Relic gone awry

[Nokie]

I like the relic appearence of my original '60's era Mosrites. If they made relic reissues, I'd probably have to have one. Fender of course was the first to do the relic treatment and now you can have a relic strat that has received the blow-torch treatment. And it's only 6500 clams! Check it out: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/ ... ric-guitar

[MWaldorf]

Wow, that's absurd. I imagine this is supposed to be inspired by Jimi Hendrix, but I just don't get it. Is the guitar actually charred? If it was set on fire, wouldn't the pickguard have melted? This doesn't make sense on so many levels.

I guess the next step is for them to create a water damaged relic - warped neck and all!

[dubtrub]

Sad thing about it is Fender wouldn't do this if someone wasn't willing to buy it. Fender is laughing all the way to bank. I just have to wonder what Leo would think.

[JimPage]

Danny wrote:

>> I just have to wonder what Leo would think . . .

Wow. I hadn't thought of that aspect of it, but it is certainly worth pondering. Leo would be shaking his head at the craziness of this world if he were here to see this.

I like to see a guitar or amp that is GENUINELY used through actual wear, although I make every effort to keep my guitars and amps clean and nice. Not necessarily brand-new looking, but clean and well cared for. If one gets a ding or something, well, that's the way it goes. If I can fix that ding nicely with my limited skills, I do so; but if I can't, I don't sweat it. It is part of the history of the instrument.

The DVDs that Jim Weider put out show some guitars and amps that have been played a LOT, and show it. That, to me, is very beautiful. My iPad home screen is a 1950 Fender Esquire that shows a TON of wear, and is just a thing of beauty.

Someone deliberately trying to make a brand-new guitar look that way strikes me as somewhat bizarre.

--Jim

[KRamone27]

I love the relic guitars but that one just doesn't look good. The relics are supposed to look like they were heavily played not pulled out of a burning house.

[Veenture]

'Relicing' a new guitar is like faking provenance, cheating even and I find it plain silly but... 'to each his own'.
However, I must admit that it does have its advantages too...like never having to worry about it getting new bumps and bruises -which presumably will only add to its value, anyway

Here's the new Vender ad:
"Get yourself the new SUNBURNT STRATOCOSTER" today!

[Nokie]

I love the relic guitars but that one just doesn't look good. The relics are supposed to look like they were heavily played not pulled out of a burning house.

That's too funny, KR. I think you've hit on my biggest problem with this guitar. Giving it a worn look makes sense in terms of implied "mojo" - the look of a guitar that has paid its dues. But there is no mojo in pulling a guitar from a fire.
-Marty

[JimPage]

Hey--

Marty wrote:
>>there is no mojo in pulling a guitar from a fire. . . .

I seem to remember reading that a guitar that had belonged to Wes Montgomery was rescued from a house fire, though it was heavily damaged in the process. Maybe that could be the next Gibson relic issue!!!

--Jim

[KRamone27]

Hey--

Marty wrote:
>>there is no mojo in pulling a guitar from a fire. . . .

I seem to remember reading that a guitar that had belonged to Wes Montgomery was rescued from a house fire, though it was heavily damaged in the process. Maybe that could be the next Gibson relic issue!!!

--Jim

I think I remember reading a thread about that on the My Les Paul forum. It was a gold top right?

edit: found the thread http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/vintage ... ation.html

[JimPage]

Hey, Kevin--

You wrote:
>>It was a gold top right?

There may, of course, be more than one of Mr. Montgomery's guitars still around, but the one I was talking about was a sunburst. Here's a link to the article I found about it:
http://www.gould68.freeserve.co.uk/wesg.htm

This isn't the same article I had originally read, but the info contained seems consistent with it.

Isn't it odd that someone took furniture stripper to a guitar that had Wes Montgomery's name engraved on an inlay? The things people do just astonish me.

Oh, well. At least they didn't do to that guitar what my aunt and uncle did to my 1940s L-5 I had stored in the barn at our family farm. One summer they were cleaning the barn, saw the hardshell guitar case in the loft, opened the case, and seeing that the strings weren't on it, figured it was broken and tossed it on the trash fire. When I heard about it later, I was too astonished for words.

A fellow down the street from my house threw away a beautiful Epiphone Regent from the early '40s a few months ago because it was missing a couple of strings. It was in the original hardshell case. Unfortunately, his next door neighbor-- a guitar player-- saw the case sitting with the trash before I did and snagged it!!!

--Jim