Accidental relic: The Scottocaster.

[Benjamin Strange]

Normally my roommate, Scott Morgan, is an incredible luthier and tech. However, even the best of us are prone to making incredibly stupid mistakes. The story:

Scott has been working on aging guitars, experimenting with various techniques. Lately, he's been working on getting nitro finishes to check, trying various ways of heating and cooling the finish to the point where they expand and contract and then creating tiny little cracks throughout the finish. After trying quite a few different ideas with not very good results, he attempts something a little more drastic. He takes the body of his Eric Johnson signature Strat (a gift from his brother, incidentally), and sticks it in the freezer overnight. The next day, he pulls it straight out of the freezer and puts it into the oven. Perhaps he didn't quite have his thinking cap on straight that day, because instead of setting the oven at a reasonable temperature, he sets it for 600 degrees. Only 30 seconds later, a giant black cloud of smoke comes billowing out of the oven, reeking of chemicals. We quickly yank the strat body out of the oven, set it down, and clear the hell out of the house for a while. We head down to the local bar, have a couple of drinks, and come back to a house that only slightly smells of death.

The nitro finish had burned. It bubbled up and looked like a burnt marshmallow. The front didn't get too back, but the back was almost gone. We scraped off the marshmallow, cleaned it off, and lo and behold - the body looks pretty damn cool. Well, Scott just ruined a body of a $2200 guitar, and of course had to call his brother to confess what he did, but we figured we'd go the whole hog and relic it up.

We changed the pickguard and knobs, which we aged with coffee. We ordered a giant Warmoth neck without the frets installed, so we could do the work ourselves. We added a Jesus neckplate, and I designed a new logo for the headstock. We're still in process of making the headstock reliced to match the body, but here's the results so far:








(This is the logo I designed. It's a perfect clone of the 50's logo and script, with some fun changes. It says "Fender Scottocaster", "With Bastardized Tremelo", and "Custom Charbroiled Body".)

This has become our favorite strat around the house. More pics as it develops.

[cheesemonkey]

Lmao thats pretty cool... almost wrecked a kickass guitar but... that is pretty sweet lookin...

[TheSuzie]

Looks cool but please don't invite me over for home made pizza...

[bigtexashonk]

Tell Scott it's alot easier to check a nitro finish with a can of compressed air.

[smperry]

Wow...
I hope your lungs are alright.

M

[funkalicious101]

Oh no!!! Dont let me see this, I just bought an '07 American Tele... I might get some ideas....

[Mark Wilson]

note to self : Try this.

[Benjamin Strange]

Originally Posted by bigtexashonk

Tell Scott it's alot easier to check a nitro finish with a can of compressed air.

We tried that. Not very good results at all.

[Matt Till]

Looks pretty sweet, I never got too into the "relic" thing, but as far as that goes, it looks pretty awesome.

[dave64o]

Personally, I just don't get the whole relic'ing thing but if that's your thing then go ahead and enjoy yourself.

But I kind of like how you made the most of a bad situation here. If this guitar survived that kind of treatment and is still a player then it's definitely worth salvaging.

[Trevorus]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Strange

We tried that. Not very good results at all.

You did turn it upside down, right? Get the liquid to come out which is super cold. I do like the freezer idea, but I would have used a hair drier on high to heat it back up, not an oven... Or the back window of a car in the sun...

[steve21]

That came out pretty bitchin' ass.

[Benjamin Strange]

Originally Posted by Trevorus

You did turn it upside down, right? Get the liquid to come out which is super cold. I do like the freezer idea, but I would have used a hair drier on high to heat it back up, not an oven... Or the back window of a car in the sun...

Yup, did that too. Not really sure what Scott was thinking, but it turned out great, so no complaints really.

[elpezpr]

Whyyyyyyyyyyy?

[Rattman]

Originally Posted by Matt Till

Looks pretty sweet, I never got too into the "relic" thing, but as far as that goes, it looks pretty awesome.

No way does that poor guitar look "cool".. the whole 'relic' look is forced and pretencious at best, and irresponsible vandalism at worst... Whats wrong with taking care of things? If they age.. then they age.. naturally and in their good intended time to do so.

[Matt Till]

Originally Posted by Rattman

No way does that poor guitar look "cool".. the whole 'relic' look is forced and pretencious at best, and irresponsible vandalism at worst... Whats wrong with taking care of things? If they age.. then they age.. naturally and in their good intended time to do so.

I don't think you can vandalize something you own.


Furthermore, if you noticed, relicing the guitar wasn't his intentions, it was an accident he's making the best of. I don't baby my bass, so it's received a few battle scars... I'm not going to take a belt sander to the spot where my hands are a majority of the time to look like I wore the finish off.

I know it comes off as morbid/goth when I say it, but I like the look of decay. It's a visualization of time, or at least history. Something existing in the real world instead of sealed behind glass. I don't like it for any morbid reasons, I like it more for hippie/horray for nature kicking our asses reasons, I suppose. But this is in the naturally aging that you mentioned. I know the whole relic thing is totally artificial, and I agree "forced and pretentious." I certainly wouldn't buy that guitar, but I like the way wood looks like after it's been slightly burnt. So, unfortunately, that guitar does look "cool," in my opinion.

Frankly, I hate it when people take guitars/basses so seriously! It's wood and metal, get over it.