Relic'ing - my first attempt. (and probably my only one!)

[carlsim]

I know this won't be to everyone's taste, but I have noticed that 'generally' everyone likes a little bit of mojo in a bass, particularly older ones. I do too, and despite a lack of finances recently due to house moves and extensions costing the earth I have hankered after a 70s P bass with the TV logo. Sadly, I can't afford one, plus I don't play 4 string much so it wouldn't get a lot of use. So I bought a 2006 Squire VM P bass in Olympic white which has nicely yellowed and set about creating my own relic p bass. The one thing I wanted to do was to re-do the headstcok with a period correct logo (I'm not trying to fool anyone here and have kept photos of the bass in it's original state) and a look that harks back to the vintage, amber-y headstocks of that period.

I'm not fussed about absolute period correctness, but have ordered a decal online which I like and set about sanding down the old decal. Man that was a pain! Anyway...

 

What I wanted to share was a little tip which I kind of discovered by accident. I'm trying to aged the hardware as well and found online that Iron Chloride works well to age nickel hardware. None of the parts I currently have are nickel but thought I would try it on Chrome but it does absolutely bugger all! Anyway... I thought, what about wood? I was trying different things to darken the fresh maple (tea and coffee) and this did very little. I was given quite a weak mixture of Iron Chloride and using a cotton bud I dabbed it onto some bare wood and it instantly stained quite dark. Ooh! Quite cool but too much... however, after another lot of sanding i was quite please with how it looks! Very aged and I chucked on a quick bit of tinted amber nitro from NorthWest Guitars and I am really pleased with how it looks compared to where it started. It's only had a very thin coat of the nitro but I will add the decal and then add a few more layers of the nitro.

 

It's never going to look like an authentic 70s bass but I don't think it will be far away without close inspection. I just thought I would share a little insight into something I discovered by accident. I'm experimenting quite a bit with different ideas but will post anything else I find plus some pics of the bass when it is finished, but if anyone wants to ad their own discoveries about relicing, it would be much appreciated. I know a homemade relic is not going to be close to a custom shop but where is the fun in that!

Some pics of the original headstock and where I am currently at. Just waiting for the decal to arrive.

Edited Tuesday at 10:56 by carlsim

[Pea Turgh]

I discovered a good relicing technique - let your teenage kids use your gear.  Sooo many more dings in everything now.  Even the walls.

 

Not so much of a fashion, but they are especially talented at relicing my f*****g leads!  It’s like a bowl of rice crispies when I plug anything in.

 

On a more serious note, that Monty’s stuff on the fretboard seems great (though your board seems nicely dark already in the pic).  Also stick a lit fag behind the nut on the E string and let it scorch the wood!

[Beedster]

19 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

I discovered a good relicing technique - let your teenage kids use your gear.  Sooo many more dings in everything now.  Even the walls.

 

Yep, similarly lend your bass to the singer/guitarist/drummist when they 'need to write some bass parts for the song they're working on' (because you're not trusted to do that), and you'll see authentic wear within days 👍

[itu]

If you want your SSRW strings sound like flats, loan your bass for a couple of weeks to someone else. Do they wash their hands at all?

[carlsim]

So I finally finished my initial attempt at relic'ing and the creation of a 70s inspired p bass with TV logo. It's not a heavy relic as i didn't have the confidence to go all out, but I really like the vintage amber nitro on the neck and headstock...

 

I'm hoping it will wear pretty quick and leave a dirty bare wood underneath... something I may help along it's way with a bit more research...

 

So it started out as a standard squire VM p bass... now it certainly has a well worn in vibe to it... it certainly won't fool anyone but I like it! In time, I think I will look for some aged tuners and bridge as well... Or nickel hardware I can age with some Iron Chloride!

Edited Tuesday at 10:46 by carlsim

[Si600]

That's a nice looking thing, I think you've done enough relicing to be honest. 

 

It's got a nasty angle from the nut to the E string post mind you 😉

[carlsim]

3 hours ago, Si600 said:

It's got a nasty angle from the nut to the E string post mind you 😉

Yeah I noticed that… not sure what I can do about it to be honest….

[Si600]

Bugger all I suspect. The others have a good run and if you plugged and redrilled the E then it wouldn't line up with the rest.

[JPJ]

For an accurate ‘70s period relic, you need to add the cigarette burns to the headstock 😉

[carlsim]

42 minutes ago, JPJ said:

For an accurate ‘70s period relic, you need to add the cigarette burns to the headstock 😉

 

Ha! I'm not a smoker so am going to bypass that option! The iron chloride I used to stain the wood left some dark patches so I'm quite happy with that look...  I don't know if that was a just a thing on Clapton's strat though - or whether other famous relics suffered the same?

[BassTool]

Nice one, I'm definitely not a fan of the relic thing as I've always tried to look after all my basses, but that looks authentic enough to me 👍🏼