Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Anti-Relicing thread
- Thread starter emor
- Start date
- Status
What is the difference then between buying a "relic" and buying a "vintage bass with some wear" ?
Either way you didn't put the "battle scars" on the instrument.
Are people who buy and play vintage instruments just as lame as someone who buys and plays a relic ?
Engine207
Losing faith in humanity...one call at a time.
You got me there! If I even attempted to take a photo, it would be the end of my enjoyment of the aforementioned exquisiteness!!
So either you have to take me at my word or I'm a liar!!!
Back to the subject, my opinion of appearance is different. I place a high value on keeping my basses as pristine as possible - right down to my 29 year old Ric. I get pissed at myself over every ding and scratch. They're all in awesome condition because I keep them that way through regular cleaning and maintenance. I guess this goes to an earlier post that the manner in which I care for my valued property is a direct reflection of how much they mean to me.
As a hobbyist bass player, I play about an hour a day for my own enjoyment and occasionally jam with friends in my home studio. "Gigs" are unpaid block parties. No posing here at all. One look at my gear and it's obvious that I have OCD, a regular day job, and haven't toured for 20 years!
Good for you. It would be silly for me to care, or get offended by it though. Again, I'm not attacknig you
We cool. This is nothing to fight about, anyway. I just wanted to respond and make my position clear. I really do enjoy seeing vintage equipment and instruments that have been well cared for.
I think that both reliced basses and boob jobs are great, as long as they're done right. When done right, you don't know that you're looking at something that's been re-worked... you just think it's a vintage bass, or a nice rack... if you do know right away that it's a boob job or a relic job, then it was done poorly and it looks dumb. When done well - both look GREAT!
my $.02
Plus, who says an old beat up bass gives someone instant cred. When I see a "relic" whether it's been on the road for the last 50 years or it was prepared, the first thing I think is man, what an old bass. What's this guy doing with it for it to look like that? I then wait to hear them play and make a judgement on that.
That would be like seeing an Ampeg Fridge and SVT and assuming that the owner is a pro player when any jerk can buy one. Does that make the person who owns the Stack a poser because that has been the classic image of a touring musician since the 60's/70's?
If people like it then who cares. Find something else to gripe about like world issues, depleting resources, genocide and such.
That would be like seeing an Ampeg Fridge and SVT and assuming that the owner is a pro player when any jerk can buy one. Does that make the person who owns the Stack a poser because that has been the classic image of a touring musician since the 60's/70's?
If people like it then who cares. Find something else to gripe about like world issues, depleting resources, genocide and such.
I have to applaud your courage for starting a thread with the title "Anti-Relicing".
Some TBers really, really take this serious. I see the same TBers defending people's choices to do what they want to their own instruments, most people already get that point. (over and over)
That being said there are alot of things that each of us just look at from our walk of life, and our point of view and just find it to silly or stupid.
Here are a few examples that I find silly
1.) Dressing your dog in clothing.
2.)Tattooing your face.
3.) Putting a rear spoiler on a Hyundai.
4.) Faking wear/age on a new instrument.
I am sure every TBer has things they think are silly or stupid. For every person that likes something there is someone who doesn't.
I think I covered that point earlier. If you buy an instrument for it's playability, sound, etc, then you're buying an instrument, be it genuine or relic. If you're buying it because of the way it looks, then you're buying an image. I think it's just more unlikely that a road worn would happen to play better than a non-road worn, whereas it's quite possible that an old vintage bass MIGHT be a better player or whatever than a brand new, pristine one.
If people don't like it then who cares. Find something else to gripe about like world issues, depleting resources, genocide and such.
Works both ways.
Just saying, we are all bass players here. It' shouldn't matter what the other guy or gal is playing on, more so that they are doing the action.
"real" road worn relics aren't lame ... somebody played them for years ..... even if it wasn't the current owner.
A scar with a story behind it is a battle scar .... a scar made by a hammer or a sander is just a scar.
However, what you just said there goes against most "anti-relic" peoples main argument - that the owner didn't put the time in to wear on it.
By what you're saying, it's not lame at all when a beginning punk bass player buys a old Fender because he likes how it looks, because the bass is genuinely old - right ?
What's your point comparing basses and women? Basses are tools. Women are humans?
Why we don't eat orange apples?
I'm not sure it's possible to truly understand why some of us dislike "fake" relic'ing until you've played a long time.... then again age may have nothing to do with it.
I suspect a lot of us will never agree on this subject & that's fine ....
I'm 40 years old and have played for 31 years. I started playing in bars when I was 14.
Absolutely. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. All in all, a really cool thread.
So far, it's been no problem for me to spot the "relic-ed" from the relics, and it's funny that you bring in the boob job comparison: they just don't look natural.
This fad of relic-ing an instrument really confused me when I first encountered it, as I didn't understand why you would take a new instrument and purposefully age it. But in the end it is just another shallow attempt to use money to acquire something that isn't real.
No, the instrument is not a few decades old, and is not "aged" or "improved".
No, the owner has not owned and played that instrument to this point of wear.
But, with money and self-important malice, I could F**K up an instrument just enough to make a bunch of easily impressed nobody's believe that it's something else. It's sad shallowness: you can't buy real mojo.
This fad of relic-ing an instrument really confused me when I first encountered it, as I didn't understand why you would take a new instrument and purposefully age it. But in the end it is just another shallow attempt to use money to acquire something that isn't real.
No, the instrument is not a few decades old, and is not "aged" or "improved".
No, the owner has not owned and played that instrument to this point of wear.
But, with money and self-important malice, I could F**K up an instrument just enough to make a bunch of easily impressed nobody's believe that it's something else. It's sad shallowness: you can't buy real mojo.
- Status
