My Thoughts On Relic’ing

Do the anti-relicers have a point or are relic fans the silent majority? Here’s my take on the subject...

Going Back

The claim that the guitar relicing phenomenon was inadvertently started by Keith Richards was a clever Fender marketing ploy. Nobody really believes it anymore and I can clearly recall discussing aging techniques with various guitar techs and builders during the mid 1980s. At the time I dabbled in antique restoration and I liked vintage guitars, so the subject grabbed my interest.

I also recall trying out a red pre-CBS Strat in Andy’s Guitars on Denmark Street, London circa 1990. The lacquer checking was quite apparent and, to his credit, the sales guy was very up-front about it having a recent re-finish - despite the fact that I wouldn’t have been any the wiser.

Although Fender started selling relic guitars during the 1990s, I can’t recall seeing one. The first deliberately aged finish I saw was in 2001 when a friend showed me a ‘50s Tele body that he had sent to Clive Brown for restoration. I subsequently learned that Clive is regarded as one of the finest guitar restorers in the world, so I decided to send him my ’63 Strat.

Restoration Versus Relicing

Why did I opt for a relic finish? The body had already been refinished when I bought it in 1986, and I sprayed it red soon after. However, the neck was all-original, along with the hardware and plastic parts, so I always felt the body let it down. It didn’t look the way a pre-CBS Strat should.

Clive suggested I send him the whole guitar so he could match the body aging to the neck. It took a few months but the feeling when I opened the case and saw my restored Fiesta Red Strat will live with me forever. As Clive promised, he had ‘given the guitar back its dignity’ by making it look as if it had never been messed with.

I was surprised when he told me it would start to look really good after a few years. At the time I couldn’t imagine what he meant but now, having done more than a few relic finishes myself, I certainly get it.

Most amateurs go way too far when they try to create a relic. Professionals exercise restraint because the results tend to be more convincing and, more importantly, they understand that properly applied aging techniques actually kick start the process. If you use it, the guitar will continue to age in a natural way.

A distinction should be made between relicing and restoration. My guitar underwent restoration, but the same methods and techniques can be applied to new guitars. In that instance the term relicing would be more appropriate. Guitar restorers have been doing this for decades, so why did relicing suddenly take off?

Price & Pragmatism

Things went berserk after the turn of the century and before long vintage guitar values were surging upwards, with people paying silly money for rusty screws and grimy plastic parts of dubious provenance. Investors and speculators were driving the market, so it’s unsurprising that players gravitated towards relic guitars.

After all, if you had always dreamed of owning a vintage guitar but realized that you would never be able to afford one, replicas must have seemed like the next best thing. Applying the duck test, we might conclude that if it looks like a vintage guitar, plays like a vintage guitar and sounds like a vintage guitar, then it is (for all practical purposes) a vintage guitar.

Even an official custom shop relic will cost far less than the vintage equivalent. There won’t be any playability issues or missing parts, it can’t be devalued by play wear, it can be re-fretted or modified with impunity and you can always buy another one if it gets stolen. On that basis buying a relic is a perfectly rational decision.

Tone & Playability

Most of the debate revolves around the visual aspect of relic guitars, but can relicing effect the way a guitar plays? The term ‘played-in’ is often used to describe well-used guitars. Over time the edges of a fingerboard may become rounded over, which makes the neck feel more comfortable. The frets may become worn from string bending, which flattens the radius and allows string action to be lowered. Strings pass freely through smooth nut slots and the whole guitar feels comfortable, familiar and easy to play.

A skilled guitar relicer will recognize the importance of achieving a feel that’s commensurate with the look. Combining new guitar practicality and stability with a played in feel is a big part of the relic appeal and a testament to the skill of any luthier who can pull it off.

The choice is yours – buy a guitar that feels fantastic straight off the shelf or spend the next three decades breaking one in. If you’re in your twenties, then time is on your side. If you’re already middle aged, however, that guitar might just be coming good when you become eligible for a free bus pass. As your arthritic fingers crab their way along the fretboard, at least you’ll know in your heart that you did it the ‘honest’ way.

Practical Considerations

Having played countless vintage guitars, and owned several, I can report that most are fine but flawed instruments. As a long time guitar reviewer I have to admit that modern guitars offer certain practical advantages. Most players want guitars that stay in tune, play and sound the way they like and have a look they find attractive.

If you prefer old looking guitars, a high quality relic is more likely to tick all three boxes than a vintage one. Of course it’s possible to modify vintage guitars to attain the same ease of playability and tuning stability but that may de-value them.

Vintage guitar owners often face this dilemma so relic guitars present a viable and relatively affordable option. From what we hear, some players are happily gigging their relics while their vintage guitars remain safe at home. Liberated from the tyranny of vintage correctness, you can choose your preferred fingerboard radius, frets, tuners and pickups. Best of all, you’ll have enough change left over to buy a spare – or maybe two.

Fakes & Forgeries

Occasionally relics can look even better than the real thing – like idealized versions of vintage instruments. Worryingly some are so convincing that they cross into the realm of forgery. Whatever you think of the stock anti-relicing arguments, the legal and moral concerns that many have about relic guitars cannot be dismissed lightly.

Those who object to relics occasionally boast that they would always be able to spot one. To be fair most relics don’t withstand close scrutiny so it’s a non-issue - but don’t delude yourself into believing they are all like that.

Some relicers attain such convincing results that it is almost impossible to tell their guitars from genuine, all-original vintage instruments. The vintage market has become flooded with guitars and parts that aren’t quite what they claim to be. The fine line between ‘convincing’ and ‘deceiving’ is all too easy to cross.

An expert should still be able to tell the real thing from a fake if they have the opportunity to examine a guitar in person, but even they can be fooled. If you’re buying online it’s almost impossible to know for certain and with the prices of primo models now stratospheric, there is plenty of incentive for fakers.

Many of the best relic builders operate under the radar, they do not advertise, they don’t have websites or Instagram accounts and their commissions come by word of mouth. Although the builder might be an honest individual who is completely up front about his guitars, he or she will have no control over the way those guitars are represented once they’re sold.

If you put a Fender or Gibson logo on a replica for your own private use, it is a fake. If you try to sell it as a genuine Fender or Gibson you will be breaking the law. Similarly, when dealers sell vintage guitars as ‘all-original’ when they know parts have been replaced parts or they have been refinished, it is fraudulent.

While any seller has a moral and legal obligation to describe a guitar accurately, honest mistakes happen. Seeking legal redress can be prohibitively expensive and the standard of some relic work is such that it could end up in the stalemate of opposing ‘expert’ opinions.

In my view making a relic guitar for personal use is no more immoral than doing a paint by numbers copy of an old master or building a vintage Porsche kit car on a VW Beetle chassis. However, the production of relic guitars with the intention to deceive does cross the line and the widespread dissemination of information on relicing techniques has vastly increased the potential for immorality and criminality.

This situation is hardly unique to the guitar world. It applies equally to antiques, classic cars, fine art and elderly violins. When the bucks are big, so are the risks. If you can’t afford to pay a premium to a reputable dealer for peace of mind, you would be advised to conduct extensive research and exercise extreme caution.

Or consider the alternative. You could leave all-original vintage guitars for the collectors and speculators to squabble over and buy a classic with a really good relic re-finish. You’ll save yourself a lot of money, you can be confident about what you’re buying, you may get the custom colour you always wanted and you might actually summon enough courage to gig the thing.

A good friend of mine regularly gigs with his collection of original vintage guitars and guitarists in the audience generally assume them to be replicas. Some even take the time to point out the bits the builder got wrong as he nods along politely. Such delicious irony.

Fantasists & Dreamers

It is frequently claimed that relic fans are dreamers who somehow come to believe that the relics they are playing are genuine vintage guitars. Common sense would suggest that this degree of self-deception on a global scale is unlikely. Besides which, does it really matter?

Odder still is the paranoid notion that relic players are driven by a desire to deceive audiences into thinking they are playing real vintage guitars. This one is a real peach because most punters wouldn’t know or even care. Speaking for myself, I have more than enough trouble trying to convince people I’m a proper guitarist to worry about convincing them I’m playing a genuine vintage guitar.

Forum debates can veer off into peculiar areas. Paraphrasing some stock terms, the general thrust of the argument is that a road worn guitar can only be ‘real’ if a ‘hard working musician’ has spent several decades imbuing it with ‘honesty’ and ‘integrity’. According to some, the guitar may even be bestowed with ‘magic’ as it forms a ‘bond’ with its owner.

Everything in inverted commas in the paragraph above has been lifted out of various anti-relicing articles, letters and forum posts. Personally I find the sentiments silly for one simple reason - guitars are inanimate. Ergo they cannot be honest or dishonest, have integrity or form bonds with people. If you want to believe in magic, that’s entirely up to you.

Getting worked up about these issues possibly reveals more about those who object to relics than those who play them. Even so, some relic fans do lose perspective. For instance, if the pickup rings or scratchplate on your guitar cost more than the pickups, you may be taking this relicing thing a bit too far. No doubt there is some element of delusion and self-deception, but it probably applies in equal measure to both sides of the debate.

Holy Relics

The desire to emulate the looks and sounds of the guitars played by our heroes is something that has probably afflicted all of us at some point. If you happen to own a corporation like Guitar Centre it’s simply a case of waiting for said hero (or the executors of his will) to auction off that iconic axe. But since there are only so many Blackies, Brownies, Greenies and First Wives to go around, various Custom Shops have started making official replicas in limited numbers.

In addition to buying an off the shelf collectors item, you might get a replica case, strap, case candy and even the artist’s signature. But if all those dents and dings have been so accurately recreated, what happens if you add one of your own? Wouldn’t that inauthentic blemish devalue the guitar?

It seems odd that having been artfully aged by top artisans, these beat up relics must be wrapped in cotton wool to maintain their authenticity. Given that some of these official replicas may even cost more than a vintage equivalent with original finish, you could be forgiven for thinking this is the lunatic fringe of the relic scene.

Belt Sander & Bike Chains

It’s often suggested that the relicing process consists of attacking instruments with belt sanders and beating them with chains. To be fair, the offerings of some relic guitar makers and the results of some DIY projects make this a not unreasonable assumption, but this myth is fanciful at best.

It might be helpful for fans and detractors alike to concede that there are some extremely well-crafted relic guitars out there, but dreadful botch-ups are more prevalent. Some luthiers regard relic’ing as a craft or even an art form, and the techniques they employ require skill, judgment and finesse. It’s certainly a branch of lutherie that I have come to respect, and I enjoy relic’ing guitars myself.

Simply put, the processes used in top quality relicing are chosen to replicate what generally happens to guitars over time. A guitar can acquire three hundred dents over thirty years or thirty minutes. Similarly lacquer checking developed over thirty winters may be simulated by thirty hours in a deep freeze or thirty seconds with a hot air gun and an inverted air duster.

Ultimately a dent is a dent and a crack is a crack, and ‘honourably’ acquired dents do not make a guitar look or sound better. The crucial point to grasp is that the causes and outcomes are identical and - if performed by skilled hands - they can be indistinguishable. Serious relicers rely on natural processes to achieve natural looking results. The only salient differences are the timescale and the intent.

Verdict

Rather than try to promote or justify relicing, in this piece I have attempted to balance the argument. For the record I appreciate relic guitars and non-relics equally and my position is quite simple - it’s a matter of personal choice. If we can accept that people have different taste in strings, pickups, tuners, finishes and so forth, then it follows that they have every right to buy and play whatever guitar inspires them.

I would, however, take issue with anybody who seeks to judge, belittle or ridicule players who use relic guitars. Every discussion forum has them – contributing to relic-related threads with opinions that often flaunt their lack understanding as if it’s something to be proud of. In contrast I have never observed relic fans disrespecting or berating players who prefer to keep their guitars pristine.

Since vintage guitars are now beyond the reach of most players, telling someone they must play a new looking guitar or be considered a fraudster for choosing to play a relic is totally out of order. It’s like saying it’s immoral to hang a Van Gogh print on your wall if you can’t afford the real thing. Why should players relinquish their dreams when viable and affordable alternatives are available?

Our guitars provide a means for self-expression, and since we are all individuals it follows that some choose to individualise their instruments. You might regard the relic phenomenon as silly and, in some respects, it is. But getting wound up about what other guitarists choose to play is just as daft. If you object to relic guitars, then don’t buy one, but please stop banging on about it.