The Art of Relic (Fender 50s Reissue Stratocaster)

The more I think about the concept of relic-ing a new guitar, the more I find human behavior strange -- including mine.  Why are we obsessed with the vintage, the old and worn?  Is it because anything that is worn has a more personal feel to it?  Warmth, a personal connection to some past.  Whereas the new feels cold and detached.  That used guitar in the pawn shop may have played thousands of songs. If only there was a way to audition a used instrument before I buy it.  This 50s Reissue Fender Stratocaster did not have much of a history when I bought it off some kid in La Puente.  One small nick in the sunburst body is all.  The fretboard was perfect.  Too perfect for my taste.

Enter the Art of Relic.  For about a week now, I have vowed to make this guitar worthy of its 50s pedigree.  I haven't put it in a case, hang it nor even cared where I set it down.  Next to the fireplace, on the kitchen counter, on top of the pile on the desk.  Call it accelerated aging.  Bumped it a few times.  Didn't care.  But most importantly, I had played it every day for the entire time.  I even put the original pickguard back, the one with a couple small screw holes the previous owner had done, the one I had temporarily replaced with a new pearloid one.

This guitar had also somewhat been a little more frustrating than most other Strats I've owned simply because the truss rod adjustment is at the neck heel.  I take pride in being able to setup my own guitars but the sweet spot on this one had proven elusive.  I've had to loosen the pickguard to get full access to the adjustment screw.

And finally, the finish on this Strat body is so durable, aging it will take a little more than I initially anticipated.  From the above picture, one can almost see the thick lacquer coat (see tremolo spring cavity photo).  So what seems like a 1-mm thick protective coat works really well.  I've bumped it against some sharp objects (screws, keys, etc) and all it got was some very minor scratches.  At the very least, the high-gloss finish is becoming more matte after a week's effort.

Mighty Mite V-Neck

I've always wanted a v-shaped neck Strat but haven't found a guitar with the right price.  Enter Mighty Mite necks licensed by Fender available from Amazon.com.  This one is beautiful hard maple with a 50s style sharp v-neck.  The holes for the tuners are pre-drilled but I will need some precision work to align the neck heel to the body -- that of course, is still to be identified.

Aspen Green Gretsch 5420T

I needed a hollowbody guitar for playing some jazz standards so it was a justified need.  I didn't want to pay more than I have to for one so when this became available on Craigslist on March 19th, I sent out the email response at around 7am.  By 2pm, I had it in my possession, a very nice instrument that surpassed expectations.  How much can you really tell about a guitar during a quick 10-minute test drive, right?  The initial impressions were enough to take it home but I continued to be surprised for several days with some of the tones I can get from this Gretsch.

There are several important attributes of this guitar starting with the Aspen Green gloss finish -- which is most unique among all my other green guitars.  Very light and subtle shade is shows best with the color temperature of daylight hours.  At night, under fluorescent lighting, it almost looks plain gray.  The Bigsby tremolo means it also functions as a decent surf guitar.  But the most important feature in my mind is what Gretsch refers to a Blacktop Filter'tron humbucking pickups -- which seems to have the range from jazz to 60s-style rock solos.  I discovered this when I put plugged it into my standard effects/amp rig normally setup for Strats and Teles.  I suppose the hollowbody gives it that really warm 60s punch that solidbodies don't.

I do have one thing I need to get used to on this axe and that is the set of volume controls.  There seems to be a strong non-linearity of the volume pots where most of the gain is in the first 1/3 of the knob rotation angle.  Usually doesn't bother me since when I play, the volume and tone are near max anyway.  I like the ability to manually mix the pot signal levels of each Blacktop as well.

The guitar did not come with a case so I ordered one from Amazon.  I normally keep all my electrics out to give it a natural relic feel over time but this Gretsch is about as fragile as my acoustics.  The model G6241FT case fits perfectly.