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Relicing- Faking experience/credibility?

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#42
I have read here on TB that the Roadworn Fenders are very nice playing basses. If thats the case, then the relicing is just added whatever (mojo?)
I'm not a big fan of relicing, but I am a bigger believer in "play what you like, like what you play"
don't matter what I think of your bass, and it sure doesn't matter to me what you think of mine.
 
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#46
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#47
Jonithen said:
Most places in the US don't have smoke-filled bars. Most gigs aren't happing with soulful, skilled players, anti-social punks, or metal heads. Unless you are actually trying to misrepresent an instrument as vintage and take advantage of someone, it isn't about fooling anyone.



Is it fraud if you repaint your house or car, change the windows / get new tires? You're making it look a lot newer than it probably is. All those years of weather, and here you are fraudulently making it look pristine. Grass grows, you aren't fooling anyone with that mowed lawn.
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Dammit...I put a lot of time and effort into mowing my lawn (like 45 minutes, sitting down with headphones on and partially drunk).
 
#48
Not for nothing, but this whole argument has been beaten to death to the point where it's only fun for insecure people who worry more about what their bass does or doesn't look like than actually focusing on what's important: music. That goes for parties on both sides. Get real, move along, it's a freakin tool. Wanna paint your hammer all pretty pink? Ga' head. Wanna beat it against a rock so you can fool your father in law that you actually use it? Ga'head.
 
#50
What are most relics? Recreations of 1950's Precision and early 1960's Jazz basses. Why? Because they are hard to find and difficult afford.

How hard is it to grasp why relics were produced? There are a bunch of Fender guys out there who would love to have a pre-CBS Fender bass, but they either can't be found or afforded. The originals have all been bought up! Get it?!

Ain't nobody trying to fake no damned mojo.
 
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#51
I have a reliced Sandberg and that's the guitar I bring to rehearsals and such... Neck is sanded and smooth to play and you are never worried about bumps or scratches or anything, you just focus on playing.

Personaly I like my guitars to be heavy reliced or completely pristine, not so in the middle, but hey I'm a Gemini :yawn:
 
#52
I really like the looks of a relicd bass, wether it be natural, over the years relicd or of a relic job I would want the relicd feel of tje intrument for sure. If it doesnt feel like it then its useless to me.
 
#54
Ant Illington said:
maybe some kid will read this thread and think "maybe I don't need to buy more fluff to become successful and look cool." Or maybe, I'm totally wrong- maybe I'm not more successful because I didn't buy enough reliced stuff. Nope, it's because I didn't practice enough.
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I think your heart is in the right place with that sentiment but "kids gonna be kids" and you just can't stop that no matter what. And I grew up with many quite musically adept young musicians who loved to spite whatever "older" people thought they should do just to be rebellious. So if you thought they shouldn't use a so called "reliced" instrument they might go do it anyway just to stick it in your face. :laugh:

But I just heard a rumor that both Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles were heavy into relicing so it could indeed be much "cooler" than I had ever personally thought.:smug::cool::bassist:
 
#57
I'm not sure I entirely get the point. But hey, enough people like it for it to be commercially viable for most major manufacturers, so make of that what you will. I prefer organic mojo :D but to each his or her own!
 
#58
Ant Illington said:
I just saw the thread of the Stingray/Sabre on CL and, consequently, that nice, beat up, darkened, old fingerboard. I wish I had such a worn in bass that I wore in myself thru decades of working with it in gritty, cigarette-smoke-filled bars, filled with the smell of booze and grease-cooked food; jamming with soulful, skilled players or anti-social punks and metal heads. Of course, relicing fools no other musicians these days so no harm/no foul and, in my experience, its always freely talked about among friends. However, ultimately, it's about both immediate gratification for the musician-buyer and for the subsequent defrauding of the 99%'ers who are likely to think that he is something that he is not.

Sure, relicing can look cool (edit: and if you're into doing it, cool, you're an artist!)

But we almost never relic (edit: buy reliced) our cars, houses, boats, girlfriends, wives, motorcycles, suits or other accoutrements of our awesome lives/experience/success. So why relic instruments? (edit: I should say, why BUY new, reliced instruments? I mistakenly thought my post was clear in this matter since I was approaching it from a consumerism aspect as this contemplation of mine all started from the concept of the cool, old worn out Stingray/Sabre thread- I apologize to all of the drama I caused for the artists here who relic their own instruments).

Why (edit: buy reliced) relic the instruments but not the other stuff where "non-used" is the indicator of success and hard work in your field? Answer: relicing is the hope of mischaracterizing one's experience/awesomeness to the 99%'ers. Yeah, you can say it just looks cool, and it does, but it's really just trying to buy experience that one doesn't have. Marketing people have tapped into it and sold it to you. I can see collectors buying reliced stuff in tribute to their idols but regular musicians using relics in public? C'mon, it's an attempt at relatively harmless fraud but, worse, it's quite Kardashian to buy into it in the first place.

Edit after 4 replies or so: sure, period-looking guitars for high-end tribute shows where people are buying for the full-immersion experience. Got it. Bar band playing assorted covers? Not quite. You play the songs well, nobody except the 1% care (actually, even many of us musicians don't care), or even notice, what you're playing. I kind of thought that the tone of my post implied that this was a contemplation of consumerism and wannabe'ism (both of which I may fall under) and not a shot at actual working musicians using the required tool for the theatrics they are being well-paid for.

Ima go try and naturally dirty up neck of my shiny 2013 Stingray5 bass now so people can almost enjoy the show next time I sub playing old soul and Motown. Fortunately for the audience, a couple of songs were originally done on Stingrays so at least 2 songs will be enjoyable to people, as much as a 3 band 5 string can be enjoyd in place of a 2 band 4 string. See, anybody can hyperbolize and take things to extremes.

Again, try not to mischaracterize my words/intent- maybe some kid will read this thread and think "maybe I don't need to buy more fluff to become successful and look cool." Or maybe, I'm totally wrong- maybe I'm not more successful because I didn't buy enough reliced stuff. Nope, it's because I didn't practice enough.
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You can blame Keith Richards - he started all this. :)
 
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