Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

...which seems to be the watchwords that drive American culture and consumption these days. No wonder Fender had some success with this.

My hope is that these artificially aged instruments will soon fall out of favor and someday soon be seen as the trash that they are. The idea of taking a newborn instrument and stripping it of its fledgling dignity, only to force it to wear a ridiculous costume before it's learned to talk (let along to sing), is to me unethical and reprehensible.

My fear is that these will continue to be regarded as legitimate instruments. Oh, sure, they play, but they are pretentious and soulless.

This whole Relic thing must be driven by collectors and amateurs. I've not seen any big names playing one. Has anyone, and who did you see?

I just checked out the bravewoodguitars.uk site.

What junk! The day I live out of my car, is the day that one of those will find its way into my life.

At least I'll have earned living out of my car...

The relic series was actually created for Keith Richards some years back.

You'll have noticed, Clapton's strats are always pretty and shiny.

He's probably been the most well known, long-time player of strats.

"This whole Relic thing must be driven by collectors and amateurs. I've not seen any big names playing one. Has anyone, and who did you see?"

I have. Metallica. You can see the custom shop logo on the back of the headstock in one of the videos...

John Mayer would be another... He frequently plays one...

And I can only ask, "why?"

I owned a Relic '51 Nocaster.

Why? I guess I just find well-worn Fender guitars cool looking.

And I can't afford a *real* vintage Fender guitar with nitrocellulose lacquer to "relic" myself (You rarely see any nicely-worn guitars post 1970, I don't think poly offers the same effect).

I like my Ricks mint, but for me, there's something about a Fender with a bit of forearm wear and some aged plastic parts.

I had a '71 Tele bass for a while, & it's wear was anything but nice. The wood had discolored on the neck where the finish had worn through & was rough under your hand. Same for the fretboard. It didn't look good at all. The body had been refinned natural & looked good.

On a side note, I just noticed that my '77 4001 has a wear line down to the wood on the edge of the body where the strap rubs when I play.
Oh well, it's not a collector's piece by any means, & it is honest wear.
It will be refinished someday anyway.