SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Edgecrusher said:
to me a matte neck is not relicing... relicing is when its made to look old... neither are rolled fretboard edges. theres a big difference between using some steel wool on the neck vs making it look like the pores are filled with green finger gunk and complimentary dings and checking.
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Fair point. I see relicing as that taking some steel wool to the back of your neck and fretboard edges, even if they make no discernible difference to looks. That's more falsely ageing than relicing though. I guess it depends how you see it.

But yeah just in general I have seen a few builders falsely age/relic their instruments to give them a worn in feel (which sometimes results in a work in look depending on how far they go)
 
SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Mine is a Frankencaster. It's made up of a Road Worn 50's neck, a road worn players body, and a D. Allen loaded pickguard. The pickups are his Flat50's, alnico 3, wired with the Eric Johnson tone mod, and .047 mfd PIO tone cap. Sounds killer.
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Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Not a lot of ' show ' in this thread. ... come on folks !
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

I really don't understand the hate for relic-ing, it's the same as any other finishing method on a guitar. To me (when done well), it's the same as a really intricate, labor intensive inlay, or a great burst with multi-ply binding, and a thin nitro finish. It's done with a very skilled hand, with a lot of passion for the "art". This is why the high end examples cost more: Labor. Sure it's not the same as wearing it down by playing it, but it looks just as cool, and that's all that matters. You don't relic a Strat to make it sound or play better, you relic it to make it look the way you'd like. The same way you might refinish a black Strat in Fiesta Red, because you think it looks better that way.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

My $.02;

I personally like the closet classic-style look. A little tarnished, a little pockmarked or checked and everything with a smokey caste to it. MAYBE some buckle rash, but the hipline/back paint sanding thing drives me up a wall. I'd say it's the equivalent of a stone-washed jean, if the jeans analogy can work.

Personally? I like crisp blue jeans. You now know of one person who'll wear cowboy-fresh Wranglers of the shelf, as soon as I take the tags and stickers off. My jeans are a tool for covering up my legs and babymaking kit so they don't get messed up and holding my keys/knife/wallet, much like a factoryfresh Strat would be for making music. I also think shredded jeans, jeans worn with colored wash, slashed and resewn and all those other ridiculous ways to sell jeans as reliced are horrible and are all marked up astronomically for fashion largesse alone, and I will never pay for the honor of having someone pre-wreck my jeans that way. Same goes for guitars; no paint rubbed off for me.

Maybe if there's a way to sell me on it like jean companies do; put a super-hot model in them and make her butt hang out of the "relic" holes.

As far as relicing being an artisan craft, I'm sorry but it isn't. A bit of cautiousness with a sander to ruin a paintjob falls in line with furniture distressing, in which housewives hit their coffee tables with hanks of chain and metal brushes with brass bristles. It isn't allowed on the field in a league game with inlays. Yes, they're both labor, but they're not equal. Yes, I've done (or attempted) both and as it turns out a bachelor's degree in fine arts doesn't automatically make me able to do inlays well, but being a large dude with a rock does a pretty good job of setting me up for distressing.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Boy, some people really have strong opinions about pre-worn guitars, don't they?

I am firmly in the camp of, "I like new looking guitars." And I also take meticulous care of them, keeping them cleaned and maintained. My oldest guitar is my 1975 Martin D-28, and it has been played hard for nearly 40 years, and shows a lot of "accidental abuse", even a replacement neck. Crap happens. Don't mean I don't love it. But some of the damage was preventable, and I do regret those moments.

The issue with the Fender Custom Shop guitars, be they NOS, Closet Classic, or Relic--they are without a doubt Fender's best guitars--both in tone and feel, and the woods used. If you want a vintage Strat or a vintage Tele, and don't want to pay $30,000 and up for a guitar--then I think the $2500 for a Custom Shop relic is a smart way to go. There are a lot of pro players out there that are using these guitars because they do not want to take their vintage instruments on the road. I can't knock that at all. It is good business sense.

I've noticed a big difference in feel and tone with the Road Worn series over the standard MIM Strats and Teles--definite edge to the Road Worns.

The same holds true for Gibson's Custom Shop. The Tom Murphy aged Historics really are the cream of the crop. And while I'd have to say that I wasn't a huge fan of the VOS treatment, I have two Historic Pauls with this level of ageing. And what I did was, take the Virtuoso Cleaner and then the Polish to them. It left a wonderful patina to the finish with just the right amount of gloss. They are beautiful.

My '59 Historic LP is another case altogether. The original owner of this guitar did a "relic" job on it, deliberately burning it with a soldering iron; carving initials into it; sanding the once finish with too coarse sandpaper; rubbing off some of the finish down to bare wood. Of course, he did it all backwards--and it looked fake--abused, not used. No artistry at work at all. I'm certain that there were copious amounts of drugs and alcohol involved. I bought the guitar cheap and then spent $1,100 trying to get it looking "used, but not abused", and it does look much better. I know it will never look like a new guitar again. In time though, it will look like a relic, because I will play it and the thin overspray will wear off relatively quickly. If I hadn't been able to get the guitar so cheaply, I never would have done it--it really was a nightmarish project. But the guitar has turned out to be a real keeper, and it sounds great. For the life of me, I just imagine why anyone would even attempt to do this to a full-gloss '59 Historic--a $5,000 guitar. Insanity.

I like Itsabass' G&L Rustic; I'm also a big G&L Legacy fan. I haven't seen one, but I'm pretty sure I'd like it. I don't mind the poly finish on my guitars at all, but I am intrigued--I'd love to see if there are any significant audible differences between the poly and nitro finishes.

So, I prefer the look of a new guitar, and I don't own any that were factory "relics". But I would not say no to buying one either.

Bill
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Boogie Bill said:
I like Itsabass' G&L Rustic; I'm also a big G&L Legacy fan. I haven't seen one, but I'm pretty sure I'd like it. I don't mind the poly finish on my guitars at all, but I am intrigued--I'd love to see if there are any significant audible differences between the poly and nitro finishes.
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No difference at all IME. I prefer nitro because of feel, looks, tradition, and the way it ages and conforms to your body over time. Claiming it sounds different than poly in and of itself is the height of guitar wives' tale telling.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Nacho8807 said:
I really don't understand the hate for relic-ing, it's the same as any other finishing method on a guitar. To me (when done well), it's the same as a really intricate, labor intensive inlay, or a great burst with multi-ply binding, and a thin nitro finish. It's done with a very skilled hand, with a lot of passion for the "art". This is why the high end examples cost more: Labor. Sure it's not the same as wearing it down by playing it, but it looks just as cool, and that's all that matters. You don't relic a Strat to make it sound or play better, you relic it to make it look the way you'd like. The same way you might refinish a black Strat in Fiesta Red, because you think it looks better that way.
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That's definitely wrong. I can make a cool relic out of a new guitar but I am not a craftsman and there is never in a million years that I will be able to lay inlays or even do a paint job right cause these two require skills and patience.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Nacho8807 said:
The same way you might refinish a black Strat in Fiesta Red, because you think it looks better that way.
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Explain to me how I can refinish my guitar the same way I sand and crap all over a new Strat to achieve the relic look. C'mon...let's be realistic.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

I have heard from enough people out there to believe Fender's best guitars come out of their Custom Shop and most are relic'd. My question is why? I would think those paying the much higher prices would want a new guitar for that much money, no matter how wealthy or financially challenged the buyer, wouldn't he/she want a new guitar for that kind of money and then be the one to wear and tear the guitar? Not sure if a home builder/owner would want a contractor showing up with reused lumbar if building a house. And if there was such a market, it might be a smaller portion of the market, not like with Fender where the higher end guitars are made up by a majority of relic'd guitars. Interesting stuff.... I see lots for sale on Ebay and of course on the Fender site, but I also noticed that not as many on display in the few guitar stores I've been able to visit.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Diminished Triad said:
I have heard from enough people out there to believe Fender's best guitars come out of their Custom Shop and most are relic'd. My question is why? I would think those paying the much higher prices would want a new guitar for that much money, no matter how wealthy or financially challenged the buyer, wouldn't he/she want a new guitar for that kind of money and then be the one to wear and tear the guitar? Not sure if a home builder/owner would want a contractor showing up with reused lumbar if building a house. And if there was such a market, it might be a smaller portion of the market, not like with Fender where the higher end guitars are made up by a majority of relic'd guitars. Interesting stuff.... I see lots for sale on Ebay and of course on the Fender site, but I also noticed that not as many on display in the few guitar stores I've been able to visit.
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Guitars are not houses... The reason why is simple.. people are buying them, thats why. I get it you dont like them and you dont understand them, but its obvious that there are people out there that do. Why do you care so much about what other people do with their money?
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Brian Griffin said:
Explain to me how I can refinish my guitar the same way I sand and crap all over a new Strat to achieve the relic look. C'mon...let's be realistic.
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I didn't say it was done the same way, or that it requires the same skill level, my point was it's done for the same reason. A lot of people don't like relics, A lot do. A lot of people also like quilt maple tops, but I don't. Therefore where you see it as silly to buy buy a relic guitar, I find it equally silly for me to buy a guitar with a quilt top.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Diminished Triad said:
I have heard from enough people out there to believe Fender's best guitars come out of their Custom Shop and most are relic'd.
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I've had a couple of Fender Japan guitars (Japanese Market) and I thought those were pretty dogone good. Also not Custom Shop, the EJ sig was also top shelf.

If you want something truly custom from the Custom Shop, you're going to wait for a while (not sure, but its well over a year).

For me, while I sounded pro-relic earlier its more about the sound and feel vs cosmetics. I do think with Relics, some of the aging might have some tone-enhancing tendencies. For example the Fender bridge is powder coated. Removing that plastic coat would tend to help things. A thick poly finish would also tend to muffle tone vs a partially removed lacquer finish.

That being said - some of the other smaller vendors can give you a stellar poly finished instrument whose finish is thin, neck feels more like bare wood and looks new and shiny.

A good setup and a fresh set of strings does a LOT of good for a guitars tone. A good tech can right a lot of wrongs.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

Of course Fender's best guitars come out of their custom shop. But they aren't the best guitars because they are dinged up. They are usually just that good, regardless of what they look like. They are good because of materials selection, attention to design, attention to detail, and over all good craftsmanship, not how many paint chips they have on them. They're good because they're Custom Shop, not because they're Relics. A lot of them are Relics because a lot of them are ordered that way by retailers. It's hip, and potentially more profitable. But anything you see as a Relic can also be ordered N.O.S. or Closet Classic, and they are just as incredible as musical instruments.

The thing is that most of the time, expensive guitars aren't bought to be seriously/heavily used as musical instruments. They are bought for looks. Real, every-day working musicians can't afford that ****. Expensive guitars are largely bought by hobbyists with money who want the look of something old, but who would never play a guitar often enough or hard enough to put much wear on it. I mentioned in my previous thread that in all of my gigs, tours, and the hundreds of bands that I've done sound for, there were about five people I ran into that actually use a relic on stage as a gigging musician (one of them being myself). This experience covers a lot of genres of music too. On stage, I saw far more real vintage guitars (and even newer ones) that had worn in over time than I ever saw factory relic guitars. I overwhelmingly see Relics on guitar forums, in shops (where they hang for years until the shop finally goes out of business because nobody really buys that ****, even at blowout prices), and at local white yuppie blues jams that I have been forced to endure.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

ItsaBass said:
Of course Fender's best guitars come out of their custom shop. But they aren't the best guitars because they are dinged up. They are usually just that good, regardless of what they look like. They are good because of materials selection, attention to design, attention to detail, and over all good craftsmanship, not how many paint chips they have on them. They're good because they're Custom Shop, not because they're Relics. A lot of them are Relics because a lot of them are ordered that way by retailers. It's hip, and potentially more profitable. But anything you see as a Relic can also be ordered N.O.S. or Closet Classic, and they are just as incredible as musical instruments.

The thing is that most of the time, expensive guitars aren't bought to be seriously/heavily used as musical instruments. They are bought for looks. Real, every-day working musicians can't afford that ****. Expensive guitars are largely bought by hobbyists with money who want the look of something old, but who would never play a guitar often enough or hard enough to put much wear on it. I mentioned in my previous thread that in all of my gigs, tours, and the hundreds of bands that I've done sound for, there were about five people I ran into that actually use a relic on stage as a gigging musician (one of them being myself). This experience covers a lot of genres of music too. On stage, I saw far more real vintage guitars (and even newer ones) that had worn in over time than I ever saw factory relic guitars. I overwhelmingly see Relics on guitar forums, in shops (where they hang for years until the shop finally goes out of business because nobody really buys that ****, even at blowout prices), and at local white yuppie blues jams that I have been forced to endure.
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Good points. I think most people buying guitars off Warmoth or other "design your own" companies do so to play the guitars. This might explain why Warmoth doesn't have a relic'd section. Maybe one day.

I'd like to see the Fender Custom Shop offer much more new guitars of all types.....vintage, etc.
 
Re: SHOW YOUR RELICS?

kramersteen said:
I did a relic not so long ago. But with a twist, my relic hasn't got any raw exposed timber. Its all been leveled and glossed over flat.








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Dig the chickens!

I have a 50s RW Tele that I got from JeffB here, fantastic guitar, although not on the level of the Relics, I guess. I will admit to feeling a bit odd purchasing a "worn" guitar. As it turns out, I'm fine with it.

To those who loudly say "get a new one and play it", I say cool, I have done that. I have busted a few Fender guitars into pieces. Happy?
 
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