Lol, I watched a video of a guy refinishing a Les Paul in Nitro, perfectly; a brand new guitar, and then proceeds to wreck his perfect work with a heavy relic. It was supposed to be a tribute to Billy Gibbon’s Pearly Gates, and it did look pretty cool when completed
Super tasteful relic job! And to piggyback off your relic discussion at the end, if there's ever an appropriate application for relicing an amp, this would be it!
Nicely done! I love the TV front amps, nice to see similar appreciation. My 5A5 has been de-tweeded by the previous owner, and I'll probably leave it be ... 5A2 and 5A3 are original with the lighter, lower contrast tweed. Beautiful playing!
Would a heavy relic job involve all of these techniques, with one final stage of a week or two in a fume cabinet with surrounded by auto-puffing cigarettes and the occasional cupful of light beer chucked over the surface?
Only if you remove the amp chassis first. Other refinements could include leaving cigarettes on the top of the cab to burn out, pouring bourbon over the front and dropping it down some stairs ;)
I finally got my tweed vibrolux clone, after a long wait. It looks very new and feels very rough. I may try the scotch pad technique to smooth it out and was thinking of letting it spend some time in direct sunlight
I much prefer the term vintage finishing as i think it holds better than relic'ing. Anyway i enjoyed the process and it looks a bit easier than throwing the amp down the stairs a few times. 😀
As always, superb restorative work Huw. You’ve inspired me to give my 40 year old tweed Stratocaster case a proper covering of shellac and nitro’. It’s pretty battered - but the raw tweed just doesn’t look right. Where can I buy the right shellac - ready to apply?
