Relic-ing: is it still a thing?

[Al Krow]

7 hours ago, Ricky 4000 said:

I have some trained woodworms for sale @ £3 each if anybody's interested? 👍

Bloody hell that's expensive. What are you selling them for on fleabay?

[stingrayPete1977]

Does the real 'mojo' on basses appear all at once? My main gigging bass is a nearly ten year old stingray 5 and its got a few tiny marks so far, if I get the same every decade for the next three it would still be in good condition, will I get it out the case one day and find it looking like it's been to the Gaza strip? 

[Cuzzie]

Depends if you employed @Ricky 4000 ‘s wiggly worms

[leftybassman392]

25 minutes ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

Does the real 'mojo' on basses appear all at once? My main gigging bass is a nearly ten year old stingray 5 and its got a few tiny marks so far, if I get the same every decade for the next three it would still be in good condition, will I get it out the case one day and find it looking like it's been to the Gaza strip? 

Ongoing neglect is the key I think. Best way is to give it varying degrees of low-key abuse from the outset. No need to drop it down the stairs or anything; bunging it into a carrier bag with all your pedals and cables for a few years ought to do it. And whatever you do, never, ever put it into a protective case or gig bag. Kiss of death! Short sleeves and lots of sweat would be good too. Just remember not to wipe it down after a gig is all.

Edited March 11, 2019 by leftybassman392

[ubit]

 Belts, bangles and beer. The unholy trinity that will make a mess of your finish. Well these and a few years of hard gigging. It’s just that modern finishes don’t wear in the cool way that the old ones do. 

[Ricky 4000]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Bloody hell that's expensive. What are you selling them for on fleabay?

Fleabay? I'm insulted. That's where you might buy untrained Chinese ones, like the relicing factories use.

You'll soon find out if those cheap worms can follow an engineering drawing, and more importantly, one that's drawn in English!

32 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Depends if you employed @Ricky 4000 ‘s wiggly worms

Four for a tenner.

[BigRedX]

11 hours ago, tauzero said:

How can you possibly suggest a refin?

What's wrong with a refin?

[BigRedX]

20 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

But if you strip it to make it relickeyingable, does that then also count as fake mojo, forced mojo etc.......

IMO all "mojo" is fake. Musicians who really cared about their instruments would have them repaired and refinish as and when it became necessary.

A bit like having your car serviced.

[Cuzzie]

Not entirely

respray is not part of a service.

All mojo is good mojo whether or not it’s then buffed and refinished or allowed to be viewed whenever it’s has been created.

Mojo - is just ‘style’ you can’t say Prince Phillip has more Mojo than Brad Pitt because he been around longer.

Cars is a good one tho - my 15 year old Battered Honda Civic was legendary - few scars - worked a dream - someone drove into me, I had to apologise to them for leaving the funk of 40 thousand years on their brand new car, plus no one ever tried to steal or break into it

[tauzero]

46 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

What's wrong with a refin?

Suggesting it. On BC.

[stingrayPete1977]

Relic on a fender clone I can sort of see to some extent, on basses like sandbergs where the model hasn't been around long enough just baffles me. 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Bloody hell that's expensive. What are you selling them for on fleabay?

The worms may be cheap, but do you know what goes into the training?

[BigRedX]

16 minutes ago, tauzero said:

Suggesting it. On BC.

Which is why I've done it. Personally the only reason I can see for not getting a worn bass (or guitar) refinished is because you can't afford it.

You don't see drum kits, keyboards or brass instruments that have been relic'd so why guitars and basses?

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

Does the real 'mojo' on basses appear all at once? My main gigging bass is a nearly ten year old stingray 5 and its got a few tiny marks so far, if I get the same every decade for the next three it would still be in good condition, will I get it out the case one day and find it looking like it's been to the Gaza strip? 

When I 'found' my Perfromer, it was unloved and abandoned in the corner of the 'practice studio'. I bought it for £80 (🤪) and spent ages getting the thick layer of dust-encrusted sticky yellow crud off. It can only have been five or six years old but looked ancient!

It's now 33 and looks much younger than when I got it!

[tauzero]

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

Which is why I've done it. Personally the only reason I can see for not getting a worn bass (or guitar) refinished is because you can't afford it.

You don't see drum kits, keyboards or brass instruments that have been relic'd so why guitars and basses?

I think the sarcasm may have escaped you. Look at the first post on page 6.

If an instrument looks tatty, I see no reason whatsoever not to have it refinished. Still, I avoid the issue by avoiding painted instruments, and taking reasonable care of my basses.

[Cuzzie]

@stingrayPete1977 I suppose Sandberg has only been going since 1986, you never get wear on basses over a 33 year time period, they are just getting warmed up...

[BigRedX]

21 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

@stingrayPete1977 I suppose Sandberg has only been going since 1986, you never get wear on basses over a 33 year time period, they are just getting warmed up...

Unless they are Fenders where the finish seems to get damaged just by looking at it 😉

[stingrayPete1977]

21 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

@stingrayPete1977 I suppose Sandberg has only been going since 1986, you never get wear on basses over a 33 year time period, they are just getting warmed up...

That's why I said "model". 

 

[stingrayPete1977]

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

Unless they are Fenders where the finish seems to get damaged just by looking at it 😉

And in strange places for no apparent reason. 

Foxx of these parts has my old 82 stingray, clearly been played a lot but almost mint condition, nothing made by Sandberg should be in that state yet. 

[Cuzzie]

@stingrayPete1977 I see your Ray is surviving the rest of time, but the question is how long/how many playing hours to get an ‘honest’ relic in someone with average acidity in their acrid sweat and a normal sized belt buckle using pick, slap and fingers?

[leftybassman392]

If I’m honest I don’t really get the ‘mojo’ thing either. If I buy an instrument that’s had heavy use then that’s fine (and in fairness some of my own instruments, owned from new, wear their history on their faces a bit). As long as it plays and sounds like I think it should there’s no problem. That said, ‘mojo’, to me at least, is a sign that the instrument hasn’t been well looked after by at least one of its previous owners. It just mystifies me that people see it as a buying/selling point in and of itself.

To repeat for the sake of the overly sensitive; I don’t have a problem with it, but after 30-odd years of playing and teaching for a living I still don’t get it.

Sorry. 

Edited March 11, 2019 by leftybassman392

[Low End Bee]

As an aside. I do find it funny when a well used instrument is devalued and not seen as desirable because someone put a badass bridge on it or changed a volume pot 35 years ago. They add to the character for me. For instance. That 3 pickup EB0 in the for sale section is so much interesting as a possible purchase than an all original one that I would barely give a second glance.

[Cuzzie]

@Low End Bee I agree, Mods can be cool

@leftybassman392 the relic lovers are for the most part not overly sensitive, it’s more a staunch opposition to it from the relic haters.

Personally I don’t get turdburst, i’d prefer a hello kitty bass, but I haven’t started a thread on it yet....

[leftybassman392]

51 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

 

@leftybassman392 the relic lovers are for the most part not overly sensitive, it’s more a staunch opposition to it from the relic haters.

If you say so, but there are one or two comments dotted around that seem a little at odds with that conclusion. As I said already though (twice by my count), everybody's free to waste their money as they see fit and that's fine by me.

[Skinnyman]

57 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

@Low End Bee I agree, Mods can be cool

The BC mods? You sure? 🙃

(grabs coat and runs for the door...)