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actually some happens a little bit
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before that but you're just going to see
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it as we go so starting off this is Dan
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strain's 1957 telecaster and I want you
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to see the amazing checking that's on
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this and the amount of rust that's on
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the bridge and the control plate this is
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a really gorgeous guitar
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and I want you to also notice the uh the
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checking
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you know actually not a whole lot of
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checking on the
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on the headstock and neck and just uh
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the way it looks
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also uh I'm gonna flip this bad boy over
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I love the wear on this I love the uh
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you know the uh the pitting on the neck
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plate I love this wear
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um this guitar is notable because this
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is the model or for the um Dan's 0.88
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soft v-neck the measurements and such
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are taken from uh from this guitar
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all right so we've seen the 57 we're
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gonna jump forward and we're gonna get a
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a 67 telly
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all right so now we've jumped a Whole
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Decade
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so now
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on this there's probably you know what's
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called Fuller plast underneath here and
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we don't know if that's some type of
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poly or what but you can see like this
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white undercoat here and then of course
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this is a blonde finish but you can tell
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this blonde is pretty different from the
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uh the blonde that we saw on Dan's uh 57
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again this is my 67 tele
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and here you can see on the neck it's
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got a fair amount of
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wear and such and then there's some fine
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checking
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on the on the headstock
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now this is really the tail end of nitro
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finishes on the neck
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um
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because uh you know not not long after
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this you're going to see that you're
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also
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on the finishes on the body it seems
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like not long after this in 68 you start
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seeing finishes that are glossier blonde
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so we're going to switch out to another
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to a Bixby tele of mine
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and so now we've got both of them
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so here we've got my 67 and this this
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one of course has been modified a bit
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but you can see that the the Finish is
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is darker it's less kind of wheat
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looking and I wonder how much of it has
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to do with you know smoke and such or
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how much has to do with this finish
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actually being different because this
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seems to be a heartier finish that's on
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this somewhat later 67 telebody so but
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uh yeah they definitely are aging
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differently in the finishes look very
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different especially as you look at
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the body
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you know the back
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and here you can see
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the back here
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all right let's take this and let's grab
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the 1969 neck
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all right
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so now we're going to compare
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necks that are less than two years apart
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so here
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you have
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the 67 neck that looks to be all lacquer
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and then you have the 69 neck that is
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pretty definitely a poly neck again you
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go back and forth even up to the
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headstock you don't see any checking at
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all
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it does have wear the Frets are actually
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completely gone on this neck
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but here you just go right over here to
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the 67 neck
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and you see you know all this checking
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and such of course this is when they
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first returned to
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you know the actual Maple neck where
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it's got the skunk stripe this one does
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not
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um
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yeah so 68 seems to be when
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these necks stop having the lacquer
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Nitro finish and it seems like you know
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mid 68 or so and definitely by 69 it
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seems to be a mostly polyester finish
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now we're going to see some examples
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where the headstock is a darker color
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and I think we're going to pull out a 72
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Strat now
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okay
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so this is a 1972 Strat
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and as you can see
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this has a lot of cool checking on it
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and with this
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it would be easy to think is this a
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combination of poly and lacquer we don't
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know but that's what that's what kind of
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my assumption is because it has this
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really cool you know cracking in the
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finish and uh it seems like it could be
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poly with a a lacquer coat that's over
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the top this is a an all original 72
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Strat of of Dan's and here's where you
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get really interesting so here up on the
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headstock you're going to see how much
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darker the headstock is and that's
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because they were using the poly finish
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on the neck and then they would put the
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logo on and then they would just spray
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lacquer over top and so this one has
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gotten a lot darker probably because
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it's seen more UV
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raise and so this one does not this one
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is pretty much the same color it might
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be a touch darker than the rest so
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we're gonna
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show one more we're going to bring the
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Bixby tele back
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and we're gonna
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show it
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and show how it
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has aged
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this one
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now on when you again this is this is an
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older body but this neck is probably a
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73 to 75 neck and so when you get up
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here you can see that same thing where
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the uh the headstock is darker than the
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rest because of the uh the lacquer that
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was put on there and it just ages more
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and it seems to be the later in the 70s
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or you know at least past 71 or so it
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just seems like you see a lot of this
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you know where the where the headstock
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just gets a lot darker and sometimes the
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fingerboard with the Poly on it will
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still look like you know a bowling alley
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floor or something like that but uh yeah
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these are really cool I just thought you
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guys would enjoy getting a chance to see
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uh some of these finishes and just how
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different they can look and how they age
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differently and and also just kind of
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help you in kind of being able to
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identify Nitro versus polyurethane slash
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polyester finishes and I have no qualms
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about playing a guitar that has a poly
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Finish versus a a Nitro finish no no
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problem with that at all I think it's
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either a good guitar it's not a good
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guitar
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I'll say this so this is a 69 neck again
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and you know it is most definitely a
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poly finish but it's really thin and
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really hard it's not that gooped on
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finish that you start getting much later
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in the late 70s you start getting this
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really gooped on finish but this this
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poly neck has a uh yeah has a really
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good feel doesn't feel you know overly
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sticky or any anything like that and
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then just just for Giggles we'll uh
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we'll look at the at the neck heel
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of course you see a three which is the
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code for Telecaster Mar which is for
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March then you have 69 which is the year
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and then B which is the standard width
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of uh one and five eighths and uh yeah
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people sometimes mistakenly think it's
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the third of March but no it's uh then
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that would make it where uh most of the
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necks made throughout the 60s were all
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made on the on the on the same day on
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different months but uh yeah later on
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you get different stamp codes that uh
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some of them have similar designations
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but then there's another one that's on
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this uh you know 73 to 75 neck that's a
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lot harder to decipher so
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all right guys I hope you even enjoyed
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this look at Nitro versus poly and and
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Dan's dog giving us a little bark to say
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that say that they're still there all
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right guys we'll see you next time bye