Re: Bought body for my Relic project
Thanks everone. Yes, It'll be left as is, although I'd love to see someone who knows what they are doing do a little better job relicing it a bit more extensively and realistically on the forearm area.
You can do it yourself man, its very easy as you said its a nitro finish.
Just get yourself some very fine grit sandpaper, like 1500 or 2000 grit (autozone and similar stores always have this, Lowes etc probably doesn't go that fine) and figure out where you think the wear is going to go and start rubbing it, lightly and taking your time. Your not trying to sand off the finish, just start to lightly wear down the paint a bit. It will take about 3-5 minutes of work to start to have it wearing through the paint so its not like its easy to get a big hole.
Once youve got a spot or basic shape, rub around the outside a bit lighter to sort of "feather" the wear spots and get that nice transition. This again is very easy due to the nature of nitro finishes.
Then just get an old sock or soemthing along those lines and rub and buff the rest of the guitar and you've got a realistic look forearm wear spot, thats created exactly like real wear happens, only speed up a bit.
If you want to wear it down to the wood, instead of just the white primer layer, you can even rub some sweat in there!
Yes it sounds nasty but if its a spot of a relic thats going to be worn from years of sweaty nights playing, I actually work out a bit, get a sweat rag and use that to buff the wood
Why ?
Because I figure that a true relic is going to be the result of lots of blood sweat and tears.
Some people like wood stain on the backs of necks to get a dirty look
I use sweat, and grease from my car to tint the back, because lets face it, a 40 year old neck is going to have the finish worn away of course, but how likely is it to spill wood stain on it ???
Not very likely but think about how many sweaty grimey hands would be on that neck every night for 40 years ?
Those are my methods and I think they work
