Relic on a Poly Finish?

thebreeze · February 2020

Kittyfrisk said:

thebreeze said:

Wow, that's an extreme roadworn relic. The unmarked pick guard and shiny new Wilkinson bridge & other hardware really completes the look...

True, although weirdly I quite like the juxtaposition. But whatever I like the way it looks. I suppose i could leave the pick guard and hardware in the rain and mark them up a bit but I can't be arsed and I think it looks fine (to me) as it is. I used to think what @ICBM said about it being a phase/fashion and soon people will only want shiny guitars again but I've changed my mind on that. I think it's here to stay, some people like it, some people don't - just enjoy them all, they're guitars. Some people like wearing worn in jeans, other people don't etc. In many ways it's just as much a practical thing as an aesthetic thing - I get a bit tired of "being careful" with pristine guitars and watching the value plummet every time they get a knock. I like both new and relic's guitars and have both.

Kittyfrisk · February 2020

thebreeze said:

Kittyfrisk said:

thebreeze said:

Wow, that's an extreme roadworn relic. The unmarked pick guard and shiny new Wilkinson bridge & other hardware really completes the look...

True, although weirdly I quite like the juxtaposition. But whatever I like the way it looks. I suppose i could leave the pick guard and hardware in the rain and mark them up a bit but I can't be arsed and I think it looks fine (to me) as it is. I used to think what @ICBM said about it being a phase/fashion and soon people will only want shiny guitars again but I've changed my mind on that. I think it's here to stay, some people like it, some people don't - just enjoy them all, they're guitars. Some people like wearing worn in jeans, other people don't etc. In many ways it's just as much a practical thing as an aesthetic thing - I get a bit tired of "being careful" with pristine guitars and watching the value plummet every time they get a knock. I like both new and relic's guitars and have both.

Good for you. If we all liked the same things, it would be boring.
Although I still reckon if we all had identical gear, we'd find some new molecular level of minutiae to disagree about

Caffeine_Vampire · February 2020

If you really want an authentic relic job just tell your wife how much you really paid for the guitar.

MikeS · February 2020

funny picture removed so as not to upset @thebreeze ;

thebreeze · February 2020

MikeS said:

That, my friend, was an attempt to show the OP and others interested what relic’ing poly can look like (whether you like it/approve or not) rather than a crass and malicious attempt at humour

MikeS · February 2020

Oh I see. Yeh, It's a prize winner.

HAL9000 · February 2020

Caffeine_Vampire said:

If you really want an authentic relic job just tell your wife how much you really paid for the guitar.

But then you'd probably end up with a relic'd head...

thebreeze · February 2020

MikeS said:

funny picture removed so as not to upset @thebreeze ;

Don't remove it on my account Mike, I'm not in the least upset, let other people judge for themselves.

GoldenEraGuitars · February 2020

@delorean I can see there is a page of comments and without actually reading them I nearly guarantee there may be 1 (possibly 2) direct answers to your question. The rest will be the same old same old. I saw a tag notification btw, hence why I’m commenting.

Right... in short yes you can “age” the urethane. Whether it’ll look nice is solely up to you. The rest is just other folks opinions. When urethane starts to weather it usually leaves you with rather ghastly chips which lets you see just how thick the finish is. But if you refrain from going too crazy you can add some surface dings, scratches etc but avoid chips and forearm wear. That is when ageing urethane goes wrong.

Your body could be made up of several pieces of wood with a veneer top and bottom. The urethane could very well be holding the body together

We have refinished many 90s strats and the main complaint from the customer is “the finish is too thick”. This is the last one we did although I think it was late 90s

https://i.imgur.com/dGqOeoB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vb8m6YV.png

https://i.imgur.com/em3kWPA.png

https://i.imgur.com/G2eD4pD.png

So, there you go. Another way of doing it. If you need to talk either way about the guitar in question just let me know.

delorean · February 2020

GoldenEraGuitars said:

@delorean I can see there is a page of comments and without actually reading them I nearly guarantee there may be 1 (possibly 2) direct answers to your question. The rest will be the same old same old. I saw a tag notification btw, hence why I’m commenting.

Right... in short yes you can “age” the urethane. Whether it’ll look nice is solely up to you. The rest is just other folks opinions. When urethane starts to weather it usually leaves you with rather ghastly chips which lets you see just how thick the finish is. But if you refrain from going too crazy you can add some surface dings, scratches etc but avoid chips and forearm wear. That is when ageing urethane goes wrong.

Your body could be made up of several pieces of wood with a veneer top and bottom. The urethane could very well be holding the body together

We have refinished many 90s strats and the main complaint from the customer is “the finish is too thick”. This is the last one we did although I think it was late 90s

https://i.imgur.com/dGqOeoB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vb8m6YV.png

https://i.imgur.com/em3kWPA.png

https://i.imgur.com/G2eD4pD.png

So, there you go. Another way of doing it. If you need to talk either way about the guitar in question just let me know.

Thanks @GoldenEraGuitars that's really good to know!

In the areas where mine has chipped, it appears to only be maybe 1mm or so thick, but having had time to reflect on this, I reckon I might just leave it - I'm cack-handed at the best of times, I think I run a very high risk of ruining this completely.

I think I'll just let it weather naturally

ICBM · February 2020

GoldenEraGuitars said:

This is the last one we did although I think it was late 90s

https://i.imgur.com/dGqOeoB.jpg

That's 2000 or later - 'American Series' rather than 'American Standard' - since it has HSH routs not a swimming pool, and it will also be solid not blocks and veneer.

GoldenEraGuitars · February 2020

@delorean thats very understandable and I get totally get it. Doing any sort of work like this can have mixed results if you DIY.

You’d probably find that under the paint is a ridiculously thick and semi opaque layer of sealer which is the real pain to remove. Again, that can have mixed results.

Anyhoo, go and enjoy your guitar

munckee · February 2020

I have sanded a poly finish, sprayed over with normal spray paint and then lacquered and relic'd and also sent one off to Iamf68 to be stripped and nitro finished.

I liked both, the job Rich (Iamf68) did was tremendous, if the guitar plays great and is a keeper then worth having refinished properly by someone who knows what they are doing, SCRelics or Iamf68.

Its a good learning curve refinishing. If I did another I would strip back to wood and nitro or send away to the pro's

chris78 · February 2020

tony99 said:

I'm also pondering my 60s classic player having a refin, but I'm wondering about stripping the poly off first.

I'm not bothered about relicing as such, but I'd like a nitro finished strat and I can't be arsed buying another as this (almost) ticks all boxes.

Is it worth me doing it??? What do we think chums???

I tried that with a baja. Then I discovered under a thick poly finish that it was a 5 piece and fender hadn’t left the wood to dry out properly. Leave it alone

tony99 · February 2020

chris78 said:

tony99 said:

I'm also pondering my 60s classic player having a refin, but I'm wondering about stripping the poly off first.

I'm not bothered about relicing as such, but I'd like a nitro finished strat and I can't be arsed buying another as this (almost) ticks all boxes.

Is it worth me doing it??? What do we think chums???

I tried that with a baja. Then I discovered under a thick poly finish that it was a 5 piece and fender hadn’t left the wood to dry out properly. Leave it alone

yeah, I kinda thought that, there could be anything going on under there really

do wanna nice thin nitro finish strat though, maybe an AVRI is calling

Dominic · February 2020

just buy an MJT body

GoldenEraGuitars · February 2020

Dominic said:

just buy an MJT body

Or an SC Relics?

Tex Mexico · February 2020

No offence intended to anyone, but these relic discussions really do bring out the bullshitters and the naysayers.

I've refinished and reliced dozens of my own guitars. I'm not selling anything. I love relics and encourage you to make your own. Here's what you need to know.

1. Abandon the idea of making a poly-finished MIM look anything like a CS heavy relic without first refinishing it. Why? Lacquer checking, which is about one-third of the battle for a decent relic.
2. Refinishing a guitar is nothing like a difficult as you'd think, especially if you then intend to age it. With enough preparation, research and caution you can get it right on the first go - and something tells me if you want to relic a guitar you'd probably be up for painting one too.
3. You can shoot nitro over poly, but if you do you can forget about relicing anything other than the nitro topcoat.
4. Credibly ageing a guitar barely involves any sandpaper at all, and not in the way you'd think. You can e.g. use a high grit to flat off a gloss finish before bringing it back up to a more naturally uneven shine. You do not, repeat not, use it to remove paint down to the wood over sharp corners of the guitar body, because that looks like shit. To achieve that you use other tools and chemicals.
5. Relicing a guitar is as much about changing the colour and the texture of the finish as it is damaging it. This is why you want to start with a nitro finish. Nitro is soft and porous and will absorb stain and new colour and allow you to alter its surface properties in a way that polyester will not. You can fake it a bit with polyester but it will never look as good.
6. You also need to think about the hardware, because an old-looking, beat-up guitar with shiny new hardware is a dead giveaway.
7. Give it a go, and even if you mess it up you can strip it and start over. It's a 90s Fender, not an original Vermeer, so don't be precious about it.

8. I've set this one apart because this is the secret that most people flogging their awful homebrew "relics" on ebay don't get. Relicing is not two or three things you do to a guitar in one day. Relicing is about a dozen separate processes, each of which involves hundreds of individual actions, and as such a successful relic job can take you days, even weeks. This is because you're trying to replicate the effect of the guitar being touched, handled, taken in and out of a case, on or off a stand, slightly knocked with rings and jack ends and beer bottles and slightly scratched with string ends and sharp fingernails and picks and belt buckles and so on and so on a gazillion individual times over thirty, forty, fifty years, and exposed to a million hours of sunlight and sharp and less sharp changes in heat and humidity and cigarette smoke and air pollution and a thousand different kinds of dust and dirt, and then the chemicals in human bodies, the oils and acids that seep out of our skins and end up all over guitars, the particles of hair and dead skin... I could go on. And ONLY THEN do you get into the actual damage. You can "relic" a guitar without making a single dent in it. This is why you should refinish your guitar in nitro before you do anything to it. Start with something you know can yield 100% of what you're trying to achieve.

mark123 · February 2020

tony99 said:

I'm also pondering my 60s classic player having a refin, but I'm wondering about stripping the poly off first.

I'm not bothered about relicing as such, but I'd like a nitro finished strat and I can't be arsed buying another as this (almost) ticks all boxes.

Is it worth me doing it??? What do we think chums???

I remember reading Neville Martin ex editor of Guitarist magazine done this ,He bought a rough classic player for about £350 ,stripped it back and sprayed it out of the can with white nitro ,aged it ,then a good set of pick ups and pots ,he was very happy with the results .

tony99 · February 2020

mark123 said:

tony99 said:

I'm also pondering my 60s classic player having a refin, but I'm wondering about stripping the poly off first.

I'm not bothered about relicing as such, but I'd like a nitro finished strat and I can't be arsed buying another as this (almost) ticks all boxes.

Is it worth me doing it??? What do we think chums???

I remember reading Neville Martin ex editor of Guitarist magazine done this ,He bought a rough classic player for about £350 ,stripped it back and sprayed it out of the can with white nitro ,aged it ,then a good set of pick ups and pots ,he was very happy with the results .

Any links? I'd be interested to read that

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