Must say that I am in the "I just don't get it" camp too
If you want one that looks knackered - buy an old one!
I look at it and go "woo! pretty looking geetar..."
Then I hear it's a "relic" and I switch off (I do go and look at the price just to check it costs what I think it will - and it does). It's still pretty, but all lusting disappears immediately.
The thing is,
none of us is ever going to be able to afford a real early-'60s Strat which looks like that
*.
So anyone who likes/wants that vibe can
only get it by buying a relic. I'd like one because
(a) I think it looks great, I don't care whether it's 50 years old or 50 days old.
(b) it would be totally liberating to have a guitar I didn't care about scratching or denting!
(c) it has the look of an old guitar but none of the potential problems like worn-out parts.
(d) there'd be no "bad karma guilt" about changing parts, routing the body etc.
I know some people say they'd rather buy a new guitar and just play the hell out of it, but I could own a guitar 100 years and it would never get really beaten up. It's just my nature to be paranoid about that first scratch or dent. And when I
do pick up a scratch, I don't leave it, I go and repair it. :roll:
Oh god, I wish you hadn't started this thread, Dave.
(
* I know Phil King has some, but they're from the days you
could get bargain old guitars!)
