Ugly relic guitars

[Nick]

This "Fender Custom Shop" instrument was just advertised by a UK dealer for a staggering £3695. Am I missing something? I think it might just about be the silliest looking relic Fender guitar I've seen thus far

[innerflight]

That looks stupid as fuck

I’m not a fan of anything having a relic look especially pedals

[Dr Tony Balls]

That one is particularly odd because I dont know what Fender color that green is supposed to be. And if it's not a custom Fender color then I guess this is a relic of a "non-factory" refin which is just odd.

What gets me about bad relic jobs is when there's wear in odd-ass places. Like that arc on the lower bout by the jack? What's that all about? Same for the wear on the lower horn. Just weird.

[2guests]

I'm tripping! That green is just melting away into the ancient sun that's hidden deep inside that guitar, wow. It's eclipsing into itself by the jack plate.

[walkingtiger]

Relics are a bummer in general

[Markusgit81]

Relics are a bummer in general

I really didn’t like them for a long time as well, always said to myself my guitar will look like one of those after playing a lot over the years. My main guitar is a Fender Strat from 91 and boy I play that guitar for nearly 30 years every day and at every gig and sometimes I really treat her badly and what happens…the laquer is like cement. So 4 years ago I bought a relic Strat with some nice wear…

[walkingtiger]

Relics are a bummer in general

I really didn’t like them for a long time as well, always said to myself my guitar will look like one of those after playing a lot over the years. My main guitar is a Fender Strat from 91 and boy I play that guitar for nearly 30 years every day and at every gig and sometimes I really treat her badly and what happens…the laquer is like cement. So 4 years ago I bought a relic Strat with some nice wear…

Right on, totally to each their own :)

My last strat had an Olympic white poly finish that I played exclusively for years. The amount of sweat that guitar swam in during gigs was disgusting. I swear towards to end of my ownership, the paint was wearing through the top layers like on your relic but I never hit the wood. I’m pretty sure it had something to do with my sweat, but it’s definitely possible to wear finishes through if you don’t cycle through a large selections of guitars over time. My dad has the same strat right now that he’s worn through the poly on the fretboard from around 15 years of use. If you’re looking for a quick fix, I’m sure relics satisfy the itch for some. Yours is tasteful compared to the earlier example :)

[Nick]

My first 'proper' guitar was my Mexican Strat which I've had for something like 18 years(!) now and the polyester finish is impenetrable. The few spots where it suffered a bang or a drop have small eggshell-cracks and there's also some ugly discolouration, but it really feels like the body was dunked into molten plastic and allowed to solidify. Laundromat's MIJ(?) Telecaster had what I think was a polyurethane finish instead, and it was thinner and looked more like the nitro paint on my 'classic lacquer' series bass — much better.

[Dr Tony Balls]

~6 years ago I built myself a Jazz Bass and bought one of those MJT bodies for it off of Ebay. The guy obviously specializes in relic finishes but this one was completely clean. Maybe that's "closet clean" or just not relic'd at all...not sure. However it is a Nitro finish and it has been relic'ing kinda quickly by itself over the years.

[Rygar]

I like Fenders with metalflake finishes. I don't mind the weight and they seem tough.
I just got a 70th Ann Stratocaster in a Nebula Noir finish, it's not really metalflake and it looks like they routed the cavities after it had been painted. Seems like really thin and hard polyester. Almost looks like that "wastebucket sparkle" they did with all the lefover metalflakes mixed together. I never had a strat with a two point bridge, has that metalic attack like a Floyd Rose without all that extra crap.