i noticed that ESP has a new Kirk Hammet model out and its suppose to look like its faded and banged up. i know Gibson has been doing that for awhile now. this is madness.

hey lets spend 3000 bucks on a guitar that looks like its been through hell.

It's like buying jeans with holes cut in them-sad.

so when is the auto makers going to jump on this?

i played in a band where one of the guitarists, in addition to lots and lots of seriously vintage gear, also had one of gibson's faded flying v's. i know it sounded nice. he said it played well. so if the choice is a good-sounding, good-playing instrument that looks shiny and new, or the same thing looking faded and old, i'll take faded and old any day. i don't much like shiny. rarely if ever would i choose a gloss finish over a matte finish.

i just bought a 22 year old bass that i'm going to strip the finish off of and give it a fairly neutral brown wood-grain look to it. and as matte a finish as i can. do you think that's stupid, too? even though it's over 20 years old? or is it just when new instruments aren't shiny that you have a problem with it? what about if i bought a new instrument, and stripped the finish off myself? is that stupid, too?

i can't complain too much though, because if it wasn't for people who get all bent outta shape over scratches and worn spots and stuff like that, i would have to pay way more for the instruments i buy.

i prefer the less shiny look myself. and when people customize their guitars thats even better.

its the factory made used look that i am talking about. the guitar by ESP has pre made scratches and chips in it. thats lame.

I played a show in Olympia and Vern from Unwound was running sound. His Jazz bass was totally beat to shit, missing most of it's finish, totally has had the shit played out of it. Everytime I saw that bass I thought that I can't wait 'til my bass looks like that. I got to tell him about my dream to play my bass 'til that state and beyond. that's my story.

ben adrian

l_o_c wrote:It's like buying jeans with holes cut in them-sad.

That's not half as bad as selling food that looks like it has been nibbled on. I'm waiting for this to happen and I have a feeling that McDonalds will be the first to do this.

Kenny wrote:i prefer the less shiny look myself. and when people customize their guitars thats even better.

its the factory made used look that i am talking about. the guitar by ESP has pre made scratches and chips in it. thats lame.

oh hell yeah, that's whack, i never even heard of that one. faded i like okay, but why would you want to have someone else smack it up for you? taking a screwdriver to the finish of your instrument is half the fun of buying it! fyi, rather than a standard philips, i recommend a Reed and Prince tip screwdriver for hammering + or x shapes into the body of your instrument. sharper tip, don'tcha know.

Fender has been doing this for a while with their "Relic" line. I know someone who has a '63 Telecaster remake from this line and it's actually a really good guitar, considering it's brand new. The weight and feel are very similiar to an old Esquire that has always been the first call studio guitar around here. The Tele is for recording, and what it looks like doesn't matter, but I gotta say the fake aging and wear & tear look pretty real. I've never liked the look and feel of brand new guitars, so I'm not bothered by the idea of buying a new guitar that comes already beat up and worn in. This one was about $1800.

I just recently played one of those 'relic' Fender strats. True, it played really really well. The neck was sanded down and felt perfect, it played like you want it to play, it sounded great and had hand wound pickups. The 'distressing' stuff they do to the finish is absolutely ridiculous though. Why can't Fender make their regular models play and feel like this guitar without doing all the silly fake aging? Even if nobody else could tell, YOU would know you are holding a prop, right?

I have seen the P-bass version as well. Fake cig burns, crowsfooting, nicks and scratches, wear from shredding on it everyday..... As an art piece it was fascinating. As a straight faced purchase, they are no better than those prefaded and frayed jeans.