Relic - ing a MIM?

[Winston]

Is it possible to relic a MIM 50's classic strat to look like the wear on Dave's strat at the top of the page? The finish is poly on the MIM classics (I think) so will it wear like that, or can it be made to look worn like that?

[burst_king]

Poly doesn't wear, it chips. Go into a large guitar store and look at the edges of some Fenders, they chip rather than ding.

[Riscchip]

As burst_king mentions, poly will have a different dynamic than a nitro finish in terms of wear, though I've seen some realistic looking checking on poly.

For best results, you would probably want to strip and refinish it, then patinate the guitar from there. Alternately, you could do an "overspray" relic like this one:

http://reranch.august.net/62relicsml.jpg

Not that I have any first hand experience doing ANY of this, mind you. ;)

--Risc

[burst_king]

If you just want to check the poly, try chilling the finish (ice cubes?) and then heating it with a hair dryer. You'll hear the checking! Just make sure not to over do it because the finish could flake off.

[bjm007]

Originally posted by burst_king
If you just want to check the poly, try chilling the finish (ice cubes?) and then heating it with a hair dryer. You'll hear the checking! Just make sure not to over do it because the finish could flake off.

BurstKing,

I've gotten better results by doing it in reverse. Heat it up with the hair dryer, then hit it with freon, circuit chiller, whatever. But if you want the cracks to go a "certain" way, like a Murphy headstock does, you gotta cut the cracks in first with a razor blade.

Otherwise, for a more natural look, find a friend in the grocery business. Wait till summer (like now...) put the guitar in the freezer overnight. Get the frozen guitar and then put it directly in the hot sun. You can even put the case directly on a hot asphault parking stall. You can watch the cracks in the lacquer happen right before your eyes (if it's nitro...) Poly wont work the same way...