fender road worn vs. custom relics

From what I've heard, they're pretty subtle for relics. Nothing major. High quality, too. Hoping to try one out myself soon.

 

Ahahah

 

I have tried the guitars, they are alright. I think they look neat though.

 

I don't care much for them myself. Not that I have seen "reliced" basses by any brand other than Fender. Not including real relics, I love those

 

Standard relic'ing doesn't really take more than one hour of your life and a dollar worth of muriatic acid. Can't understand why pay hundreds extra for it...

 

^^^^ I'm pretty sure this isn't the case in reality.

 

I don't know why Fender don't release a 'Period correct' Series, like the Custom Shop 'Time Machine' Series.

Nitro paint, so a sort of 'DIY' Relic.

 

Believe me, it is... I've done it... Some steel wool, sand paper, a cigarette, a knife, muriatic acid and you're done in about an hour...

It can take more time if you decide to do drastic temperature changes to crack the finish or maybe use some staining techniques.

 

It can take even more time if you just play it. Years actually.

 

Oh man, nothing beats a natural relic. I've got a 69 Jazz here that's in good condition for the year. It plays and feels so nice...

 

My oldest bass is a 72 Ric that I (foolishly) refinished back in the mid-80s (because I wanted to turn my Fire Glo into Maple Glo).

But I'll say this -- the brand new '57 Fender AV P-bass I've had for just a little over a year is already looking like a "closet classic" and I could see it looking "reliced" on its own in probably just a few more years as often as I play it.

 

No kidding. I played 10 gigs per week for 3 years with my Lakland DJ5 and it still looks new.

 

I'm holding out for the "bad refin" series, 'cause that's what I always wind up with!

But seriously, where did you see this "submarine rudder" picture? The relicing in the images I've seen thus far looks fairly modest.

 

I've done that for years on some of my DIYs. I call it my RatRod finish. It's in the style of a late '60s/early '70s backyard refinishes I've seen around here for decades. It's really easy, just slap on shellac or varnish on a raw or previously stripped body without regard to precise application techniques. It wears very naturally with use.

Here's one when fresh:

 

For me, the worst example of "cookie-cutter" relic jobs is the Jaco Pastorius relic model from Fender. The wear looks ridiculously fake, like wear templates have been taped to the bass before painting. And to then charge three thousands dollars for it is a travesty, the guys at the Custom Shop should be ashamed of it. In fact, I think they might be, because it doesn't seem to exist on Fender's website any more.

I don't care if it's the best playing bass ever, the relic job absolutely sucks!!

 

I believe you did it and hell...I believe that a relic job can be done in 15 minutes if you like.

But just because you did it doesn't mean it looked good or at all believable. There is a talent to it and 95% of the home relic jobs you see on ebay are absolute garbage.

Now I am not saying yours was garbage because I never saw it...I am jsut saying that it is very very hard to do a relic job and have it look real. Fender custom shop does not get it right all of the time either.

I really think the key is minor wear. The more wear that is put on the larger chance of it looking fake. But that is why I believe if you like the relic look it pays to get it done right.

I don't think the wear on these really looks fake as much as it looks like they are all the same. Does anyone have any other pictures showing different wear? The ones on Musicians Friend all have the same wear pattern.

 

Let's gather Road Worn images here. After all, no pics, no real/fake looking wear, right?

 

The alternating pictures above would indicate this is not the case. The "wear" is definitley similar between the two, but not identical. I imagine this opened up an issue for Fender anyway. How do you maintain consistency with a product and yet not make it identical? So, you get what we have, very close approximations of the same idea, without being exact. I'm not sure how else they were expected to do it.

Mike