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How do you feel about buying a guitar that got its relic'ing the traditional way?


polara

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I have to confess: I really dig an old guitar that was heavily used, but not abused.

Not abused: it wasn't played with the truss rod out of wack for 40 years, had a bad refret, three loose tuners and three locking Schallers, a homemade Kahler, and was wired by a toddler with a soldering gun. But real nicks and dings. worn paint, corrosion, checking.

I have a 1935 Biltmore archtop with finish checking like the Mohave desert, and the finish worn off around the cowboy chords. But no cracks, no missing parts, and a very careful refret with vintage wire by a guy who builds high-end acoustics... and the thing just sings. Lively, comfortable, a joy to play. My 1949 Gibson ES125 is a little battered here and there, but has a straight neck, a strong P90 pickup, and again is acoustically lively and has all the hard edges worn off, like a pair of old moccasins.

I just picked up a 1980-ish G&L F-100 from pure nostalgia's sake, as that was the model of the first electric guitar I ever had. Electronics are perfect, neck is straight, and even though it took a little cleaning and setup and control knobs, it feels so good, bare wood bits and all.

I have no strong feelings about new relics, but a gin-you-wine old guitar can feel and sound pretty damn good.

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I don't mind a guitar that has honest wear and tear, usually it's the sellers that I get wary of.  If a seller (including some dealers) ridiculously hypes up a guitar, and the superlatives considerably outnumber plain facts in the description, then I tend to look elsewhere.

I don't really have a naturally 'relic'd' guitar...my Daphne Blue Bound Body 'Cabronita' with P-90's, a MJT relic'd Ash body, and big roasted Musikraft maple neck, is thankfully only mildly (comparing to other MJT 'aged' bodies I've seen) relic'd.  Some 'relics' I've seen on Reverb make me want to get a Tetanus shot and take a shower, just from looking at them.

My basses, on the other hand...I've got a '85 1st Gen Cruisebass in Factory Trans Cherry Nitro finish over Mahogany neck and body, the finish is original and has a good number of scuffs,, marks, chips, dings, and dents, but no real finish checking to speak of.  I love playing it, I only wish I could find another one in Trans Cherry!  Some doofus in the past removed (and lost) the pickguard, so I'm planning to eventually make a pickguard from clear acrylic sheet, to show off the finish in that area.

Then, there's my MIM 2006 Fender Mike Dirnt P-Bass, which originally had a Factory Gloss Black body finish (pre-'Road Worn' model), that a previous owner stripped the black paint off of...revealing (via sheer dumb luck more than anything else, I suspect) a very straight-grained and very well-matched 4-piece Ash body.  I replaced the original cream-colored pickguard with a black one, which did wonders for the look of the bass, and gave it a couple of coats of 'Tried & True' Original Wood Finish over the raw Ash.  There's still some traces of the original black paint, namely in the neck pocket and in a big ding into the wood on the lower front edge (you can see the ding in the DGS photos), but I'm leaving those traces of paint alone as part of it's history.  The bass has a HUGE neck that is straight as an arrow.  It's a keeper!

https://davesguitar.com/products/fender/mike-dirnt-precision-bass-06/

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59 minutes ago, crunchee said:

That’s pretty slick. Me likey!

59 minutes ago, crunchee said:

Some 'relics' I've seen on Reverb make me want to get a Tetanus shot and take a shower, just from looking at them.

:lol:

I bought one relic. It was a Fender CS “Master-Built” ‘56 Strat. A buddy of mine works for a dealer that snagged it. It was an ‘07 NAMM guitar I think? He told me that it was one of the coolest sounding Strats he’d ever played and I should get it. It was absolutely the best Strat I’d ever owned. The soft V neck, the playability and sound was out of this world. I couldn’t get over that I paid that much for a guitar that was beat to shit(very authentically looking too), but it was somehow really sweet. When I showed up for rehearsal with it I had fun for a short while before fessing up to my band mates that it really wasn’t a  ‘56 LOL.

One day I accidentally dinged it. At first I was disappointed in myself, until I realized it was an upgrade. Fender would’ve charged another $75 for that work.

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Honest wear is often great, worn but not abused. I will take a good worn in instrument that can be bought at a good price, then leave it to the guitar repairman I use for a fret dressing, or a re-fret, and a set up, over a factory new guitar most of the day. I'd take a NOS Hamer, or a Shishkov, or a Dantzig, and perhaps a few others. But I love the old guitars I have that has natural road wear and that my guitar guy took care of for me. They really play the best. 

The 79 Sunburst I bought in 2002 have dimples at three places on the back of the neck where the former owner used to have his hand. He/she must have played this guitar sooo many hours. I mean there are dimples in the wood from wear. I have never seen this before. The neck had a slight twist and the frets were worn out, pretty much. I had the fretboard leveled straight and new frets put in. This is my no 1 Sunburst. It almost plays itself, and I swear it has that bright twangy Jimmy Page tone in spades. I think it is my no 1. I always bring it to gigs if I feel that I need to play my absolute best. This guitar just has "it". And it has the honest wear to prove it.

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Seeing bad pickup reroutes or extra screw holes that look like a bad experiment is a turn-off.  A well done repair to fill the holes is acceptable.  The look of genuine play wear might be overdone on some instruments, but some of those old instruments had finishes that were not durable.  I remember gummy feeling Fenders back in the 70s.  Binding shrinking and cracking is another nuisance that would be best not replicated by a relic process. 

The one thing that I have not experienced with a relic is the feel of old lacquer.  No matter how perfect the look is, there is still something that feels different between the new lacquer and lacquer that is 30 years old. 

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Honest wear I’ll buy all day. 

Dumbassery, a close relative to dumbfuckery, can stay out of my field of vision. 

As long as it’s solid, the aesthetics don’t bother me. I’d rather have something beat to shit that feels and plays amazing than a pristine looking turd...  is that an oxymoron..?.

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I really love my SS 1.  Got it for $250!  All original, sounds great, but def. the orig owner must have played everything

in A or F# because the second fret is worn out, and all the rest are fine!  That one will hopefully get a re-fret in 2020.

So yeah, I'd say def give that one a shot...

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On 12/5/2019 at 2:12 PM, gtrdaddy said:

And BOY! Is it everywhere!

Hey!  I resemble that remark!

Honest wear, even if severe, is fine with me.  I don't like factory relic'ing at all with the exception of Nash guitars.  They do a better job of making it LOOK like a real roadworn instrument than the big companies do.

I've bought a few guitars online over the years that arrived in such pristine shape I was scared to start playing them.  When I buy a used guitar that's got a little, shall we say, character, I'll take it out to practice THAT night, spill a beer on it, lean it on the amp with no stand, let the drummer's 12-year old kid take a whack at it, etc. (I wouldn't really do any of those things but you know what I mean) and not think twice about it.

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I’ve found the older ones with a lot of wear play and sound better, and are lighter than others of the same type. It got used because a player found it to be a good guitar!! 

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Over the years I've been able to score some really great instruments that were lovingly gigged for many years and have the many bruises and scars.

One of my "Real Relic'd" instruments in my '74 Fender Jazz bass I found in a pawnshop back in '08.

The original owner gigged the crap out of this bass, and I know why he did.

This bass sounds and plays amazingly well.

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Here's even a real relic'd case I got for my Jazz bass.

They're a perfect match for each other.

33324312490_aac5d347e2_b.jpg

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I like the look of aesthetic wear and tear, as long as it performs/functions really well. It's that Mellinium Falcon thing, ya know, "It may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts." My Cali gets dinged, has nail divots in the fretboard, the gloss finish on the back of the neck is wearing out, and it generally looks like it's been played and knocked around (because it has in fact been played and knocked around); but it plays really well, which is all I care about. In truth, it's very liberating when you don't worry at all about chipping or scratching your guitar. You can focus on just playing and having fun and treat the instrument like the tool for making music that it is rather than as a treasure that has to be handled with white gloves when not sitting behind a glass case. 

As for relic'd guitars, I don't get it. It's like buying jeans with stains and holes already in it and then paying extra for it. I mean, I can see buying pre-washed jeans that feel broken in, and I understand living with a little wear from something pre-owned, but why pay extra for something new to look beat up? Why not just play it and create that wear and tear yourself?

 

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3 hours ago, FGJ said:

 

 why pay extra for something new to look beat up? Why not just play it and create that wear and tear yourself?

 

PREACH!!!  🙌🏼

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                                          1978 Gibson L-5S .............................all real wear.I don't know who played it or owned it. [Besides me that is] but I was told it was a one owner guitar before I bought it.wcWyWSC.jpgTrPSPUF.jpgDktugmX.jpgYqjkIFJ.jpg7P6n4Ft.jpgBAlHME0.jpgV8DQE9D.jpg

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