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