To relic or not....

OilCityPickups

As ICBM says ... it's a Gibson therefore it's nitro (mostly) ... ride it hard and put it away wet (a horse riding term ... honest) and it'll soon relic up all by itself.

equalsql

Nooooooooooooo on a Gibson...  OK on a Fender though. I always thought it was daft anyway..would you buy a brand new reliced car? I once looked at a LP that had been described as having 'honest' wear on it (what the hell does that mean anyway?) and it looked like it had been run over by a herd of wildebeest.

OilCityPickups

If you are a guitar toting wildebeest herder ... that's probably honest wear ....

For those smartarses who claim you can't herd wildebeest ... well that's obviously how the guitar got in that condition ... stands to reason

badlydrawnbanjo

Cheers for all the opinions chaps, except the bit about taking off the bigsby :-( All opinions and advice taken on board, I should say that I'm not trying to replicate ESchaps amazing looking gold top on the other thread though, more speed up the ageing process of the lacquer etc. There's a lot to be said for "relic" guitars. I had a fender precision from their roadworn series and was the nicest feeling and playing instruments I've ever had.

ThePrettyDamned

Just play it.  At least it'll have a story. 

Some relics, even fender CS ones, will have wear that wouldn't appear on the way you play the guitar.  Play it a couple of hours a day, and pop it on a rubber stand.  And use a leather strap.

All of those will screw the finish!

Handsome_Chris

I am a Gibson man, and I vote no to relicing. Leave that chavery to the Fender boys.

GuitarMonkey

badlydrawnbanjo said:

 I had a fender precision from their roadworn series and was the nicest feeling and playing instruments I've ever had.

You don't need to distress the finish to make your guitar feel good.

Get the frets dressed and the fretboard edges rounded, that's all you need.

streethawk

I doubt you'll see much natural weather checking due to - gotta be careful here - the methods they use to finish their guitars these days. That's my hunch, anyway. 

If that's the level of relic you're looking for then I imagine you're looking at a pretty expensive job, with hand applied checking using a razor blade.  

But I'm sure there's lots you can do to give it a bit of patina.

Wet sand the finish to take some of the shine off?

Age the nickel parts and bigsby.

Then just treat it like a beater for a couple of years, leave her outside on sunny days, ask a smoker if you can leave it in their room etc. 

jaygtr

The only issue I had with my les Paul was that after 17 years it was starting to look old ( which I like) , except the chrome hard wear which still looked like new. So I've swopped it for nickel plated stuff, otherwise like almost everybody else I would just let it age naturally.

paulk

Play it in really dodgy clubs full of nefarious characters whilst either pissed out of your skull or tripping balls. It'll soon pick up a few good battle scars. Trust me on this.

Deadman

ThePrettyDamned said:

Just play it.  At least it'll have a story. 

Some relics, even fender CS ones, will have wear that wouldn't appear on the way you play the guitar.  Play it a couple of hours a day, and pop it on a rubber stand.  And use a leather strap.

All of those will screw the finish!

All good advice. Get yourself one of these too for an accelerated process:

Skipped

Old guitars that have been babied still look like old guitars if the finish has dulled a little. There must be some clever home made ways to get the VOS effect without sanding?

My hunch is......Body Fluids. 
:-S

impmann

I think I'm the only person on planet earth that looks at Neil Young's black Les Paul and thinks "that would lovely with a refinish in Gold and the right back pickup"... 

As with the rest of the advice - just play it. Relics by and large look fake, and it looks really nice as it is. It will age naturally as you pay it, as it has a celly finish.

IvisonGuitars

If you are thinking of doing it then JXG is definitely your man. His ageing is VERY realistic and fools many an 'expert' that covet's my JXG '57 Jnr replica. I understand that a Gold Top is one of the hardest finishes to age convincingly.

jd0272

You should stick some pics up Neil, the few I've clocked of your Jnr are lovely. Did John build that from scratch, or just refinish it?

badlydrawnbanjo

jd0272;39641" said:

You should stick some pics up Neil, the few I've clocked of your Jnr are lovely. Did John build that from scratch, or just refinish it?

I'd like to see some picture. John's been in touch. His hot/cold process sounds like it would produce a natural looking finish.

IvisonGuitars

I will do chaps. I've had a couple of forumites asking me about JXG's work so I'll perhaps do a thread. I'm on tour till mid next week but will do that when I'm back

jd0272

Good man.

photek

I say go for it. If it is your guitar and you are going to keep it why not have it looking like you want now! It will take donkeys to get to a relic state. I have a 1995 black standard here that looks pretty much new and it has done plenty of miles.

p90fool

While I have no desire to relic my Goldtop, I do find the shiny chrome pickup covers look a bit tinselly, so I scuffed those up a bit, which actually takes the "newness" away from the whole guitar.

The nitro finish is pretty fragile and picks up dings and scratches easily anyway, but it is hard to relic a LP naturally by leaving it lying around, chucking it carelessly in and out of cupboards, vehicles etc, simply because the headstock will fall off long before you get much premature aging in the finish.

Teles are easy, you just stop using a case, but that's way too risky with most Gibsons.