Rotten Relics

[Mechanical Birds]

Stupid to you maybe. They wouldn't exist if people didn't want them.

To be fair that's not any kind of argument, I was going to provide an example of something terrible that lots of people want but there's so many terrible things that people are flocking to that it's exhausting to even think about it but perhaps we can just imagine everything from the Kardashians down.

Donald fucking Trump is president for fucks sake

[Danley]

I think it- and so many things people do- are silly. I wouldn't encourage anyone to do it, but I guess it only bothers me when I want to rip the fucking guitar out of the hands of whoever ruined it and give it first to someone who can fix it, then to someone who doesn't take their aggression out on unsuspecting consumer goods.

Oh wait, I guess I am bothered by it.

[shadowplay]

I don't give shit about rock cred* and frankly rock can't die soon enough but I reject the relicing on aesthetic grounds. I can't really imagine a reliced guitar in the hands of someone I'd consider stylish, it's miles outside my aesthetic garden. I don't imagine relic dude or dudette probably aspires to things I consider desirable; owns or aspires to own an old Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes or Maserati (or something similarly interesting and beautiful), has nice furniture, wears stylish clothes and benchmade shoes and has a sense of design because people I know in real life with such design sense don't seem to but perhaps my social circle is an aberration. Dirtied up guitar is for me in the stone washed jeans, brand merch and Toyota aesthetic garden some miles down the road from where I'm living.

I fundamentally live by William Morris rules but I deeply care about the aesthetics of everything when I've a choice and with guitars I've a choice and frankly since I've been a member here I've seen reliced (shabby chic ) guitars uglier than a bulldog chewing a wasp time and again, they are the vast majority of relics.

Obviously the likes of Danocaster with their artfully aged homages are a different kettle of chips, even if I personally wouldn't want one and still think they are generally too far gone because I don't like overly fucked and grimy genuine vintage guitars either.

D

*to be honest I couldn't give a shit what guitar or what anything someone uses to make music so long as I like the result but we aren't talking music we're talking making new guitars look old (allegedly).

[Paul-T]

A short story I might add, that adds a completely original group of thoughts on the subject.

Got it.

So you don't know about Keith Richards ordering some of the first CS relics. You don't know Carson Hess or CLive Brown's work. ANd you don't know that for centuries craftsmen have done similar work on violins. Same as you didn't know much about guitars till recently.

Ignorance has always been such a great foundation for binary judgements.

And love for shiny new things has always been an intrinsic part of consumerism.

[zhivago]

Alright everyone, I think this thread has ran its course.

Thank you all for participating...let's talk about Buzz Stops next

[JSett]

I remember us having a thread for this about a decade ago (edit: found it!), but a few have caught my eye that make me wonder how, after nearly 30 years of it being a 'thing', people for the most part still can't get even close to a convincing effect:

Todays masterpiece of authenticity came from FB Marketplace:

[Sauerkraut]

Love the attention to detail on that one. Such convincing pinky wear!

[Telliot]

How dare you besmirch this obviously natural wear. Don’t you know mojo when you see it??

For the record I have no issue with relic’d guitars as long as they are done tastefully, but the vast majority don’t seem to be done tastefully IMHO. I guess I prefer a subtle aging over a relic’ing.

[JSett]

(For the record I have no issue with relic’d guitars as long as they are done tastefully.)

Ditto. It's extremely rare that it's actually convincing though...even the Fender Custom Shop are pretty poor at it - but it's almost become a caricature of itself these days.

[Telliot]

Agreed.

[fuzzjunkie]

How do you say “Someone got a Dremel for Christmas” without saying it?

[pacemaker]

How dare you besmirch this obviously natural wear. Don’t you know mojo when you see it??

I believe it's pronounced m@j@

[Telliot]

How dare you besmirch this obviously natural wear. Don’t you know m@j@ when you see it??

I believe it's pronounced m@j@

I apologize for my rudeness. Fixed.

[pacemaker]

How dare you besmirch this obviously natural wear. Don’t you know m@j@ when you see it??

I believe it's pronounced m@j@

I apologize for my rudeness. Fixed.

Speaking on things that have been goin on for ten years...

[Telliot]