How to relic??? - Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum

After installing the frets, I shaped the fret ends as usual and leveled the tops — but I left the final shaping and polishing until after the finish work is completed. I taped off the how to relic a stratocaster
 peghead so its original finish would be unaffected. Here I’m using an airbrush, spraying shellac thinned with Behkol solvent and lightly shaded with ColorTone stains. Find your own legend among our Fender Custom Shop Strats Fender Stratocaster is undoubtedly one of the most revered names in guitars. Used to craft some of the world’s most recognized harmonies, the Stratocaster is known for its signature look, its prized sound quality, and its ability to adapt to virtually any musical style. From rock and country to blues and jazz, the Stratocaster has been making a name for itself since 1954. Fender Custom Shop 60th Anniversary 1954 Heavy Relic Stratocaster Solidbody Electric Guitar at a Glance

The Ultimate Relic Stratocaster

Photo: colored shellacI used Vintage Amber, adding a bit of Tobacco Brown and Orange. I only mixed a tiny bit of color into the shellac: brown and orange needed just a fender stratocaster yjm relic
 drop on the end of a toothpick! Maybe ten toothpick-drops of the amber. A scrap of acrylic makes a good palette: I put a drop of each color on it, then picked up the tiny amounts I need with the tips of my toothpicks. Can you tell the old finish from the new? This relic finish was fast and fun. It took me less than two hours to create the checking with the knife blade, and over the next few days I only spent another couple of hours mixing and spraying. The result looks good. If the owner doesn’t tell his friends, nobody’s likely to know it’s ever been to my shop!

Fender Relic - Guitar Guitar

This superb guitar feels and sounds as good as any Strat I’ve played. Its creators have done a relic stratocaster youtube
 remarkable job mimicking the sensual surfaces and nuanced tone of a fine antique axe. The price may seem steep, but you can tell this guitar received many hours of workbench detail work. Personally, I’d have preferred a bit less relic work, and I can’t help wondering how much lower the price might be if the builders had antiqued only the all-important back of the neck. But opinions, like wear patterns on old guitars, differ. For some players, this may be a 1954 dream come true. They need color rubbed into them to make them show up. Thin some lacquer-base ColorTone Pigment with naphtha and wipe it onto your checking. Don’t let it dry on the surface; you just want it in the cracks. Wipe it off right away using rags wetted with naphtha. After the color’s been in the cracks for ten minutes or so, buff the surface to remove any sharpness in the checked lines — so they don’t feel new.De-gloss it to make it look old The last step is to de-gloss the shiny new lacquer.

Fender 1954 Heavy Relic Strat Review

Photo: scratching the finishA utility knife blade works well for cutting the checks into the lacquer: it’s fender stratocaster road worn relic 50
 sharp, and strong enough that it won’t bend under pressure. Be patient. Put on a CD or a TV show, and relax — pretty soon you’ll start getting speedy! Be careful not to repeat shapes too often: keep referring to the genuine checking for inspiration. The quartersawn maple U-shaped neck has the finish worn off the back for a great, played-in feel. A dark Indian rosewood fingerboard sports pearl face dots, and 21 smaller 6105 frets. Custom Shop 1969 pickups have the sought-after sound of yesterday with the benefits of modern wiring. Schaller "F" tuners, aged hardware and cigarette burn on the headstock complete the dream. Quartersawn wood is much more rigid than flatsawn wood, which means it vibrates better, which means more tone for you! And the lacquer finish, which is thinner than modern polyurethane finishes, will allow this '54 Strat's one-piece ash body to sing loud and clear.

Worn Again: Making a relic Surf Green 50's Strat

The quartersawn maple 1960 relic stratocaster with matching peg headstock
 U-shaped neck has the finish worn off the back for a great, played-in feel. A dark Indian rosewood fingerboard sports pearl face dots, and 21 smaller 6105 frets. Custom Shop 1969 pickups have the sought-after sound of yesterday with the benefits of modern wiring. Schaller "F" tuners, aged hardware and cigarette burn on the headstock complete the dream. The most remarkable thing about the original Strat may be how little it’s changed since the year Elvis recorded his first crude demo, Eisenhower introduced the phrase “domino theory,” and From Here to Eternity nabbed the Best Picture Oscar. Despite all subsequent revisions, wise and otherwise, the original Strat stands as a masterpiece of midcentury modernism. Featuring a heavy relic treatment, this 1968 Stratocaster has the look of many years of hard use on the road. The guitar's premium ash body wood has great tone and is lightweight for playing comfort.

Relic finish: faking age cracks on a 1956 Strat

A common perception, but is it true? Maybe it’s time to reconsider. Recent high-end historic replicas from Gibson and Fender manage to provide astoundingly realistic “old guitar” experiences. One example is the “Dutchburst” 1960 Les Paul replica from Gibson’s Collector’s Choice series, an $8,000 beauty fender 1960 relic stratocaster with matching headstock
 that genuinely feels 54 years old. Another is this 1954 Heavy Relic Stratocaster, created by the Fender Custom Shop in honor of the iconic axe’s big six-oh. It’s not as pricy as the Dutchburst, though it still commands a daunting $4,720 street price. I do this by sucking up some of the milky stearate that settles to the bottom of an unshaken can of vinyl sealer. Stearate is the powdery substance that adds sandability and a milky cast to lacquer sanding sealers. Using a turkey baster, I mixed a little of this stearate into an airbrush jar full of lacquer thinner. Two or three light passes on low air pressure (15-20 psi) leaves the surface dull — just like the original finish.

Fender Custom Shop 1968 Heavy Relic Stratocaster Electric

Fender does offer a couple very nice Surf Green vintage remakes in the $2K range but these models are 1960 relic stratocaster with matching headstock
 not exactly to my specs, and once again, the price is not within my budget. Strat features I was looking for: Artificially aging instruments with scratches, dings, and tarnish is always controversial—just scan our readers’ comments after a relic guitar review! Some players love the faux finishes, while others consider them silly, if not moronic, and this particular relic job may be more controversial than most. (More on that in a moment.) Here’s how I do a “relic” job on a new finish. It doesn’t require a lot of experience, and you’ll get great results with very simple tools. But at risk of spoiling the suspense, let’s tackle the big question first: Does this feel and sound like a fine sexagenarian Strat? Oh my, yes.