![\"burnt\"](\"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/burnt.jpg\")
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To “relic” an instrument basically means to make it purposely look old and very-well-used. There are varying degrees of “relic’ing” (pronounced “rell-ih-king”), and the Fender Jazz Bass above is one of the more extreme examples as the body was burned on purpose to give it its final look.<\/p>\n
Builders have come up with some fairly inventive ways to relic a guitar. One example for a light-to-medium relic job is to have the body held over a campfire (using equipment and not with your hands, obviously) until the finish starts to crackle off. Others will purposely use ways of simulating finger or arm wear by over-buffing. Then there are those who purposely use steel wool or other abrasive to make the bridge and string saddles rust. There are any number of way to do a relic job…<\/p>\n
…but should<\/em><\/strong> you?<\/p>\n There’s the assumption out there that relic’ing an instrument is easy. It’s not, nor has it ever been. You can’t just take a body, beat it up, ding it, dent it, heat\/burn it and expect to have this awesome work of art at the end of it all because that’s simply not going to happen.<\/p>\n In fact, it’s actually much easier to apply a finish for a new look than try to achieve an old look.<\/p>\n With a new look, the goal is simple in that you’re trying to make everything look neat, uniform and shiny. If applying a solid color with no metal flake, the goal is to achieve a coat that uniformly looks proper over the entire body of the instrument (and possibly the back of the neck as well).<\/p>\n With an old look, the uniformity is thrown completely out the window, and chances are pretty good you have no template to work with.<\/p>\n The only real way to relic an instrument properly is to model it after the real thing. In the Fender Custom Shop for example, their luthiers use real-deal vintage instruments that have been truly beat up by age, stage use and so on, so that’s the template they use and that’s why they get it done so well. The vintage gear is used as a guide to construct the new relic instruments, where they can physically see and touch<\/em> every cut, scrape, chip, dent, burn mark, etc. and replicate it.<\/p>\n If you do in fact own a vintage bass guitar with real proper wear (with “proper” meaning “actually used on stage”), then you have a template. If you don’t, then sure you could go by pictures found on the internet. But without the real instrument in front of you as a guide, well.. chances are pretty good you’re going to miss a few things in the relic’ing process, such as having absolutely no tactile feel to go by.<\/p>\n Indeed there is if you’d like to give it a try. If you do a Google search for how to relic a guitar<\/a>, you’ll find tons of guides and videos out there.<\/p>\n You’ll quickly discover however that no two ways of relic’ing are exactly the same. Some guides are from players who experimented with relic’ing techniques in their backyard, while others are from pro luthiers with pro shops who take a completely different approach. Trust me, you’ll have plenty of guide material to go through.<\/p>\n WRONG: To look cool<\/strong><\/p>\n The only people who sincerely believe beat-up instruments look cool are other musicians and luthiers. You will not score any “cool points” with anyone else. In a stage situation, the people watching you play will see your beat-up bass and think you should be playing something nicer-looking.<\/p>\n RIGHT: To create functional art<\/strong><\/p>\n A relic job is a piece of art and doesn’t really do much (if anything) to improve the sound of the instrument. When done right however, it can look good depending on how light or heavy your relic job is.<\/p>\n WRONG: To add value to an instrument<\/strong><\/p>\n Given that most relic jobs are done totally wrong, your relic job if anything will devalue the instrument rather than add value.<\/p>\n How do you know if a relic job was done wrong? Easy. If from inspection of the instrument you can still see anything that looks new on it (right down to the screws that hold in the pickups), it’s wrong.<\/p>\n RIGHT: To hone your skills as a woodworking and metalworking artist<\/strong><\/p>\n Doing a proper relic job isn’t easy, but that’s part of the fun of it. You’ll learn a lot by experimenting with how to give things a used vintage look.<\/p>\n My answer to that is: Only if you desire a bass guitar as functional art, as said above.<\/p>\n Yes, I know that sounds like a copout answer, but it’s the truth. It is far easier to put together a bass with the goal of having everything looking new rather than relic’d. Why? Because on a relic job you’re taking all new parts and materials, then adding in extra time to age them all, taking the bass guitar apart, putting it back together (which will probably need to be done several times), and so on, and so on.<\/p>\n In other words, a proper relic job is a long process that can be very trying on the nerves. And given there are so many unknowns with a build like that (it’s never a simple 1-2-3 process), there’s a lot that can go wrong. A whole lot.<\/p>\n If the prospect of a relic job interests you, my final advice is this:<\/strong> Read as much documentation as you can and watch many instructional videos on it. You’ll see a lot of conflicting instructions, but you should be able to hatch a plan for your own relic project that will work for how you do things.<\/p>\n As long as you know what you’re buying, then yes, go ahead and get one. And what exactly are you getting with a relic’d bass guitar?<\/p>\n First, I’ll tell you what you don’t<\/em> get.<\/p>\n You don’t get an instrument that plays perfect out-of-the-box. Even though it looks old, it’s still new, so it has to be set up. It’s really easy to think the instrument is ready-to-go just from its appearance, but like any new bass, it isn’t. You’ll have to set your string height, maybe adjust the truss rod slightly and so on just like you would any other new bass guitar.<\/p>\n Depending on what you bought, it may not have the “warm” sound you were expecting and the pickups might need to be replaced with an appropriate “old-sounding” set, such as the Seymour Duncan Antiquity series<\/a>. Pickups of that type are purposely engineered with softer magnets (meaning less magnetic pull) to simulate what a vintage instrument would sound like today. For example, a real 1962 Fender Bass has a sound that’s softer because of its age, and the Antiquity series simulates what a 50-year-old pickup would sound like now.<\/p>\n And what do<\/em> you get with a relic’d bass?<\/p>\n In general terms, you get a bass you bought for 50% looks and 50% feel.<\/p>\n The look of a relic’d bass is obvious as it’s meant to look old. However the other thing you’re buying is feel. The bass feels old, worn-in and comfortable (after setting it up of course). This is a bass guitar you can bang around with, not worry about dinging or denting it while at the same time having a very classic looking instrument.<\/p>\n Many owners of relic’d instruments specifically buy them so they can gig with a carefree attitude and openly admit what they have isn’t the genuine article. In fact, it’s usually true that an owner of a relic’d bass probably does<\/strong> have the genuine article at home but won’t dare take it out gigging with because it’s just too valuable. When gigging with the relic’d bass, one of the big comfort factors is the lack<\/em> of metal stress from playing with a “fake”.<\/p>\n In the end, yes, pre-relic’d bass guitars have their purpose. They may be expensive, but like I said above, 50% of what you buy is for feel; this is something many consider a small price tag to pay to play happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To “relic” an instrument basically means to make it purposely look old and very-well-used. There are varying degrees of “relic’ing” (pronounced “rell-ih-king”), and the Fender Jazz Bass above is one of the more extreme examples as the body was burned on purpose to give it its final look. Builders have come up with some fairly … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Chances are pretty good you’re not an artist<\/h3>\n
Template?<\/h3>\n
Is there documentation on this stuff?<\/h3>\n
Right and wrong reasons to relic a bass guitar<\/h3>\n
Should you do it?<\/h3>\n
Should you BUY a relic’d bass guitar?<\/h3>\n