Relic'd Guitars - Why?
Wear and tear are inevitable, I try to avoid damaging my guitars, not spend mega bucks to make it look old and beat up.
The major maker of guitars have a variety of factories, turning out exemplars across a wide range of price/performance levels, and even have separate “budget” brands. Fender has Squire, and Gibson has Epiphone. In many cases, these budget brands are remarkably near the quality of workmanship as the main lines.
But also, the two majors have “Custom” shops, where a small group of artisans turn out a series of special guitars. Either matching iconic past units, or just superior workmanship. For this, you can expect to need to hawk a kidney to afford one. Starting at about $4k, they quickly get to $6K or even higher.
Many times, they will replicate precisely instruments played by famous people. An extreme example is the Rory Gallagher relic’d Fender Stratocaster. Rory was an Irish player who was once referred to by Jimi Hendrix as the best player on the planet. NO small praise. In 1962, he was a young player in Ireland, and he bought a slightly used Stratocaster for the princely sum of 100 British Pounds. He also had a genetic condition where his perspiration was very acidic, and that led to wild wear of his guitar. Furthermore, he was constantly fiddling with the guitar, changing electronics and other parts. By the end (he passed in 1995) his main guitar was pretty rough looking, but it was also perversely associated with Rory.
When the Fender Custom Shop built a replica, they first matched the original specs. The body, the neck profile, and the like from his 1962 vintage. Then they carefully built it with all the crazy mods Rory did. Lastly, they undertook severe relic-ing to make it look like his main axe. These were released in 2022, with the bargain price of $4,699, and a very limited number of units for sale. All sold out, and if you want one today, expect to shell out about $2K more.
If you are a collector, then I guess it makes sense. You buy it, put it in a display case, or keep it in the hardshell case, taking it out when you want to admire it.
But to me, that just feels like blasphemy. Guitar are meant to be played. Your fingers need to touch the wood, the strings need to vibrate, and the music needs to be pleasing to someone’s ears.
Thus, I am not really a fan of the whole artificially relic’d instruments.
Now, not all guitars made by the custom shop are relic’d monsters, some are just very high quality replicas of past masters, and if you lay your hands on them, you will understand why the master builders are at the top of their game. Alas, the prices are a wee bit out of my comfort zone.
I can ding mine up well enough on my own or with help from the cat. No serious damage yet anyway.