Us guitarists can be an awfully strange bunch.
Like any group, getting those among us to agree on what should and shouldn't be is tantamount to impossible. Be it the debates on active or passive pickups, tone woods, picks, guitar shapes, number of strings, etc etc...
But what I'm here to share with you all today, are my feelings on what are known as relic'd guitars.
What does that mean? Well, several guitar companies offer guitars that have a worn-in look. The guitar is made and finished, and then artificially aged, giving it bumps, scrapes, a faded retro finish, and wear marks in all the expected places a guitar would accrue over a long period of time.
I can see two advantages to this. Firstly, the guitar will feel more "broken in" at first touch. A brand new guitar can be like a new pair of shoes in a manner of speaking; it can take time before it becomes familiar and feels like it is yours. Secondly, being all beat up looking absolves the player of any guilt for bashes they might make in the guitar on their own- what's another little chip, right?
The thing is, it costs.
An example: a brand new American-made Fender Stratocaster will cost you in the region of £800. Modern build quality, attention to detail, a trusted brand and a classic design. You get all of this in pretty much any colour you like, there are a ton of different finishes, from candy-apple red to tobacco-sunburst to sea foam green.
However, if you want a relic Stratocaster, the price rises- nay, skyrockets- to around £2000-2500. For a beat-up looking guitar. Why?
The only reason I can think of, is that the process of making a guitar look 50 years older than it is, convincingly, must be quite time-consuming and therefore expensive to produce. Another reason, is that no two are exactly the same, because it's all done by hand. But if you really love the look of relic'd guitars, there is a much cheaper way to get what you want.
Buy the brand new one, and play it every day, for decades. A relic won't make you a better player- spending time with a guitar however, will. I can also guarantee that you will amass bashes and chips aplenty- and what's more- they will mean something to you. It becomes not just a bash, but a memory. It's a scar, and you and the guitar earned it somehow. The stories that they tell will be your stories. They can be tragic when they happen, but they become part of it and you learn to love it- it makes it yours. Relic guitars are the equivalent of a young hipster wearing "vintage" clothes. They have no history, they have no stories, they just try to look the part.
On top of this- I do want to take the opportunity to say that an old guitar, (or old guitar design) is not necessarily a good one. New designs have learnt a lot from their predecessors; what worked, what didnt, what felt wrong, and what felt right. Build quality has also improved over time as luthiers have learnt new techniques in how to get the best sounds out of the instrument, as well as making it ergonomic and easy to pick up and play. Back in the 50s and 60s, many of the classic guitars (particularly electric ones) were still finding their feet sound-wise, and had not yet made the tones they are now famous for.
But these are just my opinions. If you are reading this and are a guitarist, what do you think? Leave a comment in the section below!
