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Rickenbacker relic advice

msb

msb

Jul 3, 2002
4,292
7,608
Halifax,N,S. Canada
#1
So were playing the other week and I got distracted by a rather large floppy blonde jumping all over the place . I spun around and smacked headstocks with a guitar player and sure enough put a little ding on the headstock . ( he was distracted by the blonde rig too ) I'm thinking it might be cool to go all the way , break out the dremel and try a little relic job on the Ric . I found a bunch of videos on banging up Fenders but there doesn't seem to be any out there for Rics .

Any advice , tricks , tips or trouble I might get into ? I want it to look as if it's been played a whole lot . Right now it's just got one measely little ding on the headstock .
 
#4
You'll probably regret it, imo. I haven't seen many if any home relics that looked realistic. It's just going to look like you assaulted it with power tools. I'd just get over the ding, play it out more and let it wear naturally.

Sorry, I know you weren't asking for opinions on whether or not you should do it, but it sounds like you haven't really thought about this a lot.
 
#6
Just play it a lot.
Artificial relicing will ruin it's resale value.
The finish will eventually wear in the right places, but it takes time to do it naturally.
Doing a convincing relic job takes a lot of skill and quite a bit of talent.

Rick finishes are a clearcoat over paint. Not nearly as tough as poly finish, but not as fragile as nitro.
 
#7
I'm thinking of making it look as if Stevie Ray Vaughn played the living bejeesus out of it in divey bars for eons .

Spurred on by big bouncy blondes jumping all around him .

Maybe some head sized dings on the back where he might have whacked somebody with it for trying to take something out of the tip jar ....
 
#18
Please don't. No matter what kind of bass it would have been. Do what I've done: play it honestly for over 20 years and let it patina naturally. Dings and warts are part of gigging. Let the instrument tell its own story without being tarted up or dumbed down artificially.
 
#20
Hey man, it's your bass - I won't tell you what to do with it. That said, find out whatever info you can about the particular finish that Rick uses and also look up the specs on the hardware - that way you know what you're dealing with as far as types of metal, finish composition, etc. Then get as many pictures of Ricks that look similar to what you want yours to look like. Once you have all that gathered, you can formulate a plan to get yours looking like that. Plan ahead, because a $%&$%^& up relic just looks like a &^&*^%^&$ up relic....not a cool old bass.
 

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