Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 22, 2017 at 6:17pm

Hi Richard,

The autograph looks absolutely real to me, and very nicely signed! You often don't know until you see an autograph in person whether it's a copy or not, but I haven't seen them copied onto pick guards.

It's not as valuable as it would be if it was signed on the wood of the bass, but it's a desirable piece for sure.

Permalink Reply by Devon Laney on March 22, 2017 at 8:48pm

Looks good to me!

Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on March 22, 2017 at 8:50pm

Me too. Nice one.

Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on March 22, 2017 at 10:24pm

Looks fine to me. 

Permalink Reply by Jim Cushman on March 23, 2017 at 9:57am

A nice clean Macca signature....not rushed....a nice example....

Permalink Reply by Alexander Mehl on March 23, 2017 at 6:01pm

First of all: the "pickguard" is a cheap plasticboard bought at a "do-it-yourself-market" or other warehouse. The signature of McCartney is printed or copied on this cheap plasticboard which was cut in the size of an original Hoefner-pickguard and mounted. That's it.

You find many "signed" guitars - mainly in US - with these "signed" stupid plasticboards mounted on replica-guitars and sometimes I think what kind of "experts" issued a COA confirming a) as an original signed Hoefner-guitar and b) a faked or copied autograph as genuine.

Sometimes you find genuine autographs of McCartney which are incomplete - mostly missing parts of the underline - due to the fact he wrote on a cheap plasticboard - given in the size of the White Album - and the cutter of the "pickguard" has a problem because McCartney wrote on a wrong place on the board! That's it.  

Permalink Reply by Alexander Mehl on March 24, 2017 at 7:49am

Another sample just offered at eBay by Presspasscollectibles:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/132130848388

Foreign plasticboard here with a genuine Macca sig.

Permalink Reply by fab432 on March 24, 2017 at 9:42am

Wow great update!!! The original posting on eBay was removed. Fake?

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 24, 2017 at 9:48am

Alexander,

You said that the one at the top of the discussion was printed on the pickguard. How can you tell that this one was genuinely signed but the other one wasn't?

Permalink Reply by Mr. Steffman on March 24, 2017 at 10:45am

When we toured city to city for McCartney, I met a few guys from Chicago who were putting sheets of clear plastic over albums and then Paul would sign the plastic sheet and think he was signing the album beneath it. They would later remove the plastic and apply it as the top layer of a pickguard.

Another method I saw guys using was to bring pickguard material that wasn't cut into the shape of a pickguard yet, just a large square piece of plastic and they would get Paul to sign it, then have it cut into shape later.

This uncut method was particularly effective when these guys would put fake music legend signatures all over the board but leave 1 open spot in the middle for Paul to sign. After he signed in the open spot, they would later erase the other fake signatures and then get it cut down. The point of the fake signatures was to reduce the chance of Paul being suspicious of a mysterious blank piece of plastic.

Particularly disheartening was witnessing these guys who were able to sign convincing fake autographs on these boards right off the top of their heads.

Personally, I would stay away from all of these Hofners signed on the pickguards. The signatures are spot on, but I still don't trust them. The deception is a bit much, and there are just so many of them on the market. Where exactly do they all come from? I'd be wiling to bet very few of them have a known/available history of where/how they were obtained.

Permalink Reply by fab432 on March 24, 2017 at 10:59am

Amen!!!

Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on March 24, 2017 at 11:01am

This one is from a signed copy of "High In the Clouds."

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