Okay, so as promised, here’s a little look at our Tele Relic’s neck now that it’s been sanded, dinged to hell, tinted with wood stain, and all finished up with vintage amber nitro finish.
Over all, we are mighty happy with the results, though it took quite a few tries to get it right…
As seen in an earlier post, the first step was sanding the finish off of the back of the neck, and of course sanding the generally glossy finish down to a dull matte.
After this step, we spent a fair amount of time dinging and scratching the neck and headstock with various tools around the workshop––razors, screwdrivers, socket wrenches and the like.
It was also at this point that I finally decided to take a risk and really try to emulate the look of a worn out fingerboard.
To that end, we quickly bolted the neck back onto the body, and strung the whole thing up loosely, so that with guitar strings in place we could have something of a template for wearing down the the wood between the frets where your years worth of string and finger rubbing will leave its mark.
That done, we busted out the sandpaper and worked away…. it was tedious stuff… but kind of creative… I did it while watching TV.
With the wood sanded down in various places to well below the original finish, and dings and scratches placed as naturally as possible across the neck, I got my trusty oil-based wood stain and doused the entire fretboard and neck.
Let sit for 20-minutes. Wipe off. And you’ve got one seriously beat-to-heck looking Relic guitar neck… worked like a charm!
Once dry (overnight,) it was time to start applying the Guitar ReRanch Fender Neck Amber nitro finish.
Now, this is no place to rush… trust someone’s who has been through it––ouch!!
If you screw this up the first time the only way to start over is to soak your neck in paint thinner, which works like a charm, but means you’ll have to go all the way back to the last step, because you’re going to lose all of that wood stain you just applied.
Anyway, I learned the hard way. TWICE!
On the third and final try I applied the amber finish in very thin coats. Letting it dry for an hour or two between applications.
The only way to control how bright the amber is, is to apply the right number of coats (by eye!) so you want to take this really easy now. Do it right the first time and you won’t have to suffer like me! hehe
Once it was all dry, and we liked the tint of amber, it was just a matter of sanding some of the sheen back off of the neck and fretboard, re-installing the machine heads and such, and then taking a flat-head screwdriver to the tops of the frets to chisel off the excess finish.
And wala! We’ve got us a very nice, pretty damned authentic looking Relic Telecaster neck… sweet!
We will now be taking questions…
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: The Nitty Gritty On The Neck & Fingerboard
- Tune In Tomorrow For… EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Misadventures Of A Neck Surgeon!
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Beatin’ The Hell Out Of That Pickguard
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: The Poor Man’s Paint Room
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Aging The Body, Adding Some Grime
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: And So The Work Begins…
- EGR’s Great “Tele Relic” Experiment: Our Guinea Pig Arrives
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: First Look At The Hardware
July 29th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
looks great.
few questions.
how hard was it to take all the gloss off the neck and fretboard? im assuming if any is left behind it hinders the stain and amber nitro. was it hard to get it down to and even feel/level?
how much did you remove from the fretboard with your sandpaper to get your worn look? im thinking if it’s too much it’s gotta affect playability right? or at least the feel of the instrument.
big thanks for sharing this with us. very inspiring. when i get around to doing this myself i’ll definitely share.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I have enjoyed your posts about this project. It looks great, and it looks like you had a lot of fun doing it.
I just keep wondering why.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
hehe, you answered the question yourself… because it looks great and it’s fun :)
July 29th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Well, I now know that you’ve been in the fumes for awhile! Awesome relic neck job!!
Now git outside for some FRESH AIR!!!!!!
July 30th, 2008 at 12:46 am
hi res pics please cary! and well done!
July 30th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Looks very cool! So what’s left? Can’t wait to see the final product.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I thought the Fender Neck Amber color from ReRanch needed a clear coat on top of it because it’s not a full protection… should you be worried that it might rub off on your hands after a while? Please tell me I’m wrong here.
July 30th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
what about swapping one of the tuners for a newer one or is that feasible ?, or maybe a random newish screw .I’m not into relics ,being one myself ,but its very interesting reading your articles about it all .
July 30th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Cary, can’t wait to see pictures of the finished product.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:12 am
That looks good. That looks real good.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Bought a cheap assed Squier Tele Thinline the other day, and I’m going to relic it the old fashioned way: by playing the sh!t out of it.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Congrats Carry, it looks awesome!
August 5th, 2008 at 11:01 am
On the edge of my seat, waiting to see the final product photos! :)
August 5th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Hey Cary, Congrats on Premier Guitar mag getting interested in this project!!!
Here’s the link for anyone to check out:
http://digital.premierguitar.com/premierguitar/200808/?pg=30
August 5th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
That is VERY COOL that Premier Guitar picked up on the project. Cary, you’re a guitar media darling.
November 28th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Hello: I am of madrid, Spain, and show you a telecaster reeditionl 52 that I itself exist relic. hope that you like. Health
http://www.flickr.com/photos/speedhand/