How to 'age' a pickguard

[Jazzmaster62]

My pristine white pickguard is a little too shiny for my liking. Does anyone have some tips to make it more dull, more like it's been hovering above cigarette smoke for 20 years in a pub? 

[casapete]

I seem to remember people soaking them in tea or coffee? Maybe first use fine wire wool to take the shine off and make the plastic more likely to stain / colour. ( Obviously not hot beverages of course....☕)

[SH73]

I've tried tea and coffee not the best result. I soaked the pickguard in very strong black ground coffee in a baking tray. It was submerged for 48 hours with poor result. It barely stained it even though I sanded it with a fine sand paper.

The I rubbed brown shoe polish in and what a treat.

[Thunderpaws]

Buy a second hand one?! Why the fascination with making a new item seem older than it is? 

Take cars for example. Take a vintage car, if it’s in great condition it’s worth more, if it’s battered it’s worth less. 

[spencer.b]

The fascination is cos up to 65 fender pickguards were nitrate celluloid which looked very different and started aging very quickly , a 2nd hand pickguard would also be shiny, the nitro paint was also totally different hence why that worn look has become such a thing for fenders

Why does every thread about aged stuff get hijacked by people saying you shouldn't do it , it's wrong etc etc 

There's some styles of bass that aren't for me so I wouldn't buy one however I wouldn't find a thread about em and say I hate them and so should you

[AndyTravis]

Agree with all of that. I don’t comment on threads about Ibanez basses spouting how they’re not for me...

I was about to comment boot polish or leather stains are the free used In relic work.

but someone’s  already said they’ve done it x

Edited April 11, 2019 by AndyTravis

[Thunderpaws]

Sorry, didn’t mean any offence. Just a genuine question. I get it, as you say you want a look that isn’t available off the shelf any more. 

[AndyTravis]

There’s also a variety of shapes and sizes of pickguard, even for a fender jazz, there can be all sorts of differences between region and era of manufacture.

So modifying the existing one to change the aesthetic...makes a lot of sense.

[DoubleOhStephan]

8 hours ago, Thunderpaws said:

Sorry, didn’t mean any offence. Just a genuine question. I get it, as you say you want a look that isn’t available off the shelf any more. 

I took this as a genuine question, it's one I've pondered myself. I'm personally quite a fan of a well done relic but I also love a minter. There is a certain beauty in an object which is aged and weathered, not to mention a uniqueness. I think it also gives an authenticity to the player, making them look like a seasoned pro.

My understanding of the origin of relicing is that it comes from Keith Richards asking Fender to relic a new Tele they built for him as it was too new and shiny. I believe he wanted a copy of his fav guitar (called Micawber!?), fender custom shop did it and relicing was born.

I like your classic car analogy, although there is a section of enthusiasts who restore some cars (and bikes) to a standard which keeps the patina of rusty/sunbleached paint etc. I feel this is an American thing more than European, think rusty pickups and ratty harleys. That said, I wouldn't know if they'd take unoriginal wear and add it like with guitars. Probably though. In Merica, if they can, they do.

The only simile I can think of of relicing (although I'm sure there's many more), is with furniture and the whole shabby chic thing. That too can look great when done really well, but like guitars, it's not easy to get the authentic look. 

[Thunderpaws]

That’s interesting about Keith Richards guitar spawning the relic movement. I’ll go and have a look for it online. 

Just wondering, do any companies relic amps / cabs too? 

[AndyTravis]

I’ve seen tweed fenders reliced up. 

thing is you don’t walk around carrying your amp do you, so the aesthetic is secondary.

[DoubleOhStephan]

7 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

I’ve seen tweed fenders reliced up. 

thing is you don’t walk around carrying your amp do you, so the aesthetic is secondary.

Ooo you've just reminded me of a Fender amp made from a whisky barrel. Not strictly a relic but still a lovely thing, very Seasick Steve 😁

[AndyTravis]

3 minutes ago, StevieE said:

Ooo you've just reminded me of a Fender amp made from a whisky barrel. Not strictly a relic but still a lovely thing, very Seasick Steve 😁

Played a Fylde acoustic made from whiskey barrels. Smelled lovely. Didn’t sound lovely, and I think it was the thick end of £3000...

[Soledad]

This was dicussed recently on Rubis' day of birth Precision thread:

I've always referred to these things as the scratchplate, but never new the material changed in '65 @spencer.b
I have seen post '65s age and discolour also, but maybe not to the same degree (not actually looked closely enough).

Having owned a number of early '60s Fender basses I became familiar with the colour change and distortion that occurs - I'm certain a large part of it is exposure to UV. If you remove the pot knobs and the retaining nut, you'll see the whiter shade underneath. I've heard about tobacco smoke and pollutants - don't buy any of it, maybe pollutants to a 5% degree.

If I was trying to do this I would definitely test UV exposure - a cheap uv bulb, cardboard 'light box' and a few days (maybe weeks) soak. The important thing is the colour change is not on the surface but permeates the white upper layer giving the effect of depth. So I don't think tea or any other surface stain will ever really do it.

[Thunderpaws]

My degree is in Polymer Engineering. UV is indeed a very common factor for yellowing to happen. After a while it was discovered that UV stabilisers could be used in the plastic to help fend(er) off the long term effects. It’s usually not just the colour that changes, often the plastic in question can become more brittle or less strong. Take care of your old vintage scratch plates. 

[NancyJohnson]

When I bought my Gibson NR Thunderbird, the scratchplate was whiter than white and just looked wrong.  I resisted the temptation to rub it down first  - I think I did a test area on the back of the plate - but I did try the coffee/tea soaking route.  It didn't work; any residue just rubbed off.  Eventually I just had a new plate made up in an off-white colour and added a Thunderbird graphic from a guy that was selling them on eBay.

 

[ped]

I don't know if it fits the type of bass you're trying to recreate but how about buying an anodised aluminium plate and ageing that - would probably be easier to scratch up and wear down in places?

 

[Jazzmaster62]

13 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

There’s also a variety of shapes and sizes of pickguard, even for a fender jazz, there can be all sorts of differences between region and era of manufacture.

So modifying the existing one to change the aesthetic...makes a lot of sense.

That's why I have resisted buying a new one - the current pickguard fits very nicely so would rather try and stain it first before splashing the cash. 

[casapete]

5 hours ago, Thunderpaws said:

That’s interesting about Keith Richards guitar spawning the relic movement. I’ll go and have a look for it online.

The KR story is a good one which I always hoped was true!

However, John Page, the director of the Fender Custom shop division from 1987 to 1998 stated in an interview with Guitar & Bass magazine in 2010 that this was not the case.

Most accounts of the history of the Relic begin with Keith Richards. It’s a familiar story:
Keith commissioned Fender’s Custom Shop to make replicas of his vintage collection in
order to avoid any tour mishaps and then, on receiving the finished guitars, supposedly
said ‘Bash ’em up a bit and I’ll play ’em’ – and the ‘relic’ was born. A Hollywood beginning,
for sure – but is there any truth to it? No. ‘The “Keith Richards story” seems to have been a
creation of someone in the media,’ clarifies John Page. ‘I’m afraid that it never happened"

[Grangur]

Here's the one Keef had:

Edit - this is a re-production.

Strange how the relicing is so frequently done on the body, but most noticeable signs of wear on KR's guitar are on the neck. 

Edit: Here's the actual one:

Edited April 12, 2019 by Grangur

[Stub Mandrel]

I have an old Japanese Maya p-bass with a tortoiseshell scratchplate. I got a nicely aged pickguard effect when I scraped the white gloss paint off with a knife... replaced with a stock item that is a ringer for a 62 scracthplate.

I made one for a 'new' guitar and chose off the shelf vintage yellowed effect rather than a harsh white material.

[DoubleOhStephan]

2 hours ago, casapete said:

The KR story is a good one which I always hoped was true!

However, John Page, the director of the Fender Custom shop division from 1987 to 1998 stated in an interview with Guitar & Bass magazine in 2010 that this was not the case.

Most accounts of the history of the Relic begin with Keith Richards. It’s a familiar story:
Keith commissioned Fender’s Custom Shop to make replicas of his vintage collection in
order to avoid any tour mishaps and then, on receiving the finished guitars, supposedly
said ‘Bash ’em up a bit and I’ll play ’em’ – and the ‘relic’ was born. A Hollywood beginning,
for sure – but is there any truth to it? No. ‘The “Keith Richards story” seems to have been a
creation of someone in the media,’ clarifies John Page. ‘I’m afraid that it never happened"

Booo!!! Fake news!!! 😂😂

[spencer.b]

I've read loads of stuff about fender guards and there's a lot of different theorys but this is what I got

Up to 65 leo was buying nitrate celluloid from Italy and each batch was a bit different, some with the mint hue ( mint was never an option from fender it was just how some batches of"white" looked )some more amber

Opinion varies about what gives them the mint look, an earlier theory was it was cos the outer layers became more translucent as they age allowing the black middle to show through although this has since been debunked.A company I think called Lashing chopped a damaged one up and found it got less mint nearer the middle and when they cut it back with solvent it got whiter but still mint

So they reckon there were mint/amber in the first place but get more  tinted with exposure to light and pollutants

It was this material that warped too which to me is a cool fender vintage look

Edited April 12, 2019 by spencer.b

[Soledad]

That's interesting @spencer.b. It totally fits with my hunch that the outer layer seems to lose its pigment and appears somewhat translucent over time. I suspect the early ones weren't bright white from new but plastics back then were a bit untamed, unpredictable over time.

I wonder how all these pseudo-aged plates will age??
There's no substitute for years and regular playing  - as someone said above, lots of relic attention goes into bodies, but the neck, fingerboard and head are often a dead giveaway.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Soledad

[Soledad]

3 hours ago, Grangur said:

Here's the one Keef had:

and btw, that looks rediculous to me. Someone's spent years hardly using the low E or A until the 15th fret and up, which is where they have spent most of the guitar's life. Really??