Guitar Nerds Anonymous

And I fold....

The paint-over-sunburst thing is particularly awful. I kind of get the very light relicing, though I’d be too embarrassed to have one, but the full on distress stuff is just nonsense.

Andertons keep getting them to make purple ones, it’s quite upsetting.

https://www.andertons.co.uk/fender-custom-shop-52-tele-large-c-neck-maple-board-purple-metallic-heavy-relic

Yup. I think back in the day if the sunburst was awful and didn't pass quality control, they'd paint over it. But, I can't be that many guitar's they did this with.

I just couldn't imagine paying £4k for a guitar which was a) faux aged, and b) I'd paid extra for this feature.

It feels a lot like Ikea Malm drawers that have been painted, sanded and somebody is trying to sell it for triple the price on Etsy as "aged".

I like the authentic '52 CE and WEEE regulations stickers on the back.

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Hahaha

I've got a lightly relic'd bass - I prefer them for a couple of reasons;

1 - I like the feel of vintage instruments, I tried loads when I bought my bass and could have bought one for a similar price, but the newer relic'd bass played nicer so I bought it.

2 - saves on the heartache of big dings/scratches. I've played gigs with pristine basses before and have had to restrain myself from strangling band mates at gigs when they've bashed/scratched them! With a relic, so long as the back of the neck is perfectly smooth I don't care about the rest of it.

It's just preference I guess, I'd play the hell out of that Oly white over sunburst strat if I was a guitarist!

The guys that did the body for my partscaster did it as a closet classic, so there’s some crazing in the nitro. I like it. The nipper has already added a chunk or two out of the paint.

The heavy relic stuff is a bit odd but I do like a bit of patina.

Yeah, most stuff from the 70s on will have a polyurethane (plastic) finish that doesn’t age and wear like nitrocellulose does/did.

Not to make us all feel old but the 70s is fifty years ago now so a thirty year old guitar is definitely a 90s Poly job 😅

I don't hate relics, I especially like the idea of closet classics and light relics but if heavy relic is your jam then far be it from me to criticise. I'm not sure I get the heavy relics though to be fair.

I gather the paint over paint/ sunburst vibe is because in the early days of Fender if you ordered a custom colour they just grabbed a pre-finished body in one of the standard colours and layed the custom colour on top. I kind of like it?

I always liked Keaton Henson’s thinline tele. Double humbucker and hard tail.

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Actually, I’ll raise you a pair of “relic’d” charvels

Light relicing a strat or tele might add to the guitar, but this is like throwing your tarmac down the stairs hoping it’ll be vintage when it hits the bottom

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It really doesn't work for modern guitars, does it?

PS Strap buttons went on fine, drilled out the hole to 4mm, glued the dowel in, drilled the new pilot holes, hey presto, everything went as expected... Solid strap buttons acquired...

I'm pretty much a guitar tech now... 💅

Yeh, I'm not sure relicing works on these either.

After looking at loads of guitar's including lots of real vintage ones, the relicing sometimes looks really "off". On real vintage guitars there seems to be some pattern to how the wear forms; strumming and belt rash etc. But some of the relic'd guitars just look like they've been attacked with a sander, and there wasn't really much thought involved about which bits they attacked or why.

After this Thinline chat I'm thinking once again I'd like to re-body my Tele, probably black, nitro, extra light, nice new off white guard...

It's a sorta custom jobbie made about six years ago by a UK 'builder' (well, assembler and finisher). I bought it from a mate because it was terribly cheap. It's got a fucking fab neck of unknown origin, dark rosewood board, clay dots; I've had the frets dressed, changed the guard, changed the saddles, changed the electronics, added Lollars.

The body is good because it's stupid light, ash and completely hollow, about 6lbs all in, and the colour actually looks okay under lights. Sort of.

It's bad, though, because it's a relic, it's TOTALLY the wrong shape (check the top horn outline, urgh), it's got a 70s style no-notch heel which I irrationally detest on a 62 style copy, and again it's a relic. Mmph.

What's the best source for a Thinline body? Guitarbuild.co.uk mostly seem to do the control-plate type hybrids. GSPbasses, maybe. Any other ideas?

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Oh man, I love that guitar Rick. And isn’t the top horn outline just the CBS era shape?

Struggling to find a pic online but will look in the Telecaster book later.

It's a beauty, potential dibs...

Guitarbuild will do whatever you like. SC Guitars will provide you with a painted one but I'd personally recommend buying a body and sending to Guitar Resurrection Rich in Wales.

Also very tentative potential dibs although I've got too many projects on as it is...

I've done a parts order for my PRS Tremonti SE and it's going to get weird...

Have also got a repro PRS headstock emblem and going to pop that on and India Ink the headstock black I think (immediately after typing this I noticed the nice grain on the headstock again and probably won't go with the India Ink)... (No allusions of pretending it's a real USA PRS but just think it's a nicer looking finish on the headstock, will be retaining the SE trussrod cover...)

Need to acquire a '51 Nocaster pickup set though :)

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While I'd normally support my LGS, they don't have an online store. So where do people usually buy strings and bits from? #noamazon

Gonna get weird indeed, but why the hell not.

Remember to change the pots, if you’re going from humbuckers to single coils.

Yep, I'm going to use this as an opportunity to make my first wiring harness myself and document it. I'll make a template for the pots and then wire it all up and pop it in.

Should I do separate volume and tone with 3-way switch or go proper Tele style with one volume and one tone (still with 3-way)?

That would then leave me with two spare pots to come up with something spicy for... open to suggestions bit would be cool to build in some sort of odd circuit, maybe something from a pedal? Phaser? Tremolo? Modulation effects are supposedly pigs on battery though...

Strings.ie but Brexit :(

Mm, not sure the top horn is correct - there's a tiny flat section between strap button and the turn into the heel. IMO an authentic outline is subtly sorta S-shaped there. #lockdownproblems

@Nahguavkire Rich would deffo be on the paint list.

I dunno, maybe buying a raw body and getting a pro finish is OTT. Maybe I should buy a Classic Vibe thinline, strip and paint the body myself, I could reconstitute it as a refin Squier and flog it later if need be...

I've just ordered some from here but only cos it came high up on a Google search. Ordered yesterday, got a dispatch notification just now so all good so far. Hopefully things are still going swimmingly when I attempt my first ever re-string of a 12-string guitar. Eek!

Rich prices himself (imho) far too competitively. I've had a couple of mates-rates finishes done by luthiers in London that were more expensive, even with postage costs to and from Wales. Honestly not as good either, and also not nitro.

I had a telecaster body painted by him a year or so ago. I won't mention his prices here, but (for me at least, given I don't like painting) I would really struggle to justify doing it myself. Anyway - might be worth asking him for a price, even if you're only vaguely considering it .