Rotten Relics

[Lost In Autumn]

after 30 years of them, I'd posit that relic-ing has become its own thing, rather than merely an attempt to make a guitar look old and road-battered. That said, that finish is truly awful.

[jvin248]

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Generally there is not a nice finish in the middle of heavy wear. There will be a ton of scratches and nicks and dings when the edges are that battered, on real wear. That's all they really 'missed' ... and the goofy pinky gouge.

I kind of like the orange under-coat though. Needed wider wear bands to show more orange here and there like you'd expect with real wear.

However, a real relic is more about the performance and feel of the guitar than the visuals. Does it feel like satin all over, including the metal bits? Rolled fretboard edge? And did they get a full fret level/crown/polish so it plays like a Custom Shop/PLEK? Those are the keys to owning and playing a great Relic guitar -- and those things never show up on forum photos.

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[Sauerkraut]

even the Fender Custom Shop are pretty poor at it

You're not kidding...



linky

From the same culprit, who seems to have little confidence in people's ability to correctly plug cables into Strats:

[Veitchy]

Pleading ignorance here - is it in some ways easier to make an relic finish as opposed to a properly cured, smooth nitro finish? I ask because aside from the odd closet classic the fender CS rarely builds what looks like a properly finished guitar. I get that relics are popular but after a certain point I wonder how much of this is expedience on their part.

[Lost In Autumn]

Pleading ignorance here - is it in some ways easier to make an relic finish as opposed to a properly cured, smooth nitro finish? I ask because aside from the odd closet classic the fender CS rarely builds what looks like a properly finished guitar. I get that relics are popular but after a certain point I wonder how much of this is expedience on their part.

yes, it is. It takes quite a bit of care to get a finish perfect. A relic, not so much. That said, there are relic techniques that have their own tricks, but the gist of it is that you can do a half-assed finish and then hit it aggressively with a sander and chisel and voila! Relic.

[burpgun]

I bought and returned a JMJ Mustang bass a couple of years ago largely because I could not deal with the relicing. It just felt like such a con I couldn't get over it.

[marqueemoon]

even the Fender Custom Shop are pretty poor at it

You're not kidding...



linky

From the same culprit, who seems to have little confidence in people's ability to correctly plug cables into Strats:

Those are pretty bad. Who wears the upper part of a guitar like that. Are they windmilling 24/7?

My pet peeve with relicing is necks. Some look like they were played by a coal miner, and fake fretboard cheese…yuck.

[JSett]

Fake fretboard cheese is utterly hilarious. And gross.

[Wucan]

After going through several 80's Gibsons that were well-played but taken care of, I've come to find the whole relicing business really silly. For genuine wear maybe they should flatten the fret tops and beat the back of the body with a belt?

[DeathJag]

Remember about 20 years ago when Hot Topic started selling 70s rock band reproduction-like shirts? This stuff is for the same crowd, that only want the appearance of something traditional. In fact I started a thread here a few years ago about how much I hate it, and it got locked!

[Fiddy]

I hate 99% of relics i see.

[JSett]

Remember about 20 years ago when Hot Topic started selling 70s rock band reproduction-like shirts? This stuff is for the same crowd, that only want the appearance of something traditional. In fact I started a thread here a few years ago about how much I hate it, and it got locked!

Yeah, this thread isn't really to debate whether people like them or not (that's been done to death) but more to show some of the crazy examples of really poor attempts

[Sauerkraut]

Found this unusual "burgundy mist" relic on Germany's equivalent of Craigslist

[Pepe Silvia]

I guess when Fano was sold, the new owners weren't taught how to distress the guitars.

[bessieboporbach]

Before I knew what "relicing" was, I "relic'd" my first guitar, a Korean-made "El Degas" Strat with a body made of particle board. I played the shit out of this guitar (which was already a hand-me-down from my cousin) for 8 years, so most of the wear on the neck and body was "honest." However, in a moment of "inspiration," I dragged the butt end across the concrete of my parents' porch.



My spouse eventually reclaimed this horribly tortured creature into a beautiful art piece, so the story has a happy ending.