So that looks like a 1993 CU24. Non-10 top probably. It has faded to a rather nice Trampas Green like tone, too bad about the decal. With no case the value drops about $150 - since that's what it costs to find one in good condition (shipped). Based on the bumps and nicks it has, it might be worth $1100-ish, maybe a bit more if cleaned up. I see some early-90s CU24s on Reverb (with OHSC case) with asking prices above that, of course, but asking price and paying price are often two very different things. (I modified my post to adjust perceived value after looking again at the headstock shots. That still might be a bit high.)
I'm wondering if there is a very light buffing I can do to get those darker spots out when I remove the sticker. Even if I left the sticker, there are those blue haze/tinges that I'm wondering if I could some how clean up. As far as the touch ups, I might do that but I don't mind the player wear on the head stock, just the (obviously not taken care of, probably sat in the sun for months on end wear). That's what I think the blue haze/tinge is. I will do a setup on it this weekend, play it for a couple days and make an offer. Once I adjusted the pickups a bit the tones I am getting are great, killer sustain, very lovely instrument. So once I get it to where I like to play, I think I will fall in love with this as a player guitar. Ill keep y'all posted! Thank you so much for the incite!
The stain in the wood under the lacquer (clearcoat, whatever) has faded - you can't get to that stain unless you remove the clearcoat lacquer. No amount of buffing will help unless you strip down to the wood, practically. A refinish is what you'd need to do to remove it completely, and that isn't cost effective, IMHO. The sticker is not 100% my style, but I'd rather just leave it, or leave the shadow. Or maybe remove it, put the guitar out into the sun for a while and see if you can fade the "shadow" while not impacting the rest of the finish! (Not likely, though.)
Yes, agreed on the decal. I'm really on the fence here. If I take it off it could have a cool effect where it looks like its stained that way, it could also look like someone drew on it with green marker (which is kind of how it looks as I removed one of the finger ends.) I might experiment with a sun bathe for an hour and see how it does. Maybe on an angle it would clean it up... such a mystery, one that could sacrifice the rest of the finish. :-/
