Nashville Fretworks does the relic'ing thing to about 100 guitars

[Kerry Krishna]

  These folks are doing a job that not many other folks are doing, and they seem to be getting quite the rep for it too. Have a look for yourself at these dozens of axes and tell me how realistic some of the relic'ing is... 

Relic'd axes galore

[Robbie Collins]

I can understand trying to take the "new" off of a guitar. I remember trying to do the same thing with sneakers when I was in junior high. I personally prefer more realistic aging like Tom Murphy does to LPs, but, hey, different strokes for different folks.  I'm letting my Eric Johnson Strat earn its cachet though hard work.

That being said, I've done modest relic'ing for customers. For example, I took a new '57 Strat reissue, rolled back the gloss with micromesh pads, then fumed the hardware with muriatic acid.  At the moment I'm converting a Mexican Jazz Bass to an early 60's custom color with matching headstock and period appropriate logo. While I dind't think anyone would be fooled, I kept P. T. Barnum's adage "there's a sucker born every minute" in mind and put a disclaimer in the neck cavity and under the pickguard.

However, most of the relic-ing by Nashville Fretworks isn't very realistic but, rather, hyperbolic.  I guess this is appropriate because when I was in college and a dedicated member of the drama club the faculty director used to tell us to exaggerate movements because small movements were lost. It's probably the same thing here. The wear is exaggerated and stylized to look cool under the lights from a distance.

So, I'm not upset about the relic'ing thing (I do find the spelling annoying: the correct pronunciation of "relicing" is "re-liss-ing" which is why I always use the apostrophe. Just a pedant, I guess.). It's one thing to do it to a handmade or vintage guitar but quite another to mass produced slabs. These guitars are made by the tens of thousands so it's not like history is being lost. In the end, I just say in my very best old geezer voice, while rolling my eyes and shaking my head, "these young people and their crazy fashions! What will they think of next?"

I do have some cognitive dissonance about the conflicting appraisal standards for used/vintage and relic'ed guitars. The amount that the market wants to deduct for some rather superficial cosmetic problems on older guitars can be too large. I think it's partly because the guitar market hasn't really stabilized since it went into freefall in 2008.

[Kerry Krishna]

 Jim  Merrill is now doing his guitars at his  shop...

Jim's relic'd guitar