Hey Richard,
That's true about Jimmy Page's guitar, he did buy it from Joe Walsh, and the neck was shaved down to make it faster. In the early 60's, both Fender and Gibson were trending towards thinner necks, then they started trending back to thicker necks in the 70's.
It doesn't show very well in the pictures, but the area where my right arm rests on the body, is getting discolored a bit. Kind of like where the paint is on the curve of the contour, it seems to have a faded outline.
Yeah, I had posted about that on here when I got that guitar back in '09. It wasn't played to death, it was actually kept in a basement without the case. When they guy who bought it from the kid who stole it passed away, his two sons inherited all his guitars. The one who got mine got very curious about all the mods I did to it and tried researching the serial#. When he did, he found the post I put up with the serial number when I listed it as stolen. He contacted me and returned it to me in the condition it's in now.
I wouldn't oil finish it though. The body is 3-piece alder, so not that spectacular. Since the guitar is made in 1983, and one of the last CBS guitars, (One of the earliest '57 reissues), it's probably not considered that much of a vintage guitar. Besides, the neck on that guitar is ultra-thin and fast, definitely not like the actual '57 necks which were pretty chunky with a definite "V" shape. Probably what people call a "boatneck" these days. I did get a chance to play an actual '57 Strat and it is a world apart from the one I have, both in the feel of it and the tone. I like mine better.