Guitar in tanning bed?

[EvilRobot]

Just one more thing guys do with their guitars to keep from playing them.

Well said!

 

[Controller]

Saw a thread about somebody using reptile lights ( yes, the ones you'd get @ a pet's store ) to age the finish on their Teles...

Instant Lizard-caster!

 

[broncstomper]

I have an affinity neck that I stuck in my wives tanning bed for three 45 minute sessions. I put a piece of tape on the headstock for comparison. I would take pictures and post them but "IT MADE NO DIFFERENCE". It did however stink like crazy for a while. Must have had some kind of oil on it. It sounded like reasonable plan but It would have to spend alot of time in the tanning bed. Maybe the finish needs to be exposed slower to fade properly. I have let it sit on the porch in the sun as often as i can and it made more of a difference than the tanning bed. Also the frets get very hot in the tanning bed and that can't be a good thing.(expanding and contracting). I would never put a good neck in the bed.

 

[telefunk]

Uh...just one question. This may sound stupid, BUT, why on earth would you want to do something like that anyway????

It should go something like this...1) buy a guitar that you like and a guitar that "likes you," if you know what I mean. 2) play the thing. 3) you both should compliment each other. 4) who cares what it looks like as long as it does the job and does it well??

I'm obviously getting cynical in my old age, but I guess I just have to shake my head and wonder about guys putting shoe polish on the necks of their guitars to make them look like they've been playing them for years instead of just playing them for years and letting them age naturally...or guys relicing them with a disc sander...or putting them in a tanning bed...or wrapping them up in a burlap bag full of 10-penny nails, broken glass, and cow manure, and then dragging them behind a pickup truck down a dirt road for 3 miles...ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

Sorry for my rant. As you can see, I'm from the old school of "Just Play Them and You Will Both Age Gracefully Together."

Okay, I know, I know....I'll shut up now.

#1 Right Dat !

 

[Rhomco]

I tried that and

I had third degree sunburn all over my body along with the distinct out line of a fender telecaster on my front side for six months
I might be kidding!

 

[PixMix]

I had third degree sunburn all over my body along with the distinct out line of a fender telecaster on my front side for six months
I might be kidding!

 

[Spider]

I still don't get why people like a relic'd guitar. It's never has impressed me to pay good hard earned money for a beat up "new" guitar. A relic'd guitar won't make you credible if you can't play. But I digress, there are people making big money beating up perfectly good guitars. What ever.

 

[PJ55]

Use a can of tinted nitro from StewMac or reRanch on those white Squier necks. Just tape the top of the frets with some pinstriping tape (from your local auto store) and put a few coats on that neck. A bench buffer is nice to have to even it out for final finish, but, that'll give those Affinity necks a whole new look.

 

[Durtdog]

Use a can of tinted nitro from StewMac or reRanch on those white Squier necks. Just tape the top of the frets with some pinstriping tape (from your local auto store) and put a few coats on that neck. A bench buffer is nice to have to even it out for final finish, but, that'll give those Affinity necks a whole new look.

Yeah, the look of urine yellow guitar neck. At least, that's what most of them look like to me.

 

[aunchaki]

Uh...just one question. This may sound stupid, BUT, why on earth would you want to do something like that anyway????

I have an Epiphone Hummingbirs acoustic. Nice guitar. I like it. Bright Cherry sunburst finish. On old Gibson Hummingbirds the (nitro) cherry finish has faded nicely (sometimes completely).

I'd love my (poly) cherryburst to fade like that. This spring I'm thinking of moving its stand to the window, so it gets a "tan." Tanning booth could work better.

Poly finished, won't face as easily as nitro finishes.

 

[Teleterr]

If you have access to a PET scanner that would be better still ;nothing like anti-matter to improve the finish.Or if you can use a nuclear reactor core Hard Neutrons would be better still. My Tele just happened to stop a Neutrino and its beautiful, but there's noway to duplicate that.

 

[Ringo]

re UV

My buddy has a MIM 50s RI Tele that he keeps at work in his office,it sits out on a stand and he leaves the flouresent lights on all the time. The neck on his guitar has turned a really nice shade of amber and it looks very natural. Uv?

 

[paulsoud]

If you have access to a PET scanner that would be better still ;nothing like anti-matter to improve the finish.Or if you can use a nuclear reactor core Hard Neutrons would be better still. My Tele just happened to stop a Neutrino and its beautiful, but there's noway to duplicate that.

 

[twangplank]

Poly is used because it doesnt darken as much. If you want the amber looking finish lacquer is the best material for that. Poly will get darker but it usually takes years!! My 1988 tele has just now started to get a truely nice amber hue but its still not the same as the old nitro.

Just play em. Most of that relicing looks fake anyway. Just my opinion.

 

[shotgunlew]

Alot of the les paul guys take em to the tanning beds to fade the nitro to replicate the burst of a guitar thats seen many years.

 

[fezz parka]

I have heard that some people think tanlines are sexy. On guitars maybe...

 

[paulsoud]

I have an aftermarket neck MM I think that was screaming pale maple. I have a sun porch on my house. Over the last few months I placed it on a table in the corner facing a southwest arc of the sun. There is a piece of tape on the screw area of the heel. After about four month ( winter sun no less) the neck is darker by quite a bit. Not heavy yellowed ect but not tourist in Mexico slug white anymore. If you don't have time try the tanning bed

Gary

Any idea if it has to be direct sunlight? I like the idea of the color change, but the tanning bed idea is ridiculous. Mine is in front of the window so there's light falling on it most of the time, just not a lot of it is direct rays.

 

[nadzab]

Alot of the les paul guys take em to the tanning beds to fade the nitro to replicate the burst of a guitar thats seen many years.

Seriously? Where did you hear that?

 

[Alex W]

as i said before I do not carry out this practice (proud owner of an NOS Nocaster here), but if you're looking for a source UV rays there is nothing more ridiculous about using a tanning bed than any other man made source of UV light.

Now putting your OWN body into one of those cancer machines, THAT'S ridiculous.

 

[FirstBassman]

The Rickenbacker Fireglo and Mapleglo finishes always look better with age and light exposure.