To be worn or not to be worn

[Chicken Wing]

I’ve owned 3 relic’ed basses. Two Nash’s and a fender road worn P. To me it felt a bit disingenuous but I enjoyed the instruments while I owned them. Not for me though. Here’s a heavy relic Nash JB75

 

[BlueTalon]

What brings me joy is playing my current bass for 36-years now and about the only thing you can see on it that shows its age is that the Olympic White has mellowed to almost a butter cream shade of white. I bought it in 1985 in absolutely mint condition (it's an 82). The pickup covers were still in their plastic and had never been mounted. I was working PT at a music store and the time and the fellow taking it in on trade put those pickup covers right into our accessory case to sell separately.I probably should take the screws to the pickguard out and polish the heads up, but outside of that it looks great.

My 3-pickup jazz came from Warmoth with a shiny gloss black finish (and tough & durable, as it turns out). After playing it regularly for about 8 years, it has a few little dings, but the main sign of wear is the matted area where my fingernails have dinged the glossy surface below the strings. I think it looks pretty cool.

 

[Ruknrole]

I don’t mind me some nice fake roadware if nicely done!

 

[Lowendchamp]

Just to clarify, I meant no disrespect to anyone nor did I ever say that a relic or roadworn finish is ugly. I have already been smacked by the mods here and do not wish to be banished. I just wanted to share an opinion and see reactions nothing more. Thank you for your time.

 

[lermgalieu]

So don’t buy one

 

[fishdude101101]

So I can't help but notice the past decade that Fender specifically tends to push these signature series instruments that get a "roadworn" finish and charge a premium for them, even going so far as to charge more for it in a custom or master build. So as far as I can tell that would be cool for collectors that want art, especially when the time is taken to replicate the original instruments wear for the signatures. What about the players? I want to put wear on that instrument myself through time, you know? I just feel like the roadworn finish is the same as getting new jeans with the knees already blown out, a rip off. That is just my opinion maybe some people can jump in there and tell me why it's cool or assure me that it doesn't effect the sound or prematurely end a bass' life.

Well, instruments with polyurethane finishes l, like most of them nowadays are never going to wear through like an old nitro finish.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

When someone asks you to tell them the story about the wear marks on your axe....what do you say?
I paid extra for em??

 

[asparaguspee]

I'm selling my "roadworn" car if anyone's interested.

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. Don’t really see why there are 3 pages of this. Hell, I don’t even know why this thread exists. Another waste of space on the TB home page.

 

[Jeff K]

I've been playing my Lull P4 steadily for about 16 years. From more than a foot away, you would swear it's new.

That's me as well. I've had (and have) nitro-finished basses, and they never seem to age. I DO take care of my basses, but I'm not fanatical about it.

It might have something to do with body chemistry. Remember Rory Gallagher's Strat? He had a rare blood type and some say because of that his sweat was unusually acidic, which contributed to the finish-loss on his Strat. So maybe some people's sweat "ages" an instrument more quickly than others. I sweat a lot; but oddly enough, my hands almost never sweat.

 

[james condino]

The irony is that I would never buy a new instrument relic'd, but I always prefer it with a vintage refin....

 

[bobyoung53]

I'm old enough to remember when beat basses were just that, beat basses. You got a lot less money when you sold them. I traded a Tele bass for an approximately 1968 CAR fretless P bass in 1977. I'm not sure of the age of the neck, it was an early rosewood fretless neck which I destroyed with Rotosounds so i put a '66 J neck on it which was on it for probably 19 years. The bass was in pretty good shape, even had one of those plastic form fitting things they used to sell to keep the back of your bass looking new. It had some slight wear where the first bassist who bought it new rested his plucking arm.
I owned it for about twenty years and by the time I sold it, it was very worn especially where I rested my plucking arm, it went right down to the bare wood for probably three or four inches around and you could see all three different paint colors, red/gold/white kind of feathered like it had been fine sanded. The neck also had a lot of paint worn down to the wood on both sides under the fretboard. I used to occasionally polish this bass and I didn't abuse it, I just played a lot, it had some dents here and there. I permanently attached a home made leather strap with two big wood screws and big washers . But the wear looked natural, I see very few artificially reliced basses that look real after knowing what a real worn bass looks like.
I have seen a few though but these basses that look like they were dragged behind a pickup truck and then attacked by a chainsaw in no way look real , seriously, who the hell would do that to a bass? We used to try to keep our basses looking as good as they could look. My 68 was Nitro, I still like Nitro better, it feels better, poly feels like plastic to me although I do have a few, and two of my three Fenders have nitro finishes but I try to keep them up.
I guess whatever floats your boat though.

 

[Ihaveshingles]

I've seen some relic'd basses I'd be happy to own, usually Fender clones for fair prices, and the thing is, I'll be dead before any of my new basses look like this, so why not buy one?
You want to know the funniest thing about relic'd basses?
Other bassists who get all up in arms about it.
Seriously, that entire "Country Club" attitude is even sillier than bassists putting down acoustic basses.
(By the way, not saying you're one of them.)

LOL so it’s elitist or “country club” to think that buying a bass at brand new price that someone scratched the crap out of at the factory is completely insane?

How's that working for you? Got a really nice wear spot through the finish where your arm rests on the bass?

Do you refinish a bass if you buy it used so that you can put your own wear on it?

I have a 90's strat that was my main guitar for 10 years; literally thousands of hours of playing time. It still looks new from a few feet away. Anyone that knows anything about modern finishes knows that they don't wear like the old ones do. You could play it for 50 years and it wouldn't have worn through the poly finish.

So because they actually use good finishes now that last forever and don’t wear out that’s why you have to buy a road worn so it looks worn out like the old ones did even though it’s not an actual authentic vintage bass?
Fender should call them their
Fake Vintage Series

 

[DJ Bebop]

Have at it!!!

That's nothing...


Road worn!

 

[bobyoung53]

Well, instruments with polyurethane finishes l, like most of them nowadays are never going to wear through like an old nitro finish.

A friend of mine has a black 1977 fretless Fender Precision he bought new, half of the front of the bass is all worn off where he lays his arm except that it looks very different from a worn nitro finish, the edges where it goes back to paint almost look like plastic that is peeling, Nitro edges are very smooth like it's been hand sanded, poly looks like it's peeled off.
I don't mean just the top where you lay your arm I mean the whole front of the bass probably down to the pickups (He put a J pickup on it). I actually think it's kind of ugly but it's impressive at the same time, he's a wicked player so you can tell he put in some time in on it.

 

[bobyoung53]

That's nothing...

I wanted to see more!

 

[bobyoung53]

Have at it!!!

Ver nice, woops the dog is eating it.....

 

[TTA]

So I can't help but notice the past decade that Fender specifically tends to push these signature series instruments that get a "roadworn" finish and charge a premium for them, even going so far as to charge more for it in a custom or master build. So as far as I can tell that would be cool for collectors that want art, especially when the time is taken to replicate the original instruments wear for the signatures. What about the players? I want to put wear on that instrument myself through time, you know? I just feel like the roadworn finish is the same as getting new jeans with the knees already blown out, a rip off. That is just my opinion maybe some people can jump in there and tell me why it's cool or assure me that it doesn't effect the sound or prematurely end a bass' life.

i wven went through my own “worn is cool”. My 71 ric 4001 has some natural wear and scuffs.

clean is always a good look! always will be.

The tough one is the bass with 2-3 dings. No longer clean… not worn enough to be cool.

 

[Kukulkan61]

That's nothing...

 

[fishdude101101]

A friend of mine has a black 1977 fretless Fender Precision he bought new, half of the front of the bass is all worn off where he lays his arm except that it looks very different from a worn nitro finish, the edges where it goes back to paint almost look like plastic that is peeling, Nitro edges are very smooth like it's been hand sanded, poly looks like it's peeled off.
I don't mean just the top where you lay your arm I mean the whole front of the bass probably down to the pickups (He put a J pickup on it). I actually think it's kind of ugly but it's impressive at the same time, he's wicked player so you can tell he put in some time in on it.

That took some work. Poly is tough. Kinda what I meant that they dont wear the same or at the same rate.