Okay so heres the story. A few months ago I walked into the Mesa Boogie shop to try out the lonestar amp. I grabbed the nearest strat that caught my eye. A baby blue relic nash strat. I wasnt impressed with the amp, but I kept playing the Nash strat. Since that day I've been looking for one cheap (The one in the shop costs $1,890) I found a few on eBay for around 1,500 but I'm still in love with that blue one in the MESA shop. I thought it was just my GAS acting up but I went back on Saturday and it was STILL there and I'm STILL in love with it. If I sell my American Strat & My 50s Classic players Ill still need around $500-600 dollars and with that much I was thinking about relicing my classic players strat. I have a old squire body to practice on (I've never relic'd before) I'm kinda going off topic but I want a strat like the Nash without paying the Nash price. I think I could buy the lollard pickups and do the relic job myself for under $500 but the thing I'm scared of is if I f*ck up theres no going back and I'll be stuck with a strat I despise and wont be able to sell. What do you guys think? Can someone give me some relic-ing tips or past expierences with doing this?

Thanks,

Chris

I relic'd my MIM body to match the old neck from a previous incarnation.

Truth be told its not a easy process. A little is more than enough when working on urethane or polyester.

The first thing to do is get the gloss off the body. I did that with some rubbing compound and some p1500 grit sandpaper.
This is what you want to get rid of



to more like this. (excuse the excessive whiteness of the scratchplate, i had the lighting wound right up)



Rub as lightly as you can with plenty water, I finished up using the buffing attatchment on a orbital sander and T-cut.

Next I aged the metal parts by mixing orange juice with white vinegar and soaking the metal parts for around two and a half days. I relic'd gold parts, the concoction took the gold off them. This left a really nice aged nickel look to the trem, tuners and jacksocket. Be very careful to clean off the trem and tuners really well once you've aged them. They still have to work and will need oiling.



They used to be gold.

Once you've done that start moving onto dings and dents. I basicaly took a scalpel and cut where I want them to be. This guitar of mine does a hell of a lot of traveling and work. Weakening certain areas with a scalpel and transporting the guitar without a case is doing a good job of dinging it up. As for forearm wear tape some sandpaper on your right arm where it contacts the guitar then play the thing. That will show you where the wear needs to go. How heavy or light you make that wear is up to you. Personaly I prefer less.


Then onto the back. I pretty much did exactly the same, except the sandpaper was stuck onto my jeans.

As I said its very very easy to go overboard. Polyurethane is hard to work on, polyester almost impossible.

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Thanks Niki. That was really helpful.

Any tips on sanding down the neck?

Shred gave me a great tip when I wanted to alter the shape of the back of my neck. Start with 160grit then move to 180grit. I only had 120 and 180. So I made a couple of passes with the 120, literaly just enough to key into the lacquer. Then did the rest with 180. As always remember you can always take some more off but you cant add more. Being light seems to be the key with all this stuff. After all you want the thing to look worn, not battered. I'd rather just give the relic'ing process a helping hand than go from shiney to 'found on a rubbish dump' and be safe.

In truth the neck of that guitar has been well played for 15years now (I aged the body to match the neck), its desperately in need of a refret. The lacquer is starting to flake off the fingerboard from the trebleside edge. Consequently I havent done much at all to the fingerboard, it hasnt needed it. I'd be very careful on the fingerboard, urethane just is not like cellulose and doesnt respond the same way. Maybe a polishing attatchment on a dremel between strings will be enough. I seem to remember that from a Blackie copy article I saw in a guitar mag. I'll try and dig it out.

I'm in no way a expert at this stuff, its all seat of the pants. If you decide to go ahead and do it, please share any techniques you come up with. Accurate relic'ing techniques seem to be a closed shop. Perhaps folks decided they could make too much money doing it for other people.

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Thanks alot. I plan on starting this weekend. Ill post pictures then.

Now I need to find that old squire body.