How to relic an acoustic?

[fortyearspickn]

I agree with Sgt/Chief Pepper -   stickers are for cases.  And for pickup truck tool box lids.    But -  I'm surprised he didn't recommend this:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needlegun_scaler     

You can be done in 6 seconds instead of 6 years.    Pneumatic Needle Gun.  I got pretty good with one after 4 years practice in the USN.     Be sure to feather the edges.  G'Luck !  

[RBSinTo]

Please, will someone explain why one would even want to relic a guitar?

The logic of the exercise escapes me.

And with respect to the particular guitar in question, it is a beautiful example of understated, good taste, and in my opinion, will be visually ruined by firing pennies, nailguns, rubber bullets or RPGs at it.

RBSinTo

 

 

 

 

[fortyearspickn]

RBS -  my contribution was, of course, sarcasm.  🙃

[dhanners623]

2 hours ago, RBSinTo said:

Please, will someone explain why one would even want to relic a guitar?

The logic of the exercise escapes me.

And with respect to the particular guitar in question, it is a beautiful example of understated, good taste, and in my opinion, will be visually ruined by firing pennies, nailguns, rubber bullets or RPGs at it.

RBSinTo

 

 

 

 

As you might have noticed, nobody is really required or obligated to justify how they want THEIR guitar to look.

They may want to replicate the look of a valued vintage guitar they’d rather keep home than take on the road. They may just like the look of a beat-up guitar.

They don’t really have to explain it to you, so you can let your imagination run wild. In my case, I wanted to remove some of the thick poly finish so the top would move more freely and the guitar would live up to its potential. In my case, it worked.

[RBSinTo]

2 hours ago, fortyearspickn said:

RBS -  my contribution was, of course, sarcasm.  🙃

And firing an RPG at a guitar wasn't?????????????

RBSinTo

[Boyd]

On 5/11/2021 at 11:02 AM, Sgt. Pepper said:

Take it out in to the yard and throw handfuls of pennies at it.

You could end up putting a lot of money into a guitar that way. 🤣

[fortyearspickn]

On 5/12/2021 at 1:40 PM, RBSinTo said:

And firing an RPG at a guitar wasn't?????????????

RBSinTo

Nope. It was hyperbole 

[Sgt. Pepper]

First of all we are talking about a guitar he bought for $200. "Hey folks I’ve got an old Epiphone Masterbilt AJ-500R that I bought for just $200 from a guy about 10 years ago now."

 If you want to feel rich throw nickles at it. It will do four cents more damage.

I got stickers on all my cases and none on any my guitars and they are all reliced as far as the wear from the day I owned them or whatever the guy did to it who owned it before me.

I used fuse pullers in the Navy and Coast Guard. I needle gunned only when I was scum bag non-rate.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Sgt. Pepper

[meanstreak]

On 5/12/2021 at 10:47 AM, RBSinTo said:

Please, will someone explain why one would even want to relic a guitar?

The logic of the exercise escapes me.

And with respect to the particular guitar in question, it is a beautiful example of understated, good taste, and in my opinion, will be visually ruined by firing pennies, nailguns, rubber bullets or RPGs at it.

RBSinTo

In my case there are lots of reasons - 

1 - I bought the guitar for $200, Epi Masterbilt case included.  Not a lot of outlay to worry about.
2 - I intended it to be a guitar I learn to work on myself instead of taking to a shop.  I installed a LR Baggs pickup, proper strap button, swapped the tuners from gold to nickel and changed the pickguard.  Still learning to dress frets.
3 - It already had the stickers, multiple marks and a regular wood screw stuck through the body as a strap button.
4 - I have four other natural finish acoustics that are in perfect condition.
5 - I've given it 10 years for the color to even out, which it mostly has, but the satin finish is gone where the stickers were and that will never even out.
6 - I love the look of the work that the Pre-War Guitar Company puts out. 
7 - I have recently had two skin cancer surgeries, so won't be outside all day every day in the summer like I used to do and am looking for a fun summer project to do (I'm a teacher.)

Here it is the day I bought it - 









And here it is just a few days ago - 

Edited May 16, 2021 by meanstreak

[tlwwalker]

[QuestionMark]

I actually understand what Meanstreak is doing.  He said it, it’s a summer project on a guitar he only spent $200 on.   In my younger days, I once hand painted a mural on a guitar as a project.   Then, I put it in a case and have never played it.  It was a cool thing for me to try at the time, just for the project of it.   Of course, I once also had a project when I was 20 to try to sand a Kay dreadnaught guitar’s neck down to the shape of a Gibson neck.  I almost completed the project, but then the neck snapped, so I threw the guitar away...although somewhere in my attic is the Kay Kalvinator headstock I kept from it.  Also, it gave me a new project at the time as I then spent the next 30 years looking for the same model of the Kay dreadnought to replace the one I destroyed in my youth.  After looking for 30 years, in an instant, I suddenly saw one at a guitar show and bought it...price be darned.  It now sits in my guitar collection with this story as part of its history.   I also once decided to paint a guitar red, which I did.  It looked like Sh-t.  That’s the guitar that gave me the earlier mentioned project of turning it into a mural guitar.  Some guitars can  have two projects attached to their story.

But, back to the why of a relic  guitar.   I can understand how a relic guitar can be cool.   I own a 1955/56 NY Epiphone FT79, the model that morphed into the Gibson Kalamazoo factory’s Epiphone FT79 Texan a few years later.  My 55/56 FT79 apparently went through all kinds of play and natural stressing before I found and bought it and because of its super worn look, looks awesome.  And, when I occasionally play it at a gig, it is like a magnet of attention.   Mostly I get asked how old it is, how long I’ve had it, but on occasion someone asks me if I relic’d it...to which I honestly tell them no, it looked this way when I purchased it circa 2001.  I also usually show them the piece of the guitar they don’t readily see...the NY Epiphone FT79 label inside the sound hole with a cigarette burn on it where a hot ash must have somehow fallen from the player’s cig.  I guess.  Or something.   Weird, yes.  But, the guitar’s highly  worn look certainly incites not only my imagination of where it might have once travelled and been, but, also other’s’ similar infatuation with that.   The guitar, as many of my others, also sounds great, but, people seem more concerned with the past that it experienced to look so worn.

I like to think mine as authentically worn out, but, frankly, I don’t really know how it got so worn looking.  Maybe it travelled the country via numerous roadhouses and elements.  Maybe someone relic’d it.  I once ran into the seller ten years later and asked him about the guitar’s background and history.  All he would say was “that guitar had a lot of issues.”  Further adding to the guitar’s mystique because it had no structural issues that I could ever identify then or since I’ve had it.  It is a cool guitar.  Way cooler than my mural guitar or replacement Kay dreadnaught.

QM aka “ Jazzman”Jeff

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2021 by QuestionMark

[scottimars]

Yeah, sometimes a guitar ends up being relicked even when you try to take care of it.

 I have a blonde1992 Gibson J200, that my ex dropped a CD case on. I never liked the flowers on the brown pick guard, so I covered it up with label stack and made it black. (I used to work at a label print shop). About six years ago the neck started to push into the body, cracking the front of the face of the guitar. I pulled the label material off of the pick guard and the plastic pick guard under neath just disintegrated. There was some kind of chemical reaction to the sticker material and the pick guard, it actually turned the wood darker in areas around the pick guard.

I brought this guitar to a gentleman who said he could fix it but just scratched the front of the guitar up. I finally got it back from his widow after he hung himself in his garage. (Yes, I’m not making this up). Apparently, he killed himself pretty close to my guitar that he never finished. I gave it to another guitar doctor and he told me it was possible to fix but he wouldn’t be able to get to it for a couple of weeks.  After two months I picked up my still messed up J200 and got on line and found a luthier in Ohio that I sent it to. I believe the name of his shop is Dog Wood Guitars.

 He pulled the top and remounted the neck and did as good as a job as he could to sand it down and try to get the dark area off the top. But you can still see this dark area in certain spots around the pick guard. What was nice was he made a custom black pick guard for it. At first I didn’t like it. But after playing this baby for almost a half a year, changing the ugly gold tuning keys to chrome and installing a new skull chrome truss rod cover, I’m starting to love this old guitar again.

After reading about what these other musicians go through to get their instruments to look “used”, I’m glad I put the dough into this baby to get it back into playing shape.

Scotti Mars

[fortyearspickn]

Saints impart sanctity on the  'relics' they leave behind.   Guitar players impair 'mojo' on the guitars they leave behind, pass down or pawn.   They don't recognize it as 'mojo' when they own the guitar - just normal 'wear and tear'.   I can't think of any other material possession a person would intentionally beat up to make it more 'attractive'.  

[dhanners623]

On 5/1/2024 at 3:53 PM, fortyearspickn said:

Saints impart sanctity on the  'relics' they leave behind.   Guitar players impair 'mojo' on the guitars they leave behind, pass down or pawn.   They don't recognize it as 'mojo' when they own the guitar - just normal 'wear and tear'.   I can't think of any other material possession a person would intentionally beat up to make it more 'attractive'.  

Stone-washed jeans. “Distressed” gimme caps. “Distressed” cowboy hats. “Antiqued” furniture. Making new stuff look old happens all the time.

You’re telling me you’ve never bought stone-washed jeans? Same deal. You’re buying jeans that look older than they really are. They have a worn look and you weren’t the one that put the wear there.

[northcntryblues]

I'm doing a damn fine job of relic-ing my L00 by playing the snot out of it every day - it's my only guitar.  I decided when I got it 10 years ago that I'm not taking it with me, so I might as well use it and enjoy it in all situations!

Edited May 4 by northcntryblues

[fortyearspickn]

17 hours ago, dhanners623 said:

Stone-washed jeans. “Distressed” gimme caps. “Distressed” cowboy hats. “Antiqued” furniture. Making new stuff look old happens all the time.

You’re telling me you’ve never bought stone-washed jeans? Same deal. You’re buying jeans that look older than they really are. They have a worn look and you weren’t the one that put the wear there.

Point well taken - you're right - some people buy them already beat up.  Jeans with holes in them, etc.   At the coast - you can buy ball caps with simulated Seagull Crap on them.   I personally never bought any of those items new and beat them up to look beat up.   Don't want the artificial wear and tear and age of my accessories to detract from what Willie Nelson sung about in "This Face of Mine" !

[dhanners623]

One of the issues is there are some folks (I admit I’m one) who like the look of a beat-up guitar, but no amount of my playing will beat it up. I play my guitars every day. I gig with them in the pubs of Manchester. But with my playing style, I don’t beat the guitars up. I can play hard, mind you, but it’s not finish-scratching hard. At most, my guitars have some light scratches on the pickguard. Nothing on the actual finish. I play my guitars a lot, but my “honest” wear isn’t going to make them look worn or ragged.

When I opened for Sony Nashville artist Tyler Booth last summer, he was playing a Martin D-28 “Street Legend” — Martin’s offering of guitars with a visually worn look. (And Booth was a pretty darn-good performer.) Booth’s dad, who also served as his road manager, said they’d picked up the guitar from Nazareth before heading overseas. He said the pre-worn look meant Tyler didn’t have to baby the guitar; it already had its first few dings.

Not sure what I think about his reasoning, but I do know I always dread my guitars’ first dings. So maybe there’s something to it.

[fortyearspickn]

I don't mind the cosmetic surface stuff. What I dread is the hard knocks.  Always afraid it'll affect the bracing,  joints, etc.   Sort of like me - I don't mind cuts and scratches, just try to avoid broken bones ! 

[Sgt. Pepper]

On 5/1/2024 at 10:53 AM, fortyearspickn said:

Saints impart sanctity on the  'relics' they leave behind.   Guitar players impair 'mojo' on the guitars they leave behind, pass down or pawn.   They don't recognize it as 'mojo' when they own the guitar - just normal 'wear and tear'.   I can't think of any other material possession a person would intentionally beat up to make it more 'attractive'.  

Dudes do it with Rat Rods. Who doesn’t love a nice rusty hot rot made from 3 different cars?

[Ceptorman]

I saw a flooring install crew throw hammers, nails, chains, picks, wrenches, and gravel over a brand new clear oak floor about 25 years ago. I was shocked. There were distressing it. I thought they were crazy. It did have a wonderful look to it when they were finished. Now distressing is everywhere....even guitars.

[kidblast]

I would put a correct strap pin on there,  fill the holes, and form there leave it alone and play it.

It's already got enough stories to tell

 

[gearbasher]

 

I'm ready to do some "Murphy Aging".

  

I used to live a half a block from an elevated train line. I'd find these lying in the street all the time. I'm shocked no one was ever injured.

[fortyearspickn]

19 hours ago, Ceptorman said:

I saw a flooring install crew throw hammers, nails, chains, picks, wrenches, and gravel over a brand new clear oak floor about 25 years ago. I was shocked. There were distressing it. I thought they were crazy. It did have a wonderful look to it when they were finished. Now distressing is everywhere....even guitars.

Maybe it was a new floor in a 100 year old saloon.  I could seen them doing that to the bar top too - otherwise the drunks would be asking for coasters, and asking if they had to take their shoes off at the front door. 

[Sgt. Pepper]

22 hours ago, gearbasher said:

 

I'm ready to do some "Murphy Aging".

  

I used to live a half a block from an elevated train line. I'd find these lying in the street all the time. I'm shocked no one was ever injured.

Now call you need is your 4 years being an apprentice relicer and you too can weild the railroad spike all by yourself.