52 Hot Rod Telecaster Relic
Can’t afford a real 1952 Telecaster? We made this new guitar feel like it was 55 years old. De Leon’s nightmare.
For a variety of reasons, some folks just prefer old guitars. Maybe it’s the neck, worn smooth by years of handling. Maybe it’s the checked and cracked finish that looks like granddad’s old tube radio. Maybe it’s just the charm of something that’s played some music in its time. Or maybe it’s the fact that vintage guitars’ values are reliably and steadily rising – making them a good investment. But some of us can’t find or afford our real dream guitar. So at Chicago Fret Works, we’ve developed a relic process that will simulate aging in a guitar, giving it the look and feel but not the pricetag of a genuine vintage piece.
In this case, the dream guitar is a 1952 Fender Telecaster; the actual guitar is a 2008 Fender 52 Reissue Hot Rod Tele. That guitar looks something like this when brand new:
The Seymour Duncan mini-humbucker notwithstanding, this guitar is made to the specs of an original 52 Tele, including a nitrocellulose lacquer finish, nickel hardware, maple fretboard, and “ashtray” style bridge. These features make it an ideal candidate for a relic job because we don’t really need to replace any parts or completely refinish the guitar before we get started. A poly-coated guitar with modern chrome hardware can be distressed and banged up, but not with the authentic look of nitro and nickel. (If you’re not sure which variety your guitar is, don’t worry. We’ll help you figure it out.)
Here’s how it looked when we were finished:
What’s the opposite of the Fountain of Youth?… We think we’ve found it here.
Does the extreme fretboard wear affect the playability? Does the owner have input on location? First position / Octave / or whatever they like to play?
Ron,
The finish is very thin and gets buffed before we string it up so you don’t feel a ‘lip’ or anything at the edge of the paint. It’s actually very smooth, like a true vintage fretboard would feel. We always have a detailed plan before beginning relic work like this so that, while it looks very random and natural, there are no real surprises for the owner. If we’re ever in doubt, we err on the side of doing less; we can always do more if the owner wants more. The worst thing for us would be having to strip it and start over and we don’t ever want to do that!
ron : the boys did a great job on this guitar – i was in many ways attempting to replicate a guitar i once had. The body (relicing) is special – i have a fender custom shop tele and i actually prefer the job that chicago fret works did – plays really great – while these pics are great , it really looks amazing in person.
You gotta love mini humbuckers. You get both benefits, from being in the exact middle of the single coils and humbuckers. And they sounds so soft. Great Blog, I will be forwarding this.