Aging a poly finish

[Prawnik]

I have aged nitro finishes using a heat gun, how well will this work on a poly finish?  Or do you recommend something else?

I realize that poly does not age the same as nitro, never has, never will, don't want it to.  I made this guitar with a poly finish on purpose, now I want it to look like 35-year old polyurethane.

[WezV]

spraying a slightly amber tint and simulating natural wear will do wonders.  Some people can simulate lacquer cracks with a very sharp hobby knife but its very hard to get it looking natural and can look really bad if not done right - thats more of a old nitro feature anyway but ti does happen on all finishes eventually

 really depends if you want it worn or just like a 35 year old unplayed guitar.  the later can be achieved with a thin finish - a slight amber tint and making sure its not as glossy as a new guitar - maybe wipe it with 0000 wire wool and wax then buff almost shiny

[Prawnik]

makes sense.  rather not spray any more than necessary, but thanks.

I'll leave off the X-Acto knives for now, but how do you otherwise simulate natural wear?  I generally use a scrubbing pad.

FYI, I am looking for a slightly worn look, not the "Nagasaki Survivor" look that is in vogue these days.

[Jonesy76]

I still can't get my head around this current ageing fad - bloody Tom Murphy is to blame in my opinion!.

I age my guitars.........naturally......by playing the damn things!!!

Has anyone out there stopped to think how knackered their pride and joy will look in 50 years if it was aged to start with???  Rory Gallaghers Strat comes to mind

Even my 1967 Shaftesbury doesn't look as shagged as some of these current 'Aged' guitars do, and that poor things been right through the mill and back!

[WezV]

I'll leave off the X-Acto knives for now, but how do you otherwise simulate natural wear?  I generally use a scrubbing pad.

the odd ding on the edge of the body with a screwdriver shaft works wonders but its easy to get carried away.

If you do spray some more lacquer you can try using compressed air as the finish is curing to force it to craze(the stuff in cans that comes out really cold).  It never quite looks natural but i have seen it done well - practice makes quiet good but not perfect.  i have also been told that freezing the body then spraying it and leaving in a warm  place (but obviously well ventilated) will produce some nice finish crazing - should  work better with nitro.

i would be carefull with a scrubbing pad as they tend to leave uniform scratches.  Thats why i suggested the oooo wire wool and wax because it will dull it but also the wax will hide some of the scratches and make it look less obvious

[HTH AMPS]

Nitro finishes are much thinner though (right?) and therefore should age quite quickly anyway if you play the guitar reguarly.

My LP std (not nitro afaik) has been my main guitar for the past 13 years and has very natural playing wear - it's beat, but all those dings/scratches have stories that go with them.  

I don't like the look of new guitars either (and they feel/smell ODD) but it doesn't take too long for them to settle down.  Relicing is just daft.

 :twisted:

[38thBeatle]

I have seen something about againg guitars on another forum I can't vouch for the contents but I will see if I can get the details and post them here.

[AngusYoung01]

I'll leave off the X-Acto knives for now, but how do you otherwise simulate natural wear?  I generally use a scrubbing pad.

the odd ding on the edge of the body with a screwdriver shaft works wonders but its easy to get carried away.

If you do spray some more lacquer you can try using compressed air as the finish is curing to force it to craze(the stuff in cans that comes out really cold).  It never quite looks natural but i have seen it done well - practice makes quiet good but not perfect.  i have also been told that freezing the body then spraying it and leaving in a warm  place (but obviously well ventilated) will produce some nice finish crazing - should  work better with nitro.

i would be carefull with a scrubbing pad as they tend to leave uniform scratches.  Thats why i suggested the oooo wire wool and wax because it will dull it but also the wax will hide some of the scratches and make it look less obvious

You really know your stuff, its so interesting :)

I'd love to get into Luthiery

[WezV]

i dont know - as far as relicing goes i am a real novice, lots of info rattling around upstairs but i havnt had chance to try it all out yet...  I try to know as much about a subject as i can before i try it and i am only just starting to experiment in this area for myself


The freezing the body thing seems to go against a ot of relicing info i have seen on the internet but the guy that suggested it to me is a fantastic australian luthier who i really look up to.  He had done a refinish on a vintage strat and it was one of the first relic paint jobs i had seen that looked convincing - and most of his work is modern and very superstrat in style.  I asked him how he did it and he told me about getting the body cold before spraying - there was probably a lot of other stuff he didnt tell me but thats fair enough, these things need to be figured out as you do it

[FELINEGUITARS]

My LP std (not nitro afaik) has been my main guitar for the past 13 years and has very natural playing wear - it's beat, but all those dings/scratches have stories that go with them.  

Relicing is just daft. :twisted:

+1

I dont offer a rellicing service as i dont feel that I would be able to do it so that I didnt think that it was just a damaged guitar

Best way to relic a guitar is play the mutha LOTS!

[WezV]

Do you not feel it would be a good service to offer on vintage refinishes though?

I am not quite at that stage yet, but what about the situation where somebody has an old guitar with a bad refinish and they want to make it look original.

I feel that in a situation like that its worth having these extra skills up your sleeve - not to fool collectors into thinking its an original finish, i am completely against that, but just so the guitar looks like it should.

I am talking about slight paint crazing and a dullness of lacquer you get on old guitars - ageing rather than relicing!  

Although i must admit i have enjoyed relicing the hardware on my TOM equipped strat that i documented here - but thats more me learning something new than trying to age hardware authentically!!

[HTH AMPS]

I get people asking me how old my '72 Tele Custom reissue is all the time - it looks beat up and aged in a nice way.  I get shocked looks when I tell them I bought it brand new around four years ago and it looks that way because I play the damn thing.

When I buy guitars, I find one that speaks to me (not literally, heh) and makes me want to play it.  In a few years it will have all that playing wear, tarnish, dents, scratches, sweat and grime that make gigged guitars look so cool.

 :twisted:

[Prawnik]

Useful information, everyone.

Please keep it coming.  

If you read what I wrote earlier, I don't like the current fad of over-aging guitars either.  At the same time, I built a replica of a late 1968 - early 1969 Strat from a mishmash of vintage, Fender, boutique and homemade parts.  

To leave everything looking brand-spanking new doesn't look like a 1969 Strat to me, at least none I've ever seen.  The process is also useful in understanding how a guitar changes over time and what causes those changes.  Finally, I like having a guitar that I am free to monkey with, without costing myself $1000 in resale value by unsoldering a pickup.  YMMV.  Remember, I'm not asking you to age your guitars.

In the meantime, I experiment and play on this guitar, so it collects wear that way, too.

I have a feeling that professional furniture restorers may hiding some useful information.  They've been doing something similar to this for decades.

[Watsonica]

I'd have to agree with those that prefer a naturaly aged guitar by playing it and having nature take its course but it's still a fascinating discussion to me if only for one aspect of it. Hope this isn't going off topic too much.

My main guitar is a 1989 Hondo Strat that I purchased new in 1990, somewhere in the mid 90's it was in my brothers possession and I got it back around 4 years ago. I was astonished at the difference in colour between the plastic of the (scratchplate) pick guard and the pick-up covers and the knobs, different types of plastics to be sure..the covers and knobs had turned several shades darker than the pickguard (yellowish-gold) and the pickguard remained totaly white. I even asked him to make sure that it was the original pickguard and covers and knobs and he assured me they were except for the bridge pup cover which was as white as the pickguard.

A few years ago he changed the bridge pup out for a stock Fender pup, I asked him if he still had the original cover (he did thankfully) but we tried some experiments first to the Fender cover to simulate the aging of the others, because the orginal cover had become damaged, the base where the mounting screws go had broken off.

I even tried staining it with nicotine (lol don't ask) in different ways and it was pretty close but still not quite there and I opted to still use the old cover instead even tho it really only sits over the pup now, snuggly of course.

After recently changing the Fender out for a BKP trilogy I was faced with the same descision as the BKP came with a pretty white cover, I'm not very sure that one of the aged covers would have matched either but I reluctantly slipped the old cover over the BKP very carefully so that it'd look like the others.

Some years ago I'd heard of a small bottle ( a sloution) that piano stores used to carry that would stain a new replacent key (ivorys) to match the older ones, haven't seen it since but always wondered if there was another solution that would be similar. I don't know whether or not this is a consideration for the plastics on the guitar that you're aging but did wonder what anyones thoughts on it might be.

[WezV]

very strong tea or coffee seems the most common way to get the aged look on plastics - i still havnt gotten around to  trying that because i dont use much white plastic on my stuff often but i get through a lot of coffee beans and often think that burying pickup covers in the used grounds would be a good way to go