How to 'age' a pickguard

[Cato]

4 hours ago, Soledad said:

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??

Keef uses that guitar tuned in open G and plays it without a low e string.

Still doesn't explain the lack of wear under the A or what he's been doing to cause that much damage to the end of the fretboard after the 22nd fret.

 

Edit:It's also slightly odd that the 'reproduction' has 22 frets. The original has the usual 21.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Cato

[mikel]

21 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. 

Aye, careful mate, people get tetchy about "aged" basses. I agree with you, things age because they get old. If its new it looks like it, just let it age gracefully and naturally.

[casapete]

1 hour ago, Cato said:

Still doesn't explain the lack of wear under the A or what he's been doing to cause that much damage to the end of the fretboard after the 22nd fret.

May well be down to pick wear? In his later years Keith often plays over the neck/body joint with the neck at a more upright position than he used to. As in this performance - JJ Flash, Glastonbury 2013. This would also explain the wear on the body of the Tele above the neck.

 

[spencer.b]

What bass is the pickguard in question for?

[Grangur]

4 hours ago, Soledad said:

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??

That's the problem with reproduction relics. Folk seldom get the details right. They usually over do it.

[Geek99]

Shoe polish on the edges 

a clean pan scourer to take the shine off the guard and some round swirls around the controls 

[Stub Mandrel]

15 hours ago, Soledad said:

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??

For most of its life it probably didn't even have an e-string fitted.

Keith wouldn't have been bending the low string (I won't call it A as it was probably G) and the high-fret wear might be the result of strumming (as per the top horn).

Sherlock.

[bazzbass]

buy a red tort pickguard.

Anything other than the stock white one will be an improvement

[dannybuoy]

I sanded one, smothered with tea and left it in the garden for a few weeks. Seemed to do the trick! Still need to finish the rest of the bass though!

[Painy]

If I want to give anything a relic look I just tell my kids not to touch it. 🙄

[Jazzmaster62]

Update: I soaked it in tea for 48 hours and it has the slightest of yellow tints now - perfect! 

[bazzbass]

put it in a smoker?

 

or a plastic bag full of smoke?

 

I'll donate my exhaled non-tobacco smoke