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A New Trend In Relic'd Guitars?


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I saw this guitar yesterday at DGS (no affiliation, plus it's on hold and supposedly sold)...is it just me, but does the bridge plate/base alignment on this Tele-style guitar look crooked, slightly tilted, or what?  The ferrules on the back seem to have a similar 'slightly tilted' alignment, and the bridge base placement 'tilt' seems really obvious to me when the guitar is seen upright (neck straight up).  I've seen similar relic'd paint jobs, where it looks like someone painted over a paisley finish (and I'm not a fan of those), but I've never seen a crooked bridge base like this ever on a Tele or a Tele-type guitar before, unless it was a completely homebrewed hack job.  Even when Fender was putting the string ferrules in the back by hand very early on, I've never seen the entire alignment tilted.  String ferrules not quite in line with each other, like somebody eyeballed the installation,?  Yes.  String ferrules completely straight but on a slant?  No.  Seems to me that this would bug me even more than the 'overpainted' paint job.  Thoughts? 

https://davesguitar.com/products/custom-build/telecaster-madison-608-405-8770/

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No, the shitty relic job over paisley bugs me more. I fucking hate those finish over finish heavy relics but that one is hot fucking garbage.

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54 minutes ago, Stike said:

No, the shitty relic job over paisley bugs me more. I fucking hate those finish over finish heavy relics but that one is hot fucking garbage.

You can always work your magic with a completely new finish, or maybe even strip off that black paint and show off that paisley print (if they actually did put paisley on the guitar under the black paint where it's supposed to be).  That crooked bridge plate alignment is probably too much effort to fix IMO, besides it'd still be playable as is; but if it was mine, the alignment would probably annoy me endlessly.  Best thing to do is to simply find another guitar.

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46 minutes ago, gtrdaddy said:

That's exactly what happened. I'd bet on it.

Actually, the string ferrules do line up with each other on this particular guitar, they're just at a slight angle across the body, in the same way that the bridge plate wasn't aligned straight across the body.  But yes, they likely did eyeball it.

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10 hours ago, Stike said:

No, the shitty relic job over paisley bugs me more. I fucking hate those finish over finish heavy relics but that one is hot fucking garbage.

I also dislike these, with a passion. It's like "hey lets revel in the laziness of guitar manufacturers or in the idiocy of the owners who painted rattle can black over paisley because it wasn't cool"

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33 minutes ago, HAMERMAN said:

Looks like a waste of a nice neck.

See it positive, thankfully the neck is bold on and could be used elsewhere. B) 

However, it doesn’t look that bad. Maybe more girly than men. It’s all about fashion anyway.

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I had this exact same problem occur recently with my latest shop Thinline project, I wish I had taken more detailed pictures of this.  Ordered two nickel-finish bridges for it through WD (I'm a dealer) from Kluson, decided to give them a try for the first time because the name is reputable, the price was right and they were out of my favorite Gotoh bridges in nickel finishes. First one I tried was a six-saddle thick flat plate bridge, no ashtray rim. The screw holes and ferrule holes lined up perfectly with the holes on the body, cut by CNC by a reputable distributor, using a program which I personally know produced two PERFECT Thinline bodies for me prior to this one. But the holes on the bridge plate tself were slightly askew, leading the bridge to mount tilted, opposite of what I see in the pics above. So I pulled it and put on the other Kluson bridge, a thin plate ashtray-ridged vintage repro. Less askew, but it is still just barely, I mean a touch, askew to my acute (OCD) eyes and confirmed by a straightedge. It will eventually get pulled too, and replaced with my favorite Gotoh when one of my parts suppliers replenishes their stock. Aggravating to say the least.

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Not making excuses for the builder, he shouldn't put his name on that. But my point is it may be the hardware itself. I know I will NEVER buy Kluson hardware again, even at fire sale discount. Between the askew holes and a nickel plating that looks and feels cheesy cheap up close compared to the platings from Gotoh, or Wilkinson, or OEM Fender for that matter, I was HORRIDLY unimpressed. Don't get me started on the "brass" barrels that upon closer inspection appeared to be steel barrels with a thin and poorly applied metallic brass-colored paint-like coating (!).

FYI, more teles than you'd suspect, in regard to plate alignment, can visually make the grade but can't pass a straightedge test. I'd tell you to test my claim for yourself, but what you find out about your guitars might drive your OCD nuts too.

Edited to add a few pix

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1 hour ago, Jeff R said:

....But the holes on the bridge plate itself were slightly askew,....

Crappy fixturing and/or a machine operator who gives no f**ks (after making a thousand or so) are the most likely causes for that. If the base gets loaded into the CNC machine crooked, all the holes will still be in relation to one another and the part will probably be functional, but it looks like ass. It's pretty easy to catch and correct that in process if you care even a little, but QC should have caught that before they left the building. They're not made by guitar players, they're made for guitar players. To them it's just another metal part.

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17 minutes ago, tomteriffic said:

I keep waiting for somebody to relic a Les Paul by first snapping the headstock off.

 

Didn't Gibson's Custom Shop do a run of some famous player's guitar where they broke and reglued the headstock as part of the "repro?"  I seem to recall they actually did that. My first thought was, "now THAT'S a great way to repurpose Les Pauls that got their headstocks snapped on the production floor ... have GCS glue it back, snazz it up and charge 3x for it. haha

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5 hours ago, DaveH said:

Ok, that guitar is seriously just stupid as fuck.

THIS...

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I didn't consider that the mounting holes in the parts themselves might be what causes the part to look out of alignment, or 'askew' (I like that word, it fits!).  Of course, that means that's one less thing that I can put my trust into.  I woulda thought that QC is the name of the game nowadays.  Maybe not.  <_<

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8 hours ago, Jeff R said:

I know I will NEVER buy Kluson hardware again, even at fire sale discount. Between the askew holes and a nickel plating that looks and feels cheesy cheap up close compared to the platings from Gotoh, or Wilkinson, or OEM Fender for that matter, I was HORRIDLY unimpressed. Don't get me started on the "brass" barrels that upon closer inspection appeared to be steel barrels with a thin and poorly applied metallic brass-colored paint-like coating (!).

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown...

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On 5/23/2019 at 2:17 PM, crunchee said:

Best thing to do is to simply find another guitar.

Ya think? Why would anyone on the planet look at that guitar and say "I gotta have it"? I guess the person who put it on hold would know.

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who thought up this ridiculous "relic'd guitars" abomination?  It's like my girlfriend buying brand new sweatshirts and jeans with holes pre-cut into them.  Triple-facepalm

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