Post Your Naturally Worn Guitar

[LesJosh]

I want to see your naturally worn guitars. Ones that you've spent years and years playing. No relics, just natural.

Here's my yellowing studio:

 

[Frogfur]

After 52 years the finish is justnow wearing off. I won't live long enough to post them. Geez...

 

[KS 5150]

'89 Custom:

 

[Leebak]

hmm
natural worn in my opinion its very ambiguous term.
what its natural and what its fake?
if my guitar developes chips, and i make those chips bigger with my nails its fake?
i think the post should be named:
"post your non factory relic" and then we will judge if it looks fakes or not XD
now seriously, the line beetween natural relic and forced relic its very thin, sometimes even exist

 

[TheX]

 

[WholeLottaIzzy]

I'll post some pictures tomorrow. I've got some but they're the same old pictures everyone's already seen a thousand times.

 

[VictorB]

 

[bossaddict]

I turn 38 next month, but have spent the past 61 years putting wear on this one.

OK, I've only had it a couple of weeks, but somebody certainly put some natural wear on it. The previous owner had it about 20 years and before that, who knows. I better get started.

 

[masliko]

hmm
natural worn in my opinion its very ambiguous term.
what its natural and what its fake?
if my guitar developes chips, and i make those chips bigger with my nails its fake?
i think the post should be named:
"post your non factory relic" and then we will judge if it looks fakes or not XD
now seriously, the line beetween natural relic and forced relic its very thin, sometimes even exist

It does exist and you can tell by the type of person who owns it & how they play and how they live their lives.Hence, the reason people like to copy blues musicians who were poor and lived on the street.To some people owning a real relic is burden because then you have to live up to owning one or some people may prefer to own one and just be a joke-each to their own.

If its done unintentionally its real.If its done by a shop or intentionally its fake(imitation of the real)-simple as that-the way its always been amongst musicians.There are no shortcuts ever.

Its real or its not-there's no inbetween & everyone knows in their heart what is real and what is not.


Things have really changed.....and some of the most important things seem to have been forgotten but i blame the guitar companies for that,not people.

 

[BWOTW]

2008 Faded

 

[ajay]

It's the bass that I've played for 43 years.

 

[foxtrot]

2008 Faded

 

[Leebak]

It does exist and you can tell by the type of person who owns it & how they play and how they live their lives.Hence, the reason people like to copy blues musicians who were poor and lived on the street.To some people owning a real relic is burden because then you have to live up to owning one or some people may prefer to own one and just be a joke-each to their own.

If its done unintentionally its real.If its done by a shop or intentionally its fake(imitation of the real)-simple as that-the way its always been amongst musicians.There are no shortcuts ever.

Its real or its not-there's no inbetween & everyone knows in their heart what is real and what is not.


Things have really changed.....and some of the most important things seem to have been forgotten but i blame the guitar companies for that,not people.

so if on next winter, i forgot to get the guitar and leave it on the truck of my car for 2 days and it checks, its real.
but if i put my guitar on the car intentionally 2 nights and it checks, its fake.
I get the core of the thing, but at the end, the result is the same, a checked guitar.
In my case, my heart tells me that both cases are the same.
worning its different tho, fake arm wear is fake, real is real, no debate, agree.

Another case that for me its not fake, its ambering the lacquer.
You can amber it faster exposing it to cigarete smoke.
So if i put my guitar on a smoky room for months on a stand, like a practice room, its fake casue i did it intentionally searching the yellowing.
But if im lazy to take the guitar and put it on the case every night so i let it on the stand on the smoky room its real?
i dont know if my point can be understand
thats why i said sometimes the line beetween real relic and non, when doesnt come from factory, its very thin and sometimes even exist.
best regards

 

[bum]

so if on next winter, i forgot to get the guitar and leave it on the truck of my car for 2 days and it checks, its real.
but if i put my guitar on the car intentionally 2 nights and it checks, its fake.
I get the core of the thing, but at the end, the result is the same, a checked guitar.
In my case, my heart tells me that both cases are the same.
worning its different tho, fake arm wear is fake, real is real, no debate, agree.

Another case that for me its not fake, its ambering the lacquer.
You can amber it faster exposing it to cigarete smoke.
So if i put my guitar on a smoky room for months on a stand, like a practice room, its fake casue i did it intentionally searching the yellowing.
But if im lazy to take the guitar and put it on the case every night so i let it on the stand on the smoky room its real?
i dont know if my point can be understand
thats why i said sometimes the line beetween real relic and non, when doesnt come from factory, its very thin and sometimes even exist.
best regards

Why are you being so obtuse?
It's plainly obvious what the OP means and no one apart from you is missing his point.

 

[Leebak]

Why are you being so obtuse?
It's plainly obvious what the OP means and no one apart from you is missing his point.

maybe you are missing my point
i think every side got his part of truth.
sorry if i bothered you mate with my comments

 

[scottyk]

 

[ARandall]

maybe you are missing my point
i think every side got his part of truth.
sorry if i bothered you mate with my comments

A relic can be done by anyone, not just a factory. Its the art of inducing wear deliberately so a guitar looks older or more used than it is. So yes, your example of deliberately leaving a guitar out is relicing, not natural wear - and the accidental leaving out is real wear.
The difference is in intent, which of course is the whole point in case you missed it. The differences physically can be huge all the way down to being identical......as some well done relics will attest to.


I'd love to post my 74 Custom in all its mostly unchecked and relatively
well kept glory, but I'm quite literally half a world away from it atm.

 

[Bartmuley]

Yeah "relicing" a guitar is lame IMO.

I've had my 93 Classic for around 16 years now (I bought it new for my dad who had it for around 5 years before he passed away) and I've played the living hell out of the thing, dropped it, scratched it,etc etc etc. All naturally.

And unless you look closely at the thing it still looks pretty good. The only finish that's worn off from 16 years of hard playing is right at the very top and it's just a tiny area. It's back is scratched up but nowhere on the back is it gone. It does have some good size dents from where it's fallen over or I dropped it, but overall it has held up really well.

That's why "relics" are so lame to me, to get the amount of wear those guitars have you'd have to play constantly for 50 years and treat the guitar like crap, yet you see guys who can barely play spending thousands on reliced guitars that look like they've been played forever and a day.

It's just lame.

I own 3 LP but my classic is the only one where I know where every ding or scratch came from, because I (or my father, but he took immaculate care of the guitar while it was his so it still looked almost new when I inherited it) put them there.

Like I said just using my guitar as a gauge it's much harder to put wear on LP than most people think.

 

[ARandall]

Not all relics are the '50 years of constant use' type. Those are often the bad ones. The good ones I doubt you'd be able to tell from a nice 25-30yo instrument that has been used regularly but not abused. Those are the good ones.

Its an art form....and like art you have varying opinions. Maybe there are people out there who think anyone who wears anything but stiff unresponsive pure denim jeans are posers.

Quite frankly I don't like brand new guitars. Its like the 'apprentices first day on the job overalls'. Like you've just bought a shiny new car and are showing it off.

 

[2manyGuitars]

Quite frankly I don't like brand new guitars. Its like the 'apprentices first day on the job overalls'. Like you've just bought a shiny new car and are showing it off.

But until the recent availability of factory relic'd guitars, that's how every guitar started out. Even those beautifully worn examples most of us covet.

Remember, Pearly Gates was once a shiny new Les Paul hanging in a mom & pop music store.