RotcanX Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 I watched this series on YouTube with one such "craftsman" who's the head of the "relic'ing department" at Gibson... He never once mentioned a single thing he did to the guitars! Because that's proprietary information' date=' don't you know... Wouldn't want to give away any trade secrets... I wasted about an hour watching the whole thing, and all he talked about was how he convinced the higher-ups at Gibson that he had such a great idea, and that it's not just beating a guitar with a chain... It's a real "involved" process... Oh, and he also dropped the names of all the rock stars he's wrecked guitars for...[/quote'] That was probably Tom Murphy. While I agree this whole relic fad is a bit of a joke, especially considering what these procedures add to the cost, there is nonetheless a difference between what Mr. Murphy does and what some amateur yokel can do. Firstly one has to have an intimate knowledge of 'typical' wear patterns on a guitar so that the nicks and scratches one puts on look believable. It's also incredibly difficult to duplicate the 'random' nature of such damage; I've seen relic attempts that were given away by the regularity of the damage. Relicing an Epiphone is going to be a shady proposition at best; due to the modern materials it'll never look like an old Gibson. About the only interesting technique I've seen for Epis is to dull the finish with steel wool to take away that 'brand new' look. Beyond that you pretty much have to think about stripping the guitar and refinishing it in nitro as a first step to a relic finish... which starts to get a bit involved if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerxst1281733995 Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 You're right, Spud.. There is a technique to making the wear look natural and believable.. I know they don't just kick these guitars around the factory floor and call it good... Such is the case with a lot of these "boutique" relic builders, though.. You can tell that they just scratched 'em up and took some sandpaper to them... I guess it's just my sarcastic nature coming to the fore... I can't resist poking fun at the whole relic'ing craze... To be honest, I feel kinda the same way about people who get all obsessed with vintage guitars... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricochet Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 That wooden humbucker looks fantastic. What is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daneman Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 This is my accidentally reliced Sg 400 custom.I was sanding a bad black paint job off(came that way from ebay),and a buddy thought it looked cool like this,so more as a joke than anything I put it back together. I liked it, so I got all the missing covers,new knobs.Cleaned the gold,replaced the 2nd fret,leveled and dressed the fingerboard,waxed and buffed..ect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluefoxicy Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Try this howaudio if you have an account (or 20 bux) http://www.howaudio.com/html/Video.aspx?mtid=GR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerxst1281733995 Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 I don't like stuff of the pay-for variety on the internet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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