Tend to agree. Lesson I’m taking is that if I want to relic a poly guitar, I should just to a complete finish strip, refin in nitro, and then relic that. Especially if it’s a tele that’s relatively easy to sand.
@@mattc2674 Absolutely! I learned even another lesson last week. I just refinished a black (PU) Strat in arctic white (regular spray cans). Don't do it! In this case also strip it first and then refinish it...
The best way to simulate arm wear is to tape a piece of 600 grit to your forearm and strum a while, then buff out heavily with a swatch of denim and add a tad bit of shoe polish to the bare wood.
Nice job! I think the single most important step with the poly guitars is to get the shine off with steel wool and light sanding. After that, everything else is gravy.
I like your technique for edge wear at the beginning. Everything else seemed to lean towards unnatural wear. This process is very challenging to get a look of natural wear.
Interesting video! Not gonna get into the relic debate but what I find funny about relics is that sellers try to upsale a relic job on a new guitar. "This guitar had a relic job done to it" or something. Meanwhile a guitar with HONEST play wear is gonna be looked at lesser in value like "oh but it's beat up, it's not worth as much as if it was clean". Consumerism is weird LOL.
It had the "right" relic job done by the right "professional" therefore making his "work" worth the added price. Like this person knows how to wear in a a guitar "right". "But my arm doesn't even touch that spot" "shut up a true rock n' roller would wear that spot"
I think it turned out great! I just picked up a used 2008 American standard strat and i was to age it some. It's poly so your video is very useful, is even the same color. Thanks for sharing! Forget those negative comments! If you like it that's all that matters!
Cool, but I wish I saw what you did to the neck. I reliced a brand new Squier Tele that had upgraded pickups, pots & electronics that I picked up for $100.00. I don't know if I would do this to a USA model, but I get it. The Tele was worn, dented, dinged, burned, sanded, scraped, all metal was aged, and the end result is an old looking 50's Tele that was found in the back room of a blues bar in Mississippi! The fret markers had cracking, a cigarette burn in the headstock, and a lot of work to make it looked like an aged nitro finish with cracking lines. But the dead giveaway is the modern tuners, though. Other than that, it's a super fun wall piece, except my 16 y.o. uses it and loves it. When he plays out, everyone is interested in the story of what it is. It's a lot of fun to do!
Some really neat tricks in this, thanks! One thing I've never gotten about relicing, though, is that so many pro relics seem to overdo the wear patterns on the left side bouts... it just doesn't seem to be how instruments actually age. I was especially surprised to see you scrape the back edge in the same location.
To offset that front horn (which I agree should have had way less or none at all) you should make the back portion heavier relic. It's way too balanced right now, but very well done and thanks for sharing tips and tricks.
I am always amazed at 95% of how relicing the paint has nothing to do with how a guitar will normally age with play and general stage abuse. All you have to do is look at real vintage guitars and copy them. I own at least a dozen (and have had many more) that are 40-60 years old and most of the real wear is just dings, minor scratches and some edge wear. You know, like someone who actually took care of the guitar but had some unfortunate mishaps. True hardcore abused relics were either owned by someone who used a guitar as both a stage instrument and a canoe paddle or it once belonged to Keith Richards. The nitro of the older guitars does its own thing and you can't accurately copy that unless it's just dulling the finish or you scratch out every single crack with an X-acto knife. The guitar in this video needs some buckle rash and not even through the paint, pick scratches on the pickguard, and finger wear on the most basic chord positions. But I agree that poly is kinda ugly in its original state.
Thanks for sharing some of your techniques and allow me to make some observations. I may not know much about relic'ing, but I do know that handling acid without gloves, laying acid to your pickup pole pieces and taking a torch to a pickup ain't exactly a good idea.🤔
I took a Squire that was a Triburst, and used a 2K paint (activated urethane) I had mixed at the autoshop of Antique Olive. Wanted to do a 2-paint relic. I used shoe polish, like actual brown shoe polish... noticed what you had was the 'cream' style polish. The traditional harder dark dark brown left on 10-15min really yellowed the top layer... the poly on the neck darkened a bit but not much. It really worked well on the off-white plastic though, really gave it that yellowed aged look. Maybe try something like kiwi brown polish and leave on 10-15min.
Nitro wouldn’t relic like this..people make the mistake of making it look like an aged poly guitar when it’s not..it wouldn’t chip so much..it would be a much more smooth wear..like using 370 grit until wood barely shows through, then work your way up in grit to 1500 or so..then buff. At least in my opinion...then age the hardware lightly and throw some dings/scratches in here and there
Sometimes it does. My friend has a Les Paul (obviously nitro finished) and there is no smooth wear, only hard chipping everywhere. My other friend has a Strat thats nitro finished and its also wearing mostly by chipping.
Do you have recommendations as to 600-grit sandpaper? I suppose I'm looking for a small quantity, maybe even in a multi-grit pack, 5-in size, in an open grit like you recommend. Surprisingly hard to find, unless you purchase a large contractor's pack. Suggestions?
Hey there - I’m based in Chicago area as well. Do you help with projects? I have a poly tele I’d like to gently age and could use some help as I don’t trust myself.
Good job, but I'd say that's not an American Standard Telecaster... the neck cavity doesn't have the micro tilt hole, the bridge is vintage style, not standard style, the neckplate is not the american standard one, please correct me if I'm wrong...
Great video! I'm looking to do a light relic job on a polyester guitar. Is that just a steel rod you used for the edges? Looking forward to the neck video.
I love what you've done to knock off some of that sheen down, looks really authentic. Like you said, I too think that the wear on the upper side was too big, should have stayed just on the forearm area, but overall looks great, good work.
This is my first time seeing a relic process that gives acidic liquid to the pickup and heats it up! Does it not damage the magnetic components inside? How does the guitar sound after the process is complete? Better? Or sounds ridiculous?
I painted over a sunburst 2 years ago with purple, but didn't put a finish over it in the hope that would relic itself and reveal the sunburst... that paint doesn't seem to be going anywhere! Seem you really had to mistreat this Tele to get any sort of relic.
Man beautiful work! Just awesome! One question though.. would you say it's essential to put the body out in the cold and then heat it up repeatedly in order for the finish to scrap off? And what tool did you use in the beginning here when you scraped off the first layers?
The acid will still keep eating the metal, you need to use baking soda and water, that neutralizes it , remember acid will continue to eat the even if you put oil on top of it.
Make sure to sand all over with 600-800 grit to give it that aged broken in polish feel. In the end, a great relic feels like a favorite pair of broken in jeans, comfortable all over so you can focus on the playing. Good to see you used both brown and black stain. Black alone leaves a sterile appearance. Maybe the neck gets rolled fretboard edges?
You can but man it's slow and aggravating.and if u get in hurry you will take out gouges..next time I'm gonna use more patients and probably go with sand paper.i think we will have more control of what we are trying to do.just my opinion!
@@hlrgrr66 fair enough it does take a long time,, but a decent relic job does anyway, no short cuts or else they stand out a mile, ive been doing them for maybe 6 years now, with lots of happy customers. Its a piece of Artwork. Be careful if you use sandpaper on poly or modern finishes as it cannot be polished by hand like nitro can be. You need a quality power buffer to remove scratches/ sanding because modern finishes are bulletproof.
Now if you would buff the worn spots,giving that actual 'worn' look would have set it off,instead of looking 'chipped' off...and not look as intentional..otherwise it came out pretty descent for Poly.
Because they don't want you to know that they are laughing their asses off that they are getting paid to destroy a perfectly good guitar, I would assume.
I know what you mean about the quality of the control plate.They feel as thin as tin foil......i have bought replacements for these bits from Northwest guitars here in the UK and the metal is over 2mm thick with the most beautiful thick chrome.
It doesn't need to be 3mm thick. It's a control plate holding a switch & knobs lol. It's not like it's a structural part of the guitar. It's as thick as it needs to be, which isn't very thick since it's just a mounting plate. Why make the guitar heavier & more expensive than it needs to be?
I’ve got the same telecaster.. I wanna take the Polyurethane shine off it too. So if I’m correct you’re scraping and then buffing the scrapes out which will be pulling off the Clearcoat?
Actually,......i think the upper horn SHOULD be worn. However,.....it completely depends on the physical habits of the player. I personally look up real wear on real vintage guitars. Cant go wrong. And you have a point of reference.
i think the reassembled guitar didnt look that real. dont know why, but somehow the finish and the parts didnt fit for me... also: why did u relic the underside of the switchplate? makes no sense haha
@@bigdguitars only on the broken up surfaces, which u scratched up on both sides. You also could have applied the acid with a cotton pick thing. There is a pretty nice tutorial by schecter guitars on TH-cam about the metal aging process. Also, I didn't want to hate in any way. Nice video. Enjoyed it!
If it was me, I would've left everything under the pickgaurd and other hardware alone. On a real vintage guitar, only the parts that are exposed are going to wear. If you pull the pickgaurd off a 50s strat, the finish underneath would still be shiny and untouched.
Man, I'm a big fan of your dye finishes, and I learned a lot of things from your videos that I use when finishing my own guitars, so I was very interested in seeing your relicing process... but I gotta say, that just does not look good, brother. You might want to re-think your affinity with the wire brush. That just made a lot of big, straight scratches that do not look like natural play-wear. You also made a lot of straight ruts across the surface with the ball-peen hammerer, and I don't understand that at all... How would something like that happen in the process of playing a guitar? Long, straight scratches going in completely random directions do not look natural, they look deliberate. I've tried my hand at relicing a poly-finished guitar, and I agree, it's not easy. I only did a light relic (what you did here is not what I would call "light"), and it came out "ok". I was glad I didn't get too carried away (which is very easy to do), but I was patient, and took my time. Before I did ANYTHING, I asked myself: "How would this happen to a guitar? How would I explain this?" If it's something that would make somebody ask: "How the hell did THAT happen??", then I don't do it. A lot of people's approach to relicing a guitar is to simply damage it, and make it look like it was thrown in a cement mixer. There's a big difference between "damage" and "wear", and that guitar just looks damaged to me. I also think you get more convincing results by fumigating the hardware rather than immersing it in the acid, and you should dirty the parts up after the acid treatment. The acid alone just makes it look like it got some bad electro-plating. It doesn't make it look old. And that pickguard? Put the torch down, guy... That just looks like what it is. A pickguard that somebody randomly wangled a blow-torch over. Again, I love your other work, but this video feels like it should be titled: "How to Relic a Guitar as Quickly as Possible". Take your time, man... think it through.
This video has convinced me to leave that poly finish alone.
Couldn’t agree more.
absolutely right!
Tend to agree. Lesson I’m taking is that if I want to relic a poly guitar, I should just to a complete finish strip, refin in nitro, and then relic that. Especially if it’s a tele that’s relatively easy to sand.
@@mattc2674 Absolutely! I learned even another lesson last week. I just refinished a black (PU) Strat in arctic white (regular spray cans). Don't do it! In this case also strip it first and then refinish it...
looks just as good as nitro
The best way to simulate arm wear is to tape a piece of 600 grit to your forearm and strum a while, then buff out heavily with a swatch of denim and add a tad bit of shoe polish to the bare wood.
hahaha really funny jk stfu
absolutely jfk
I've learned knowing when to stop is important.
This video has convinced me that the poly finish on my 2017 American Professional Telecaster is a lot tougher and more durable than I think it is.
Nice job! I think the single most important step with the poly guitars is to get the shine off with steel wool and light sanding. After that, everything else is gravy.
When you heated up the pickguarded you also torched the neck pickup
Probably melted all that wax thats inside
Yeah this came out great !! thanks for sharing Derek !! :)
Yeah man but what makes the tone better? Brown or black shoe polish? ;-)
Hahahha. Brown shoe tone wood. Found my next 100k in sales.
@@bigdguitars I know some guys on the internet who can help you sell that;-)
Who who!!! I need it gone now. I should sell your stuff on my channel and vice versa
I like your technique for edge wear at the beginning. Everything else seemed to lean towards unnatural wear. This process is very challenging to get a look of natural wear.
Interesting video! Not gonna get into the relic debate but what I find funny about relics is that sellers try to upsale a relic job on a new guitar. "This guitar had a relic job done to it" or something. Meanwhile a guitar with HONEST play wear is gonna be looked at lesser in value like "oh but it's beat up, it's not worth as much as if it was clean". Consumerism is weird LOL.
It had the "right" relic job done by the right "professional" therefore making his "work" worth the added price. Like this person knows how to wear in a a guitar "right". "But my arm doesn't even touch that spot" "shut up a true rock n' roller would wear that spot"
That's freaking cool. Looks like tons of fun. I've done this kind of thing on tabletops and picture frames. Cheers & stay warm! Chris.
Nice. I have an old yamaha strat I've been wanting to relic. I'll probably give some of this a shot.
drag it behind you car, neck off of course.
Alternative method:
Step 1) join a punk band
Step 2) play around India for like a week during their summer
haha
but you'll have no audience.
@@michaelsteven1090 And you'll probably catch dysentery. Which is sort of rock and roll.
@@michaelsteven1090 what do you mean? India has a punk scene
I think it turned out great! I just picked up a used 2008 American standard strat and i was to age it some. It's poly so your video is very useful, is even the same color. Thanks for sharing! Forget those negative comments! If you like it that's all that matters!
Can you just use sandpaper to get smooth transition?
Cool, but I wish I saw what you did to the neck. I reliced a brand new Squier Tele that had upgraded pickups, pots & electronics that I picked up for $100.00. I don't know if I would do this to a USA model, but I get it. The Tele was worn, dented, dinged, burned, sanded, scraped, all metal was aged, and the end result is an old looking 50's Tele that was found in the back room of a blues bar in Mississippi! The fret markers had cracking, a cigarette burn in the headstock, and a lot of work to make it looked like an aged nitro finish with cracking lines. But the dead giveaway is the modern tuners, though. Other than that, it's a super fun wall piece, except my 16 y.o. uses it and loves it. When he plays out, everyone is interested in the story of what it is. It's a lot of fun to do!
Really nice technique! Makes want to spend 3x the money to buy a nitro finish guitar and play it for 20 years to get good results
"When it's cold out" That thick coat tells me it's not only cold outside hahaha
I went through alot of videos today on how to Relic a guitar and this one is by far the best I've seen. Thank You!
with all that work could you not have painted it to a color you liked?
I very much appreciate this video. Thank you!
Some really neat tricks in this, thanks! One thing I've never gotten about relicing, though, is that so many pro relics seem to overdo the wear patterns on the left side bouts... it just doesn't seem to be how instruments actually age. I was especially surprised to see you scrape the back edge in the same location.
I generally doubt that a lot of relicer have ever seen a real aged guitar. Most stuff doesn't look right and you can spot the job immediately.
To offset that front horn (which I agree should have had way less or none at all) you should make the back portion heavier relic. It's way too balanced right now, but very well done and thanks for sharing tips and tricks.
I am always amazed at 95% of how relicing the paint has nothing to do with how a guitar will normally age with play and general stage abuse. All you have to do is look at real vintage guitars and copy them. I own at least a dozen (and have had many more) that are 40-60 years old and most of the real wear is just dings, minor scratches and some edge wear. You know, like someone who actually took care of the guitar but had some unfortunate mishaps. True hardcore abused relics were either owned by someone who used a guitar as both a stage instrument and a canoe paddle or it once belonged to Keith Richards. The nitro of the older guitars does its own thing and you can't accurately copy that unless it's just dulling the finish or you scratch out every single crack with an X-acto knife. The guitar in this video needs some buckle rash and not even through the paint, pick scratches on the pickguard, and finger wear on the most basic chord positions. But I agree that poly is kinda ugly in its original state.
Precisely this 👍
Did you solder wires together and then tape the??
This makes me feel so much better about dropping my squier and chipping the paint :)
Just curious..why wouldn't you just use your soldering iron to remove the cables rather than cut them? Great vid!!
Thanks for sharing some of your techniques and allow me to make some observations. I may not know much about relic'ing, but I do know that handling acid without gloves, laying acid to your pickup pole pieces and taking a torch to a pickup ain't exactly a good idea.🤔
Also compressed air upside down will push out the propellant and cool the finish and wood down quicker than inside/outside
I took a Squire that was a Triburst, and used a 2K paint (activated urethane) I had mixed at the autoshop of Antique Olive. Wanted to do a 2-paint relic. I used shoe polish, like actual brown shoe polish... noticed what you had was the 'cream' style polish. The traditional harder dark dark brown left on 10-15min really yellowed the top layer... the poly on the neck darkened a bit but not much. It really worked well on the off-white plastic though, really gave it that yellowed aged look. Maybe try something like kiwi brown polish and leave on 10-15min.
Have u ever tried Paint stripper on Poly ???
my thoought as well.. any leads?
Good that you put it on a cloth
Honestly, that's the best relic I've seen on a poly finished guitar. Nice!
Do you have any video about dye (with two or three colors) a spruce top?
this is me. th-cam.com/video/Gn4ZQ-tx9GU/w-d-xo.html
@@bigdguitars Thanks very much!
Nitro wouldn’t relic like this..people make the mistake of making it look like an aged poly guitar when it’s not..it wouldn’t chip so much..it would be a much more smooth wear..like using 370 grit until wood barely shows through, then work your way up in grit to 1500 or so..then buff. At least in my opinion...then age the hardware lightly and throw some dings/scratches in here and there
Sometimes it does. My friend has a Les Paul (obviously nitro finished) and there is no smooth wear, only hard chipping everywhere. My other friend has a Strat thats nitro finished and its also wearing mostly by chipping.
Ever heard the term "less is more" ?
What tool do you use for the relic?thanks
Just enough to Look Realistic... Great Job again D... To Much is Way To Much with most others Relics...As I said, This one is Just Right...
Do you have recommendations as to 600-grit sandpaper? I suppose I'm looking for a small quantity, maybe even in a multi-grit pack, 5-in size, in an open grit like you recommend. Surprisingly hard to find, unless you purchase a large contractor's pack. Suggestions?
those open grits really only come in the contractor packs.
looks sick. good job man
How old are you trying to make it look like? 20 yrs 50yrs.
do you have a video on that Black Strat neck, the coloring looks great, is that something you did or was that a stock neck ? Thx
Vinegar and Hydrogen peroxide is a bit more gentle and will get the job done on the hardware. I have done a few steel box pedals I built that way...
Nothing like a real Fender relic.
Great tips- thank you. Like that you didn't go too far- whats w these guys that go overboard?..just doesn't look right if too much
Hey there - I’m based in Chicago area as well. Do you help with projects? I have a poly tele I’d like to gently age and could use some help as I don’t trust myself.
Love the outfit Big D! Vid came out great! Thanks.
Derek, have you tried using lampblack instead of shoe polish? I've seen some really good relic jobs that use lampblack.
I will at that
i Got a 2006 strat that got a few big cracks in the thick poly finish and I wanna make them look more natural, any tips?
Cool! Lookin forward to watching what you do with the neck.👍😎🎸🎶
0:25 what's the controversy?
Is nitro the finish on Stratocaster bodies?
I'm not usually big on relics but that came out very nice.
Good job, but I'd say that's not an American Standard Telecaster... the neck cavity doesn't have the micro tilt hole, the bridge is vintage style, not standard style, the neckplate is not the american standard one, please correct me if I'm wrong...
Great video! I'm looking to do a light relic job on a polyester guitar. Is that just a steel rod you used for the edges?
Looking forward to the neck video.
Awesome work!! Do you offer this service?
Can you do a tobacco burst-finish on a figured maple top using only stains, btw great video and craftsmanship.
this is a plain top th-cam.com/video/6zQSmmF7aMU/w-d-xo.html
I love what you've done to knock off some of that sheen down, looks really authentic. Like you said, I too think that the wear on the upper side was too big, should have stayed just on the forearm area, but overall looks great, good work.
This is my first time seeing a relic process that gives acidic liquid to the pickup and heats it up! Does it not damage the magnetic components inside? How does the guitar sound after the process is complete? Better? Or sounds ridiculous?
not sure what you mean?
@@bigdguitars at minute 19:20 you heat the pickguard with torch :-)
I painted over a sunburst 2 years ago with purple, but didn't put a finish over it in the hope that would relic itself and reveal the sunburst... that paint doesn't seem to be going anywhere! Seem you really had to mistreat this Tele to get any sort of relic.
yea unreal finish for sure. the darker looks better.
i heard jeffrey dahmer used Muriatic acid to do some relicing with his his hobbies
Can you take the poly off and put nitro without messing with the color? Is that possible?
Nope
Great job!
Man beautiful work! Just awesome!
One question though.. would you say it's essential to put the body out in the cold and then heat it up repeatedly in order for the finish to scrap off?
And what tool did you use in the beginning here when you scraped off the first layers?
just do yourself a favor and get a nitro body. poly bodies almost never look good relic’d in my opinion
Nice job. I find it difficult aging anything that's already been painted.
What about the neck?
This is awesome
A sure form rasp would've worked pretty good too!
The acid will still keep eating the metal, you need to use baking soda and water, that neutralizes it , remember acid will continue to eat the even if you put oil on top of it.
Your Tele will remember this. She's saying to herself: "I'll see you in the next life buddy. I'll see you on the other side."
This actually made me laugh! Thanks....
YOU OVERDONE EVERYTHING.
I kinda really panicked at first, but as long as he`s happy with his guitars and is having fun I guess I`m fine :p.
Agreed
That is not AGING, it is DESTROYING.
Tie it to the back of your car and drag it around a couple of miles. Voila!
hmm I have an old Epiphone Strat body collecting dust. Thinking of putting it in a cement mixer full of gravel and letting it tumble for a week.
Make sure it's really cold outside....
So interesting!
Awesome video mate... really nice 👍 just enough to wear! Wish you could do my strat
Make sure to sand all over with 600-800 grit to give it that aged broken in polish feel. In the end, a great relic feels like a favorite pair of broken in jeans, comfortable all over so you can focus on the playing. Good to see you used both brown and black stain. Black alone leaves a sterile appearance. Maybe the neck gets rolled fretboard edges?
Hey big d you can use a razor and a careful hand to emulate cracking/drawing in paint. Give it a blast
You can but man it's slow and aggravating.and if u get in hurry you will take out gouges..next time I'm gonna use more patients and probably go with sand paper.i think we will have more control of what we are trying to do.just my opinion!
@@hlrgrr66 fair enough it does take a long time,, but a decent relic job does anyway, no short cuts or else they stand out a mile, ive been doing them for maybe 6 years now, with lots of happy customers. Its a piece of Artwork. Be careful if you use sandpaper on poly or modern finishes as it cannot be polished by hand like nitro can be. You need a quality power buffer to remove scratches/ sanding because modern finishes are bulletproof.
@@happyads9439 oh ok.thanks for the info.i got a ton of guitars so I got plenty to practice on lol
@@hlrgrr66 also you can do a paint over, cellulose over the top then relic back. Give it a blast
Now if you would buff the worn spots,giving that actual 'worn' look would have set it off,instead of looking 'chipped' off...and not look as intentional..otherwise it came out pretty descent for Poly.
Why?
Now i know i am not the Only one doing this on my Guitar.
Spray canned air on the finish if you want good cracking.
Why dont you just playbit n let it age naturally ?
Genuine question ?
Why are relic techniques so secretive?
Because they don't want you to know that they are laughing their asses off that they are getting paid to destroy a perfectly good guitar, I would assume.
Nice process but, am I the only one who still has a 70s guitar totally shiny (not worn out)?
I know what you mean about the quality of the control plate.They feel as thin as tin foil......i have bought replacements for these bits from Northwest guitars here in the UK and the metal is over 2mm thick with the most beautiful thick chrome.
It doesn't need to be 3mm thick. It's a control plate holding a switch & knobs lol. It's not like it's a structural part of the guitar. It's as thick as it needs to be, which isn't very thick since it's just a mounting plate. Why make the guitar heavier & more expensive than it needs to be?
I’ve got the same telecaster.. I wanna take the Polyurethane shine off it too. So if I’m correct you’re scraping and then buffing the scrapes out which will be pulling off the Clearcoat?
I have a uv booth and man does it darken up the coloring. You need to work off a little of the finish via scratches and what not.
On an American Standard... did someone ask you to do this or what it your guitar?
Rather looks like an American Special to me.
Impressive. Thx for sharing D.
Actually,......i think the upper horn SHOULD be worn. However,.....it completely depends on the physical habits of the player. I personally look up real wear on real vintage guitars. Cant go wrong. And you have a point of reference.
i think the reassembled guitar didnt look that real.
dont know why, but somehow the finish and the parts didnt fit for me...
also: why did u relic the underside of the switchplate? makes no sense haha
Milonso the muratic acid relics everything.
@@bigdguitars only on the broken up surfaces, which u scratched up on both sides. You also could have applied the acid with a cotton pick thing. There is a pretty nice tutorial by schecter guitars on TH-cam about the metal aging process.
Also, I didn't want to hate in any way. Nice video. Enjoyed it!
Milonso I age a lot of hardware and usually do it this way. I will take a look at the vid you mentioned. Thanks!
Oh... wow...
If it was me, I would've left everything under the pickgaurd and other hardware alone. On a real vintage guitar, only the parts that are exposed are going to wear. If you pull the pickgaurd off a 50s strat, the finish underneath would still be shiny and untouched.
I started relicing my poly guitar then just decided to take it all off. It’s headed for a refin.
It's solder(pronounced, soul-der).What the hell is sodder?
unfortunately he’s not wrong here, us filthy americans just say “sodder”
Nice :) you should use the steel wool & vinegar & tea trick to age the visible wood as well! That's the only things that seems too clean now
Pura Vida Motorcycles He's in the polar vortex too cold to pull out his tea bags lol
Luv the hat BigD, did you see the hat in my video lol. Cheerios like 38
Man, I'm a big fan of your dye finishes, and I learned a lot of things from your videos that I use when finishing my own guitars, so I was very interested in seeing your relicing process... but I gotta say, that just does not look good, brother. You might want to re-think your affinity with the wire brush. That just made a lot of big, straight scratches that do not look like natural play-wear. You also made a lot of straight ruts across the surface with the ball-peen hammerer, and I don't understand that at all... How would something like that happen in the process of playing a guitar? Long, straight scratches going in completely random directions do not look natural, they look deliberate.
I've tried my hand at relicing a poly-finished guitar, and I agree, it's not easy. I only did a light relic (what you did here is not what I would call "light"), and it came out "ok". I was glad I didn't get too carried away (which is very easy to do), but I was patient, and took my time. Before I did ANYTHING, I asked myself: "How would this happen to a guitar? How would I explain this?" If it's something that would make somebody ask: "How the hell did THAT happen??", then I don't do it. A lot of people's approach to relicing a guitar is to simply damage it, and make it look like it was thrown in a cement mixer. There's a big difference between "damage" and "wear", and that guitar just looks damaged to me.
I also think you get more convincing results by fumigating the hardware rather than immersing it in the acid, and you should dirty the parts up after the acid treatment. The acid alone just makes it look like it got some bad electro-plating. It doesn't make it look old. And that pickguard? Put the torch down, guy... That just looks like what it is. A pickguard that somebody randomly wangled a blow-torch over. Again, I love your other work, but this video feels like it should be titled: "How to Relic a Guitar as Quickly as Possible".
Take your time, man... think it through.
yea this isn't great. hard to get this right with that finish
Relic-ing, the guitar refinishers dream.
Not much for relicing unless its done well ya dud a great job -looks real.
To each their own I guess.