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Relic-ing: is it still a thing?


skankdelvar

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Never been a fan. A proper time-served, well gigged bass maybe. I've always tried to look after my kit and mostly it is in decent condition. The odd knock is inevitable, and something that has been played for hundreds of hours may show some signs of wear. However something that looks like it's been run over by a tractor is just "fake news" and trying too hard. All imho of course 

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What would you do with this Maya P-Bass (other than put it on eBay as an overpriced 'lawsuit era Japanese bass')?

I've added ashtray and a new scratchplate since this picture and they look great, but the lacquer has cracked and flaked really badly in several places, not just te two spots in the picture. In a few places I glued great chunks of lacquer back on with PVA!

It's tempting to crack off the broken lacquer and sand the holes smooth to get a relicked look... the alternative would be a complete respray which might be beyond my skills or more than the bass is worth.

To relic or not to relic.

Mystery Holes.JPG

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3 minutes ago, Norris said:

Never been a fan. A proper time-served, well gigged bass maybe. I've always tried to look after my kit and mostly it is in decent condition. The odd knock is inevitable, and something that has been played for hundreds of hours may show some signs of wear. However something that looks like it's been run over by a tractor is just "fake news" and trying too hard. All imho of course 

^ This^

As someone who has always looked after my gear, I just do not get the relic thing - at all.

Don't get me wrong, my own basses show many signs of years of gigging, but to deliberately 'damage' a bass to make it look used just does absolutely nowt for me 🤔

Just my opinion  ;)

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6 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

To relic or not to relic.

Mystery Holes.JPG

If it happened naturally it's mojo. It's up to you if you leave it, or sand the edges to minimise any more loss of lacquer, or even to have it refinished 

My guitarist has a 70s strat that he played hard for about 3 decades. It has lost most of the lacquer from the top horn. Natural wear and tear. Of course it's now far too valuable to play down the Dog & Duck...

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Yep, it’s still a thing.

I like it, and they are around.

Its just a finish, not sure why there is so much ire about it especially whilst turdburst still lives on, it’s not pretending to be anything, unless we also think burst is deliberately trying to look like the Bristol Stool Chart

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21 minutes ago, Norris said:

If it happened naturally it's mojo. It's up to you if you leave it, or sand the edges to minimise any more loss of lacquer, or even to have it refinished 

The problem is the edges of the flaking lacquer stick up and if I pick it off it's going to look like that patch at the bottom.

Temptation is to pick it off then sand down the edges, but then it will look like a bad relic job!

Trouble is I don't play it enough to wear it down!

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1 hour ago, skankdelvar said:

:) Not even particularly the cack-handed belt-sander approach. Like I say, maybe it's just me but relic-ing (even high end expert stuff) seems to be less visible and talked about than in recent history.

If you mean 'we don't seem to have had our weekly relic thread (up until this one), then it may be true.

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48 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

If you mean 'we don't seem to have had our weekly relic thread (up until this one), then it may be true.

I must have missed some of the more recent relic threads. Just idly wondering if the phenomenon might be waning in popularity. 

Perhaps not...

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2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

What would you do with this Maya P-Bass ... the lacquer has cracked and flaked really badly in several places, not just te two spots in the picture. In a few places I glued great chunks of lacquer back on with PVA!

It's tempting to crack off the broken lacquer and sand the holes smooth to get a relicked look

My old poly-coated 3TSB '71 P (which reappeared in the Marketplace recently) had some very rough flaking around the upper bout. So your Maya is technically correct. Smoothing the cracked lacquer would technically make it less 'authentic' and more 'improved'.

Anyway, nice Maya :)

Edited by skankdelvar
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Professional luthiers can achieve light relics accurately and tastefully.  Once you go medium or heavy relic that's where it all goes astray IMHO.

I've had light relic nitro finish done on a vintage Fender that came to me in a non-Fender colour.  That for me is as far as you should go.

I love the heavy relic look but only when it's real.

Peace 

Davo

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I reliced my bass and comments were generally favourable which means I did a reasonable job. 

I didn’t do it wanting approval but validation is nice.

It was a heavy relic job - it’s a finish just like any other, I give you the recent Matt finishes from fender 

 

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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on finishes, that’s cool.

Broadly speaking, they that don’t like a relic finish, don’t seem to mind one which has ‘earnt’ its relic with natural wear.

Lets take classic basses out the equation - you have 2 identical models up for sale second hand let’s say about 10 years old - 1 home use only, looking as it did from the shop, the other patina’d and mojo’d to the max - but not abused, and well looked after electronics, frets everything etc.

Should there be a price differential?

Would those that like an earned mojo try to knock money off for wear and tear?

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10 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

This for me is the worst kind of relicing. Thomann had two of these until fairly recently, but now have only one, which leads me to conclude that someone has actually bought the other one. The remaining one (below) is priced at just under £13,000 and that is much reduced from what they were originally. I assume this price drop resulted in the sale. I love me a Fodera, but that's just criminal.

 

Screenshot 2019-03-05 at 22.19.34.png

  I can understand some wear above the lowest string cos that's where your fingers would fall to after plucking   but under normal playing circumstances, how would the area between the G string and the edge get so badly worn?

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2 minutes ago, jacko said:

  I can understand some wear above the lowest string cos that's where your fingers would fall to after plucking   but under normal playing circumstances, how would the area between the G string and the edge get so badly worn?

Slapping whilst wearing a chain mail glove.

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5 minutes ago, Low End Bee said:

Slapping whilst wearing a chain mail glove.

prompted me to look at some pictures of victor wooten and his fodera is indeed worn in that area.  Can't think of any other players damaging their instruments that badly

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11 minutes ago, jacko said:

  I can understand some wear above the lowest string cos that's where your fingers would fall to after plucking   but under normal playing circumstances, how would the area between the G string and the edge get so badly worn?

Or the studs on your forehead when you are playing with  your teeth...

latest?cb=20130205120422

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