Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: tomjackson on December 01, 2010, 10:33:53 AM

Title: Ageing a body
Post by: tomjackson on December 01, 2010, 10:33:53 AM

I want to lightly age my strat body.  It is finished in Artic white Nitro and I'm thinking of getting an aged Fatboy plastics set so want some light wear so it doesn't look odd against the pickguard.

Manchester guitar Tech advised sticking the body in a freezer will laquer check.  Has anybody tried this?

Just after some ideas for light wear that will not make it look like I've had a go at it with some sandpaper.

The body is a 1994 AM standard body that was refinished by me and my dad with aerosols so it's not so perfect as shouldn't be messed about with. 


Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Matt77 on December 01, 2010, 11:34:05 AM
You can also buy spray to freeze it to -50 degrees instead, and then warm it up with a hairdryer
Coincidentally, I bought some on Sunday so it should arrive by the end of the week.
I can bring it round to test when I drop that pedal off if you want.
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: tomjackson on December 01, 2010, 12:03:58 PM

Matt, sounds good.

What are using it on?

Will my Stat be your Guinea Pig?  Lets try it on the back first!
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Matt77 on December 01, 2010, 12:37:09 PM
I'm going to use it on an unbuilt tele that I don't even have the parts for yet.
I'll test it on the back of my already checked and beat up gibson
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Roobubba on December 01, 2010, 04:12:35 PM
unbuilt teles are the second best kind of teles
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: James C on December 01, 2010, 06:45:27 PM
Quote
unbuilt teles are the second best kind of teles

the best being smashed perhaps Roo?
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Sifu Ben on December 02, 2010, 01:32:08 AM
I've found that a decade of shift work and a lifetime of high impact martial arts training has aged my body considerably :(
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: MrBump on December 02, 2010, 06:55:32 AM
Cigarettes, alcohol and prescription drugs age a body wonderfully.
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: 38thBeatle on December 02, 2010, 07:49:57 AM
A few non prescription drugs do too or so I have heard.
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: WezV on December 02, 2010, 10:10:25 AM
the spray/hairdryer will make it craze - but it isnt the easiest technique to make look natural as you tend to work on a small area at a time which can lead to an uneven effect

for more natural crazing it helps to do the whole thing at once.  but its the same hot/cold process - and obviosuly you need to watch out for the effect the heat can have on the guitar(especially necks).

but try keeping the guitar somewhere warm for a day or so to aclimatise (something like an airing cupboard - a few degress warmer than its natural environment), then freeze it for 1/2 and hour before taking it out again and putting it somewhere warm with a warm air blowing across it if possible
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Philly Q on December 02, 2010, 02:30:12 PM
Am I right in thinking all this freezing-and-warming only works on nitro?
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: WezV on December 02, 2010, 03:37:50 PM
yeah, other finishes do crack with age  but not in the same way or to the same degree... they  become 'cracked' rather than 'crazed'
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Roobubba on December 02, 2010, 08:02:57 PM
Quote
unbuilt teles are the second best kind of teles

the best being smashed perhaps Roo?

I was going with kindling, but smashed works too. At least with kindling, you actually get something good out of it (energy), rather than just splinters :)
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Matt77 on December 02, 2010, 09:16:17 PM
So you wouldn't like this video then Roo?
Especially 2:36
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Transcend on December 02, 2010, 10:21:46 PM
Quote
unbuilt teles are the second best kind of teles

the best being smashed perhaps Roo?

I was going with kindling, but smashed works too. At least with kindling, you actually get something good out of it (energy), rather than just splinters :)

yeah but smashing it would be amazingly fun for you, then you could burn it too to get the energy.

Seems like a WIN WIN situation to me
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: WezV on December 02, 2010, 10:33:35 PM
any of you ever smashed a tele - those things dont go easy!
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Roobubba on December 03, 2010, 10:08:16 AM
I would use an axe. There's not much more fun that hacking things with an axe. :)
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Matt77 on December 03, 2010, 11:09:22 AM
So you wouldn't like this video then Roo?
Especially 2:36

Sorry Roo. It's not good form to taunt people without pasting the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPGjhuD2wkE
Has this thread gone off topic?
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Ian Price on December 03, 2010, 06:39:50 PM
That's one of the best tele collections I have ever seen. I do sometimes wonder if BFG has seen it and thought that his collection is much bigger than that. That is one video I would almost pay to watch!
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Fikealox on December 04, 2010, 09:24:24 AM
Bigger definitely doesn't mean better when it comes to tele collections (unless you're collecting them for firewood, I guess). I think Roo has the right idea on this one  :lol:
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Philly Q on December 04, 2010, 10:28:12 AM
Bigger definitely doesn't mean better when it comes to tele collections (unless you're collecting them for firewood, I guess). I think Roo has the right idea on this one  :lol:

Don't you start!  :P
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Alex on December 04, 2010, 11:41:40 AM
I hear black tea works well for ageing white knobs and stuff.
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Roobubba on December 05, 2010, 08:08:36 PM
lol Alex, way to go, dragging this thread kicking and screaming back somewhere remotely near topic :D
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: JacksonRR on December 06, 2010, 12:14:28 AM
Leave it in front of a sunny window, when you're not playing it and you'll get the yellowing much faster. I'm sure you could simulate this with a plant light or something though..... It's the UV rays that are doing the work there.
Title: Re: Ageing a body
Post by: Prawnik on January 09, 2011, 11:12:18 AM
whenever I can, I try to age an entire guitar at once, or, barring that, I age the largest sub-assemblies possible.

The result is more natural look than you get when aging individual parts.