Fender P USA '57 RI help needed

[Bassman Sam]

I joined Basschat last year and it's been an education as I knew bugger all about the history of my bass. When I bought it around 1996, I was told that it was a USA '57 RI P Bass and that was it. To me, it was just a lovely looking Fender and it played great. It was on sale in a record/T-shirt/ music shop in Chelmsford as a private sale and I had been looking out for a P- bass for a while. I have always loved a natural finish on a bass, my first proper bass being a Ricky 4001 fretless maple glow back in the early '70's.

Any road up. When I put up some photos of it on here, I was soon made aware that not all was well. It was pointed out to me the the finish was not original but it had been stripped back and then varnished. This was around the same I took the neck off and dated it as a '83 Fullerton model.

Now here's the big question.

What should it have looked like in the first place. The pick guard is painted white but looks like it's gold underneath. Should I strip the paint off it to bring it back to it's original condition? What was the finish? Sunburst or white or was there any other colour that these were made in?

I would like to point out that I will not do a refinish myself apart from the PG if possible but will get a luthier to do it. Any suggestions on who could tackle this would be welcome.

I might end up just getting a set up again and leaving the rest of it as it's got my history on it and I have RA so it won't be playing it too much in the future.

What do you think?

Pictures here. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=117036&hl=bassman+sam"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...;hl=bassman+sam[/url]

[BB2000]

[post="1151467"]This is what it would have looked like.[/post]