I did not understand this whole concept when I was reading about it. Basically the factory can ding up and wear out the body of a guitar and sell it to you for a premium price so you look like you have been playing the thing for years. It lines up with the $300 jeans with stains and holes in them brand new. Makes no sense to me. If the guitars are blemished, sell them at a discounted price. That brings me to a good question...does fender have some kind of outlet for factory seconds?

I don't think that relic amplifiers will ever really catch on.. The whole point of the relic guitar that most don't seem to get is that guitars sound better with age. Amplifiers rarely do. It's not about faking people into thinking that you have had this guitar for years and years and you earned every one of those nicks and scratches. It's a simple matter of association: older=better sound. And since most wouldn't be able to tell the difference in sound anyway as long as it looks the part that's good enough.

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Custom Shop '59 Strat with John Cruz Master Design Pickups
Vibro King
Fulltone Clyde>Deja-Vibe>TS-808>TS-9>Boss Tuner

I think I could do a better DIY relic job on an amp than on a guitar though.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I`m done evaluating, it`s definitely poser with an art factor. I don't think I could play live with one without kind of feeling like a knob, especially when people ask "what year is that strat?" or whatever; because an old beat up guitar inevitably draws those questions. Then you gotta say, oh, it`s a Road worn issue, and then if they don't know what you mean, you have to go into detail, after which they will politely go "ohhhh, neat" while they secretly snicker at you for being a poser, or worse, ask why you wouldn't just buy a nice one.
I might own one as an art piece though, but gee whiz.

Of course these are my own opinions, so buy 'em up ya knobs!
-again, just kidding, posers.

-there I go again, I don't really mean that.

I think the only thing that would change my mind is have a lend of one for a while.
Fender? Let me know and I`ll send my adress.

I'm looking forward to the day when I go into my local music shop, point to the Road Worn hanging on the wall, and ask why that old, beat up, clearly non-vintage Strat has such a high price tag on it.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

+1 Or asking, "Who played on it?" I just haven't been able to bring myself to go into a shop since before Christmas. GAS and no funds is a bad combination.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I think the fretboards look terrible. Worse in person even than the pictures.

I don't get it, it's like cheating on a test you know you could ace.

But if people buy them then good for Fender. There's tons of pre worn guitars at pawn shops for hundreds less. But if you if you want Fender to "Officially" wear your guitar then pay them for it.

I always thought the term poser only applied to skateboarding..

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2007 Fender MIM Strat Midnight Wine
1965 Univox HR-2 "Lawsuit" ES-335 Knockoff
Ovation Celebrity Shallow Bowl

I thought I had responded to this thread already but I'm not seeing it. Either way, I just looked at the Road Worn's this last weekend for the first time at GC and I have to honestly say...I don't get it. I really don't understand why anyone would pay -more- for a new instrument that comes pre-beat up from the factory. I still have my first "real" electric...a Memphis LP copy that I got when I was 17 (I'm 43 now) and while she certainly does bear the "scars of my more impetuous youth" aesthetically speaking, she still looks better than these RW's. I will admit that I do go out of my way to try and take decent care of my instruments...my '96 MIM is now 12 years old and she's only got one or two small dings. To me, guitars are not only wonderful things to play but they are also lovely things to look at as well (typically speaking that is) and I really just don't understand why someone would want an instrument that "looks" all beat up. More over, if I'm going to own a guitar that really is -that- worn, I want it to be worn by ME...not some machinist in a factory somewhere.

Now for the sake of fairness here, I should probably add that for a person who really is looking for an instrument like this, I think the effect was very well done. Compared with other instruments that I've seen "relic'd", the so called wear on these things does look pretty authentic. I just couldn't bring myself to play one of these so I can really say how well they perform, but being a new instrument (despite their looks) I would expect one to play as well as any other new Strat sitting on the shelf.

Also to be fair, I could maybe see it if the Custom Shop were building exact replicas of say SRV's #1 for example...that would make sense. A perspective buyer would want the instrument to look right. But that's a very specific situation and very specific instrument. That said, again I simply just don't get it. To me this is like going out and buying a brand new car that someone at the factory took a sledge hammer to and put some dents in the rear quarter and then put some nice key scratches down the side of. How about a busted headlight and one school bus yellow rim with a bald tire to? Yea...that would be really appealing on a brand new car! LOL!!! Seriously...would you buy a brand new computer where the monitor was already yellow from cigarette smoke with some nice burns in the keyboard let alone spend more for it? Wouldn't you instead buy the nice shiny one sitting next to it? How about a brand new piece of furniture where the edges had that classic "cat scratching post" look? Maybe I should let my dogs chew on my guitar cables so I can sell them for an extra $10 to $20 on Ebay! Yea.....right.....

Eh...I don't get it (and hopefully I -never- will).

Peace,
Jim

Hello all. I've had a question that maybe someone could answer for me. Let's say someone gets a relic'ed guitar say maybe the David Gilmour relic. If by playing it and putting your own wear marks and scratches on it will it still be a Gilmour relic?

I have a friend who's a certified Fender Tech, I asked him about how they relic them, I read they put them in freezers to weather the finish. He told me that's what they tell people they do but they dont. They actually will spray the finish with freon to do it. I wouldnt pay close to a grand for a Mexican strat, let alone one they relic up and word it to make it sound like they put all this work into it. I dont understand spending an extra $600 on CS guitars to make it look beat, but thats me.

I don't get the whole relic/road worn thing at all. I am one of those people who tries to keep everything looking new. I was in GC yesterday, and they had a bunch of them, I played one, was not impressed at all. My son couldn't believe they were NEW guitars.

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1994 Standard Strat, Blue
2000 Standard Strat, Black, with GFS block, and GFS Lil Killer pickup.
2004 Standard Telecaster, Black
1971 Gibson SG
1985 Kramer Baretta
1986 Kramer Vangard
Carvin X60B
Marshall 50 watt 2x12 combo

I have a hard enough time explaining to my wife I need a new guitar, let alone trying to explain paying for one that is already worn out. I do respect the opinions of those that do like them they're just not for me.

I think these guitars in the future, are going to to be graded by people with a full size picture of how it was originally, and then the wear pattern is going to be compared to a standard template.

Not me style..mate .... .. I'd say ...

Why should I pay for someone to ding and wear down my guitar when I'm a specialist at that ...