Be VERY careful when you spend good money on 'Fender' decals.
I wanted to get a Fender Telecaster decal some time back, but I decided to NOT rush into anything without doing a little homework. Here's what happened.....
When I'd spot a likely decal on eBay, I'd 'save' the picture to my computer and then compare it to the real thing.
Now, I know what you're thinking....WHAT if you don't HAVE the real thing? Now here's the real trooth. Look at the picture below ~
As you can see in the picture.....the reverse side of the decal has a convenient guide-line to help the installer (presumably at the Fender final assembly plant) place the decal properly. This makes perfect sense and is a certain indication that you have a REAL Fender decal. If the decal you have or are being offered doesn't look like this, then you don't have the REAL thing
In that case, you're best course of action is to select a repro decal that is as CLOSE to the REAL thing as possible. To do this, get a picture from a book or a high res pic of the real thing from the internet, which will almost have to be a close up of an existing Fender headstock. Then compare it closely to the one you are being offered. Pay close attention to details that would otherwise seem unimportant. Do your homework.
Using this method I was able to easily eliminate about 75% of all the 'Fender' decals on eBay, AND about 100% of those claiming to be authentic decals from the 1950's. That includes those on brown paper; those that are upside-down and those that have the company name on the paper. (I presume you know which ones I am referring to..)
In my estimation, ALL 'Fender' decals that I have come across for sale are facsimiles. In other words, fake. Thankfully, there are reproduction decals that are VERY close to to originals and those are the ones you should be looking for.
Now, I realize that Fender has decals that they apply to their guitars and I realize that the probability of some of them 'escaping' out to the public exists. But I can tell you that NONE of the 'Fender' decals that were accurate enough for me to spend money on were from Fender.
The current decals from Fender (such as the ones they put on their relics and closet classics etc) are NOT exactly accurate. The REAL honest to gosh spaghetti decals have skinny fonts; whereas current Fender spaghetti decals are slightly fatter. Hard to tell, unless you do an A-B comparison. But a good portion of the ones on eBay, INCLUDING the brown paper; upside-down; and company name decals are too fat to be anything but copies of CURRENT Fender decals (or, possibly actual current Fender decals that escaped).
So where am I going with this? Just this.....
Accuracy is all that counts in a decal. Ignore all the come-ons about old paper or company names.
Oh and by the way, for those vigilant peoples who are foaming at the mouth over all they have read here, let me state that my search for a decal was prompted by the incredibly brusk and shabby treatment I received at the hands of Fender dealers who I approached with the completely valid and legal request for authentication of my genUwine Fender Telecaster which has a badly damaged decal that I want to replace for cosmetic purposes. Fender (technically) allows for this, as stated at Mr. Gearhead at the Fender site. Unfortunately, even IF you have a perfectly validated and authenticated Fender Guitar in NEED of a decal, you may NOT get the kind of service you'd normally expect. Frankly, I was disgusted and said, basically, 'forget this, why knock my self out?' and that's when I went to eBay.
THINGS TO CONSIDER:
Some decals will be faithful copies with close attention to detail and color, but when they arrive in the mail you discover that they are too small or too large. This is probably the hardest problem to overcome when buying sight-unseen.
You don't want decals that are not 'die-cut'. Decals that are not die-cut are almost certainly cheap ink-jet waterslide decals that won't look right on your guitar unless you're an expert at freehand cutting and are capable of trimming your decal to match the amoeba like die-cut perimeter that is quite noticable on every REAL Fender decal.
Another aspect that is EASY to overlook is the color. Silver and Gold are different colors. They both look great, but only one is correct for your particular guitar. Do your homework.
Your friend, Louie Seven