On the chopping block today. 

So the tele body I have written about recently has been painted and is ready for the next stage of it’s revival, which funnily enough requires it to be treated really badly. This poor guitar body has been through the wars and I feel just the smallest amount of guilt over what I am about to do to it. The paint has come up looking pretty nice actually. Oh man, what am I doing?

Relic time. 

Look, I just want to be clear on something. I have my personal feelings towards relic’d and purpose aged guitars, and they ain’t all positive. For me the idea that certain guitar companies age and relic and then charge twice or more for them, than they do for other new guitars is somewhat of a mind bender to me. I get that there is an art to it, it’s like restoring a painting, only in reverse, and of course the time it takes to do that must be calculated into the selling price, but seriously, it’s getting cray you guys. 

The other issue I have is, an aged guitar is somewhat a badge of honour to the folks who have seen and played that instrument every day for the past however many years. It’s not that they look beaten up that matters to the owners of them, it’s the fact that they have loved that particular instrument so much, that they could never see themselves playing anything else, hence the wear and tear. Yet here we are, essentially playing “dress ups” trying to create an air of “cool” that other cats have earned. Hah, I’m starting to talk myself outta this! 

On the flip side, I love the look of aged guitars. I just dig things that look beaten to hell and still sound golden. Neil Young’s Blackie for example is one of the raddest looking guitars, SRV’s Number One (or “First Wife”) is again, way too cool for school. Would I buy one, as in a replica? Hmmm, jury is out on that one, but probably not? 

It’s not that I’m too young to have owned a guitar for long enough to have had such wear and tear happen naturally, it’s that I just haven’t owned any guitar for long enough to have it happen naturally. I have a bad habit of moving through them very quickly. 

So, the bottom line is I do love the look, and I do want to own a guitar that has seen more knocks than a professional boxer, but until I have settled on THE ONE, it ain’t gonna happen anytime soon. And I suppose in saying that, I understand why people do this. Though I don’t understand the prices some people will pay to have someone else do this. 

Let’s stop typing and get on with the beating up :) 

I’ll try and take pictures along the way and give a detailed description of the process, because I know some people might be wanting to do the same thing, just not sure how to… Me either.