ageing a scratchplate

mattacjones

Hi - just bought a 'parchment' scratchplate for my 56 relic strat - but it's far too white! Any ideas on how to age it? The old one cracked sadly ....

WezV

First you need to take the shine off.  I sand with 2000g wet & dry, then rebuff with t-cut.  It helps it you round out the hard edges slightly.

this won’t have changed the colour, but it will feel older and have prepared the surface to accept some “dirt”.

some recommend shoe polish.   I prefer liquid scratch cover.   I give it a good coat, wait for it to dry and buff it all off.  If it’s too much it cleans up nicely with white spirit 

mattacjones

Thanks Wez! I shall give it a go

Bridgehouse

Tea is quite good for edge stains as well

breakstuff

I did one once using @Wevz method and then rubbed with some really fine charcoal dust off the BBQ.Came out pretty well.

dogload

As @WezV says, fine abrasive and re-polish but I'd give it a good soak in strong black tea. I've aged white Fender plastics this way.
I've aged white witch hats very nicely with just a few days soaking in tea, but a scratchplate I'd take some scourer to

tampaxboo

there have been a few threads on 'ageing pickguards' (they prefer 'pickguard' in the states) at offsetguitars over the past year or so. may be worth catching up with. UV seems to be the thing. i don't do relic but was just curious about the science, so read a few.

today firefox is saying 'the site is configured wrong' etc and may be a a risk (probably a blip, it's a long standing bonafide site), so can't post links, but maybe worth a google when it clears.

streethawk

Not relevant to your plate but brownish furniture wax is good for the bevel reveal on black scratchplates. Leave it on for a while then buff it off for slight discolouration. 

lovebuzz

leave it in a tray of cold tea for ages

57Deluxe

coffee grinds... lethal

WezV

Tea and coffeee never worked for me, neither did shoe polish.   I tried some rather potent grinds.  I was always scared to touch it for it wiping off.  The extra shellac in scratch cover seems to make it more permanent where I want it, and easier to clean off where I don’t.

mot sure why coffee never worked for me.  My work mug looks like Satan’s arsehole if I leave it a few days

RaymondLin

Try some curry….it stains anything white.  I can't imagine some plastic would be any different.

thermionic

Not sure the OP wants a turmeric-coloured pickguard...

CasperCaster

I've tried a few things without much success. I found that coffee and tea never did much,  brown shoe polish did just a little, but like the brown furniture polish (which had the strongest affect) it left parchment plastic looking reddish, rather than the dirty amber/ brown look I wanted. I suspect that the reddish hue is ok over mint green, as the green background will alter it, but over parchment it wasn't good. I still haven't achieved what I wanted, but I'm going to try alcohol based wood stains next on a parchment backplate. I suspect the pickguard on my Fender Roadworn guitar is lacquered - no idea what they do on CS models or what aftermarket suppliers like Art of Ageing do. 

WezV

@CasperCaster   Try this

http://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/product/colron-liquid-scratch-cover?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_MCmlbqk2AIVab7tCh1WgAB9EAQYBCABEgJmVfD_BwE

Its definitely in the brown spectrum

WezV

here is a few bits of plastic i have done with the liquid scratch cover after a rub down and rebuff

subtle:



3 aged, one new


the process


quite easy to control the colour

WezV

this stuff is a bit far, but a wipe down with white spirit would even it all out again

mattacjones

Amazing! And six am on xmas morning? Are you up playing Santa?

WezV

I was too excited.

CasperCaster

Cheers @WezV that looks several orders of magnitude better than anything I've achieved! Did you use the light, medium or dark variant of Coloron? And did you control colour with time, or just white spirit, or both?

WezV

I use the dark one.  I brush it on straight from the bottle and give it 5 minutes to dry before buffing it all off.  If it’s too dark, I wipe with white spirits and wait another few minutes before buffing again.  I also thin with white spirits if it gets too thick and sticky in the bottle