steveallen Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Ummmm... Fender does that too No joke, its called the Fender Blues Jr (something or other, I forget the correct name) but its stained, has torn grille cloth, etc. My god. I was joking! That's it! I'm NEVER going to fix up my old amp with the bulging Tolex that looks like it's been through a flood. It's going to be worth mojo money! And here I was about to get out the Barge Cement and make it look a little better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveallen Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 ...Pawn Shop series, the reissues that never were... Y'know, when I irreversably modded my '72 Tele Custom who knew that one day they'd be worth big money. I mean, it was just a CBS POS after all. Now, after regretting that move for 20 years, it's coming into fashion? Man, I am so outa tune with the universe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Y'know, when I irreversably modded my '72 Tele Custom who knew that one day they'd be worth big money. I mean, it was just a CBS POS after all. Now, after regretting that move for 20 years, it's coming into fashion? Man, I am so outa tune with the universe... Nahhh...just way ahead of the curve! Whatever "works," I say. ;>) CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveallen Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Nahhh...just way ahead of the curve! Whatever "works," I say. ;>) CB Ah, yeah. I guess if "whatever works" includes extra pickups and enough mini-toggle switches to be so confusing on stage that I invariably stumbled upon all the horrid sounds hiding in that ax while desperately trying to salvage whatever was left of a solo. By the time I was done modding that ax with coil splitters and coil selectors the bad sounds outnumbered the good ones 2:1. Maybe they can get Bill Turner (FMIC's pickup guy) to duplicate all the weirdness for that "pawn shop" series. I'm sure a pawn shop is where that guitar eventually resided as a staging area, before someone mercifully delivered it to the county dump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I have a younger sister that is an interior designer and she's had me buy 3 of Fender Road Worn over the last couple years for her clients that just want them for looks, they buy them to sit in stands in a corner of there expensive homes just like they see them on TV and in Movies. No joke they don't even play them and not only do they buy (pre) beat up guitars but they pay a interior designer to pick them out and put them in the house for them. It's pretty sad in a way but it's what people with a lot of money do now. I had a beat up old studio with a neck break that I picked up cheap and repaired and then I played it as a beater for years and she sold it to one of her clients that wanted something that really looked used and had a certain look the guy loved it and paid way more than it was worth because it was abused. The same guy bought a late 70's Standard from me later and what he really liked about it was the beat up and abused old case that was covered in stickers and duct tape where the edges had worn through that he wanted for the same reason - He wanted them to look heavily gigged he keeps that one in his office (real estate sales for doctors) for the conversation factor. Weird but whatever floats their boats I guess, I'm happy to sell them to her as long as they are willing to pay and i don't care if the cash is old and worn or crisp and new so I'm easy to please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 For the record I am not a fan of road worn guitars, signature guitars or re issues as a rule - but if they sounded good and played well (and I was looking for another guitar) - I would buy it anyway. What the hell LOL Sometimes on the internet with guitars and such like, it is easy to listen to much to the opinions of others and be put off by something you haven't even tried for yourself. hmmm; as business Fender do have a lot of Roadworn guitars certainly ... but what I see positive about Fender is that in these dark financial times in my opinion their prices are very reasonable. Whether it be a Mexican, American or Japanese guitar you part with your cash for, the quality is usually very high and consistent! Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisfromhartnolls Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Don't really see it catching on in the car market..............'Here's your new car, and look, we've dented the wing for you, smashed the headlight and put a bit of rust around the wheelarches........that'll be an extra 2k' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Do you buy Baseball caps with worn edges on the brim of the cap? Did you ever buy prewashed jeans? Or how about a tee-shirt with worn lettering on it? It's sort of the same thing. It's a finish, that all... I like my guitars shinny and new if I buy them new. If I'm buying a vintage guitar some weather checking is ok and maybe a couple dings if they are not too bad... I wouldn't buy a road worn from the factory guitar but some people like the look and do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 When they first started the worn stuff, relic'd and all, I played a schmokin hawt NoCaster, had a neck like yer left hand was born with it, awesome guitar. But I laughed because, well, who wants a guitar beat up by some joker at the factory? Then it took off, really started building different layers of these worn things. And then This Company started doing it to a lesser degree for sure. But once Gibson started doing it I saw it for what it really is, to me. Painting the damn thing is the most expensive part. Cut out a few steps, charge a bit more, great margin. Cut out a few steps more, make it look beat, relieve yerself of ANY warranty on the finish, move the price up a little more, even greater margins. 's got nothin to do with us, as usual, unfortunately in this business world we live in. Guitar players stopped mattering long ago. rct Edited for typos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mojorule Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Well I now (finally, pending a few anti-fraud hoops that I still have to jump through) have a VOS guitar on order, so I will hopefully get a proper sense of what it really means to leave out one stage of buffing. I didn't pick it for the finish, but in large part for the price which is lower than the nearest full-gloss model. But the VOS guitars that I have seen up close didn't really look particularly aged to me. They looked pretty much like the full-gloss guitars next to them. So I don't feel that I'm buying fake mojo, and I'll hopefully have plenty of time with the instrument to add some of my own to it. The 'road-worn' Fenders that I have seen, however, are noticeably different from their non-aged counterparts. But they don't look aged either, more like somebody took a brand new guitar and attacked it with sandpaper. The wood which shows through just looks too fresh, and its borders are too artificially drawn, to give a convincing aged effect. Very strange, and no real mojo in sight - not even mojo produced by somebody else. And if they cost more than non-roadworn guitars, why wouldn't anybody wanting the effect just buy a cheaper instrument and age it themselves? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 The Mustang seems kinda cool. Anyone know the pricing on these pawn shop guitars? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mojorule Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 For the record I am not a fan of road worn guitars, signature guitars or re issues as a rule - but if they sounded good and played well (and I was looking for another guitar) - I would buy it anyway. What the hell LOL Sometimes on the internet with guitars and such like, it is easy to listen to much to the opinions of others and be put off by something you haven't even tried for yourself. hmmm; as business Fender do have a lot of Roadworn guitars certainly ... but what I see positive about Fender is that in these dark financial times in my opinion their prices are very reasonable. Whether it be a Mexican, American or Japanese guitar you part with your cash for, the quality is usually very high and consistent! Matt That's interesting, Matt. I suppose they do have some reasonably priced instruments, especially from Mexico and Japan, and the quality of the Fenders that I have tried is indeed good. But I got back into wanting a Gibson when they released the new wave of USA standard Telecasters in 2007 or 2008, and the price suddenly went up from the 600 quid mark to the 800 quid mark. When a set-neck Gibson only costs a fraction more than a bolt-on Fender, I start to feel that the price of the latter is not so reasonable. It's not that I consider bolt-on inferior to set, but it should be a significantly cheaper technology, especially given the number of instruments that Fender turn out in comparison to Gibson. I was looking to Fender for a reliable workhorse electric which would last for years and survive a house full of kids, would hold its value (so USA, given the guitar-playing community's commodity fetishism), but would cost nearer 500 quid than a grand. For 800 plus, I start wanting a bit more than that. Also I was troubled by several USA Teles that I saw in Oxfordshire shops (therefore at premium price compared with internet dealers), and which had dried-out, faded rosewood fretboards. Again, no guitar costing 750 quid should be in that sort of condition. It shouldn't come out of the factory like that either (can't just blame the shops when other guitars in their stock don't have the same problem). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I'm not a Fender guy by any definition but I'd suggest - as I have on Gibsons and especially those exported to the UK/Europe - that transportation and/or storage is largely at fault, followed quickly by retailers who see problems such as that fingerboard and do nothing about it. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brundaddy Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 There's no such thing as mojo. If anything it's a cheesy marketing ploy that has a bunch of y'all suckered. Fender & Gibson realized they were losing sales of new guitars to the used and vintage market. In response, Fender makes the 'roadworn' & 'closet classic' guitars now and Gibson has 'vos' and 're-issue' and 'relic-ed' and 'murphy aged.' Anyway, did Gibson ever warranty the finish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I don't rememeber anyone ever explicitly warranty-ing the paint, except in really egregious moments like the late 70's strats that would start peeling after yer first gig, they got tooken back. Gibson explicitly excludes the finish in their recent years(decades) LifeTime Limited. I spoke of backing off entirely the finish warranty, and I should also have mentioned all the other things you could back away from because of the...worn type finishes I guess is a good thing to say. To me, it isn't just the paint, I didn't make that clear I don't think. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Personal view... I find the whole ageing/relic-ing thing a total irritation....and yet perhaps a talking point none the less I saw a Gretsch Eddie Cochran aged guitar with corroded metalware and a huge price tag and thought quietly to myself ' someone has lost the plot' And in the same shop a 'SRV set-up' beat-up Strat with heavy strings which sounded wonderful.... Perhaps a fantasy to look at and play for interest, with a soupcon of 'name artist mojo' But for me never a prospective purchase..... V.......I like my guitars smooth and shiny.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I'm not so sure the "shiny" means much. In fact, it didn't mean that much to me even back in my olden days. Aren't we almost back to the "gold plated or chrome" sort of argument? How many guys have complained about shiny guitars, especially darker ones, showing every little scratch and... On a new guitar, especially an acoustic, AE, semi or hollow electric, it seems interesting that some folks figure little or no finish at all is better. Then there are the arguments over poly vs. nitro vs... well, whatever some of my guitars had for finish 40 some years ago. In fact I think the epi "dot studio" guitars ain't bad looking at all in the sunburst version that ain't shiny. I'd like to see a black version, perhaps better, a plain-top version with black back and sides. The faded red doesn't appeal to me much... but that's just me. OTOH, there's no way that a "pre-worn look" guitar is going to attract me to try it. That may be unfair, especially since most folks here would figure I'm the "playability primary" guy. But... that's how I tend to be. I think a finish should help protect the guitar's wood and/or whatever; I think the guitarist should do his part to protect the guitar. I have four early to mid 1970s guitars that have been played hard and still look less "worn" than this stuff. Heck, my '50s hollow that I used for country rock gigs in the 70s looks in far better shape. I'll beat up my own, thanks. <grin> But seriously, why the insistence on shiny, especially if the same instrument equally well protected ain't? m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzoboy Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I love my Fender guitars yet I wouldn't have a relic or Road Worn guitar unless someone gave it to me and then I'd have to get it refinished.I see no more point in inflicting a battered or worn look on a guitar than I would on a new car,appliance or piece of furniture.Imagine if relicing had been popular in the days of Guarneri,Amati and Stradivarius there'd be precious little left.Anyway if you bought a relic or Road Worn guitar how could you tell whether or not it was in mint condition? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Listen, I am not a Fender Troll, play my Strat regularly and love it, am STILL building a custom Tele if I ever get it done, and have a 62 Strat I want and an American Deluxe Tele too so this isn't a bash Fender post . . . though it may turn into that. I am on their distribution and I swear all they do anymore is release pre-beat up Strats and Teles. Is the market really that big for beat my guitar up for me and let me pay you extra for it, crap? I know Gibby does it too some but not nearly as much as Fender does. WTF, over? It's a cost cutting measure; no more Q.C. !!!! If you buy one at a discount as a "scratch and dent" sort of thing, how would you know? [lol] ......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverside Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 It's a cost cutting measure; no more Q.C. !!!! [lol] ......... That's ridiculous. If you have ever seen three or four of the same model in one place, it's remarkable just how exactly alike they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 That's ridiculous. If you have ever seen three or four of the same model in one place, it's remarkable just how exactly alike they are. It's a joke....... I love my Fenders unblemished.....And if they do get blemished, and or beaten up, I prefer to do the work myself.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 That's interesting, Matt. I suppose they do have some reasonably priced instruments, especially from Mexico and Japan, and the quality of the Fenders that I have tried is indeed good. But I got back into wanting a Gibson when they released the new wave of USA standard Telecasters in 2007 or 2008, and the price suddenly went up from the 600 quid mark to the 800 quid mark. When a set-neck Gibson only costs a fraction more than a bolt-on Fender, I start to feel that the price of the latter is not so reasonable. It's not that I consider bolt-on inferior to set, but it should be a significantly cheaper technology, especially given the number of instruments that Fender turn out in comparison to Gibson. I was looking to Fender for a reliable workhorse electric which would last for years and survive a house full of kids, would hold its value (so USA, given the guitar-playing community's commodity fetishism), but would cost nearer 500 quid than a grand. For 800 plus, I start wanting a bit more than that. Also I was troubled by several USA Teles that I saw in Oxfordshire shops (therefore at premium price compared with internet dealers), and which had dried-out, faded rosewood fretboards. Again, no guitar costing 750 quid should be in that sort of condition. It shouldn't come out of the factory like that either (can't just blame the shops when other guitars in their stock don't have the same problem). The prices have indeed gone up a lot. I think they may have even gone a bit higher than £800 for a USA std tele or strat now..GAK has them nearing a grand Mind you Gibson too have really gone through the roof too. A Les Paul Std in 2005 was £1299.00 and now is £1899.00. That increase is just crazy! Studios now are around the £1000 mark! You know I love Japanese Fender Great prices and best build quality IMO. If you start looking at the domestic market Japanese Fender stuff - and a whole new exciting world of top notch gear opens up! I do hear what you're saying re the bolt on neck vs set neck construction; but what it costs 'them' the companies, is never reflected accurately or relatively in what 'we' the consumer pay (sadly)! ****ers LOL Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icantbuyafender Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Im sure my general reply to fender goes without saying. :D Honestly though, i have a LP jr body that i stripped, painted, wired and etc and it is "road worn" in the genuine sense. Thats how a guitar is SUPPOSED to look at the end of its lifetime. Lets one know that its been through everything. My jr has had beer spills (and a couple bottles thrown at it), accidental drops, intentional drops, scratches, dings, smudges, scrapes and cigarette burns. Its lived. I made it for this exact purpose. Had to replace the neck once... lol If you want a gutiar that is all beat up, do it yourself. The stories make it more of a joy to play. Just racks up the quality time gig after gig. I dont get why people pay a full price for chipped, scraped up dinged up guitar. Crazy! btw, my jr's name is FrankenPaul jr, since it has no real pedigree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canon_mutant Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 Today, I got the all new "Pawn Shop Series" Fenders email advertisement. Don't get it. But that's why marketing types get the big bucks. http://www.fender.com/products/pawnshop?EDID=IYO16WM-0USJ-UULVEZ-C4726-57Y3-v1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstMeasure Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 Today, I got the all new "Pawn Shop Series" Fenders email advertisement. Don't get it. But that's why marketing types get the big bucks. http://www.fender.com/products/pawnshop?EDID=IYO16WM-0USJ-UULVEZ-C4726-57Y3-v1 These are really cool of you ask me. First, they are NOT beat up. Second, they have really nice electronics in them, third, they are really cool designs that Fender could have made but didn't. I want the '51 and the '72 like no ones business. Not hip on the Mustang, but i just don't like that body shape. Seriously, this is kind of what you were saying Fender should be making instead of the Road Worn series, isn't it? Actually, I already posted a link to these but I think everyone assumed I was talking about the '72 tele. I wasn't. These are completely unique guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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