Best way to give a guitar a worn vintage look?

[ccrnnr9]

Originally Posted by mellecaster

Sorry not to join in with the many naysayers addressing your question...you're a fairly young guy who wants an inexpensive guitar that he can have fun with, and make it look distressed...is that about right ?...Buy some Green 3M scrubber pads for the kitchen, that will knock the Gloss off of the Poly (as much as you wish)...do your Vintage tuners and metal parts with some etchant solution from Radio Shack..a sheet of #120 Sandpaper, and have some fun !
Poly it's true will not look as authentic as a Lacquer Relic job...but it will chip quite easily...and there are plenty of Poly guitars that are Beat all to Hell from just playing them....I know folks that own them...so go forward in your quest, and have Fun doin it...That's my take on your question.......

Thanks for the input! And thank you to everyone who has put some other input in for me. I know most of you will roll your eyes at my willingness to continue through with my "crazy" idea but IMO it can't hurt to try...especially not on a $99 guitar. If I ruin the body, I ruin the body and I get a replacement.

That being said, I will post back with my progress. On a seperate note, how does Catalyzed Urethane compare to poly finish? I notice that the guitar bodies sold at guitarfetish.com are cheap yet come with a Catalyzed Urethane finish which they describe as thin and similar in appearance and thickness to a laquer. Any input is appreciated!
~Nick

[a.miller]

A great resource is reranch.com/reranch for all sorts of finishing questions. However, with one of the finishes like the $99 guitars have, it is very unlikely you'll achieve satisfactory results. Speaking from experience.

[goldtopper]

Put all of the metal parts in some muriatic acid found at hardware stores. This aged my tele parts reall good. Make sure you have a fan going if you do it in a garage. The fumes are nasty! I know this because my shotgun's slug barrel was on the back of my workbench and now looks like a 28" corndog.

[BAW4742]

Along with the advice given here you might want to check out the resource section for some relicing ideas.

http://www.tdpri.com/resourceRELICING.htm

Get several pictures of Frusciante's guitar and try to replicate the wear areas and dings on it. It doesn't look like its all that beat up from the clip that you posted.

Have fun!

[t2t80]

Listen, There is NO WAY to make your poly squire to looks like the john f. strat. Just dont even try. You will mess it up and it will look really bad, and then when everyone see's it, you will have to explain how you messed it up and you will get embarresed all over again. You could play that squire for 50 years, and still not have it look like a relic. The finish on that guitar is made specifically NOT TO WEAR OUT. If you really want a relic, buy a nitro finished body off ebay, swap out the neck hardware and pickgaurd, and then play the hell out of it for 10 years. In my opinion, the ONLY way to get a relic, is to EARN it. You have to play it, and love it, and if you do that, eventually you might have a guitar to be proud of. To me, relicing a guitar is just like telling a lie.

[Strawfields]

Get a heroin habit, sell it to a pawnbrokers and get Flea to secretly buy it back for you..

Only kidding

[johnnytronics]

Originally Posted by Rocks

My grandson does all the relicing around here. He can relic anything in days. His tools of choice are hotwheels, wood blocks and sticky hands. He works for french fries, much less than you'd spend on sandpaper to do it yourself. let me know if you'd like him to take a whack at it (litterally) I can personally gaurantee no two jobs will look the same.

Very funny! Made my evening!

[Rif Raf]

What Monterey pop!
Try the Townsend method first if that does not work then try the Hendrix way!
Lighter fluid works great. Burn off that poly.

Actually its more trouble than it is worth with that type of guitar, you would have strip it then re shoot it with nitro and then start the relic process and the razer blades and all..Or send it to me ... along with 1500 clams

kidding no spam here......

[Rocks]

Agreed, the poly chips but doesn't relic well. You see bare wood with no color at all where it chipped. Like others have said you'd have to strip it to bare wood, finish it with nitro and then relic it.

That said, unlike others I won't discourage or encourage you to do this. This all depends on if you really want to learn how to refinish a guitar, shoot nitro, etc. The way I see it is if everyone that was told they couldn't do something gave up we'd still be driving horse and buggies with no TV, no tube amps, no electricity, no airplanes, etc.

[superchicken_VI]

Far be it from me to tell you not to do this--it's your guitar. I will say, I think you can probably ding it up a bit but not really get it to look like an old Fender. What you'll probably get will look like a beat up Squier--but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I think you'd probably be more successful if you were trying to achieve something more outlandish, rather than something subtle. Stencils or stickers and make it your own. Better yet, put on an off-the-wall pickguard and mismatched knobs and covers...Do something that's out-there and then play the heck out of it. You could even get a vinyl decal made out of the lyrics or music to one of your favorite or signature songs.

[pengipete]

Despite what many people say, a poly finished guitar will age - it will just age differently. It will still get plenty of chips and the surface will show dents but you won't see the sort of rub-through that characterises a genuine 40-50 year old guitar.

If you are looking to recreate an expensive vintage guitar then it ain't going to happen. If you want a guitar that might be worth something in a few years time try to remember that with the exception of a handful of famous guitars the most valuable guitars are the ones that survived in the best possible condition.

Fifty years from now it will be the few guitars that survived in original condition that will be desirable rather than the one that have been "personalised". Buyers and collecters expect to see normal wear and tear but it has to be in keeping with the age of the guitar otherwise it is just damage.

Play it and let it age in it's own sweet time - show the poor thing a bit of respect.

[Rombel]

Hey dude?
It's your money, it's your guitar.
You didn't ask how to relic a vintage closet find Strat, we're talking a $99 beater.
Have fun, try some stuff, some you'll like, some you'll be sorry for and will want to repair. So what? Knock yourself out.

The main goal is: keep playing guitar.

[BigDaveyTwinkle]

Having just read the story of Joe Strummer's tobacco burst telecaster going to the body shop for belt sander time and gray automobile primer, I'm just thinking ... Enjoy your guitar, whatever your decide!

[Easydog]

Im on meelecasters side.

And YES to the etchant solution. Definately. Been there done that. It works, but try it on a practice piece or 2 first. I just bought an extra cheap neckplate for $4.

[Aronkovacs]

Actually, you cant make a relic from a professionally painted guitar. If you scratc it, there is white stucc under it. and that will be really hard to scratch off. Only "thinskin" finish orr sunburst will come off easily.

[Warren Pederson]

Use Kiwi Medium Brown shoe polish on the maple. Other than that just toss it on the floor when you're done playing, or under the bed, or in the back of your pickup.

[imsilly]

A relic is as authentic as the method used to produce the wear. With a modern poly guitar the best advice I've read so far would be just to play the heck out of it and not really care about how you look after it.

I have a friend who brings a spare Squire much like the one you are describing as a backup to every gig he does. It never gets any real use, but is dirtier and older looking then his main guitar. After a few years of being handed around to be carried home by random drunk people and used from unpromptued rehearsals on buses or the floors of random bars it does look reliced. Sure the relicing may not be a pretty as a full nitro guitar from the 50s, none of that lovely arm-wear or checking, but it definately doesn't look fake. I think one secret is just the pure dirt caked onto the thing.

[jjkrause84]

Originally Posted by Tele295

1. Throw away the case

2. Play the heck out of it

+1

Authenticity...a musician's saving grace

[PeterUK]

I generally ignore these type of posts because they normally disintegrate into purile comments about how relics are lame and people who play them are out to prove something, blah, blah....

The OP asked how he could age a cheap F-copy and give it that worn look like John Frusciante's Red Strat. This one:



We've had the prerequisite "drag it behind a truck" and "play the heck out of it over the next N-years" but perhaps the most informed answer is Paul's simply answering it can't be done. You can't take a thickly poly-coated cheap, or indeed, expensive guitar and create the type of thing he's after. It took me over four years to create my Broadcaster replica but it ended up having a professional finish by a guy who restores - and can fool the experts - originals. He occasionally offers finish work and I was lucky enough to get him to finish and AGE my guitar which has received accolades from people who know, e.g. Nacho and Bill Hullett (and many more).

The reason, however, I decided to post this time is because of this comment:

Originally Posted by imsilly

A relic is as authentic as the method used to produce the wear.

and without requoting it the value of the sentence could be lost.

Call it what you like: aging, aged finish, antique finishing, relic-ing or whatever, but to recreate the look and vibe (mojo? Never really understood what that meant ) is a skill - some would argue an art - and is devalued by comments like "drag it behind a truck", etc. I know that these comments are made in jest and designed to bring a smile (they always do to me because as I click on the thread I have a small wager with myself that someone has posted such a comment ) but does John Frusciante's Strat look like it has been dragged behind a truck?

An authentic, expert-fooling relic finish is as hard to achieve as the beautiful glossy finish on a new guitar, and as we have seen, difficult to replicate and impossible to recreate on the modern thick poly finishes.

The vandalism - often seen on eBay and frequently on these pages - should not be described as relics but simply vandalism. Anyone who starts off with a perfectly good MIA, MIJ or MIM guitar and sets about grinding away at the finish should simply be described as a vandal.

And yes, I realise that my attempt here to legitimise the art of creating aged finishes is a waste of time, but this is my annual attempt to release the frustration of the same old purile comments of such threads.

In fact, I've changed my mind. To the OP, drag your guitar behind a truck. It'll look just like JF's.

Peter

[flathd]

ccrnnr9,

The poly red is too difficult to relic. Why not start out with the butterscotch/woodgrain Squire, scuff or sand lightly... and give it a coat of red krylon spray can? or red nitro if it is compatable with the original finish.

The finish would be scuffed-up and nicked in about a month of playing, and you would have the wood grain showing through the worn areas.