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Rapid and drastic changes in temperature and/or humidity check lacquer.

Those are some nice licks 😅

Great job Brent! You put a lot of work into that axe and it looks much better. Enjoy!

Ive never worried about dinging or scratching a guitar, Im going to at some stage if Im going to put serious play time on it. My most gigged guitars are the most dinged, scratched and worn. What relics are good for, for me, are taking in trades, because they are easy to sell on, there is a demand. I took on a lot of them because of that. Oh man, I spent so much time trying to be less direct. I cut paragraphs out and redid them, then deleted them, reworded what I kept, re edited again.....all I want to say is, I cant stand relic'd guitars

No worries.. As you know, it's always so easy to work on the electrics of a semi hollow guitar. 😕 When I was working on my 535, somehow the lead from a tone cap broke off. Turn the knob and ... nothing changes. So it's pull the harness out and do it all again.

This was so funny….well not at the time, but…. So it’s about 10:00 last night, I have the guitar all put back together, setup, playing great/sounding great…. And I flip the toggle to the neck pickup….and it sounds EXTREMELY BASSY!!! Like funky out of phase or something??? I turn the tone pot and it sounds like it’s getting brighter as I turn it down!! Drastic change in tone. So I’m like, dammittt…got a bad pot or something it touching something it’s not supposed to….when I dropped the electronics earlier. So I unscrew the toggle and pots, fish it around to look at the neck tone pot…. THERES A GOB OF POLISHING COMPOUND ON THE MIDDLE POLE OF THE POT TOUCHING GROUND!!!! OMG. I felt like such a dummy. LOL 😆

Thank you Lyle!! I cannot imagine why someone would take a $4900 guitar and take sandpaper to it??? All I can say is….DONT DO DRUGS. LOL. 😆

NIce job, Brent. It totally baffles me as to why someone would want to mark up a beautiful, new, expensive guitar like that. I just don't get it.

MORE AFTERS…

So I saw this Custom core 535 on the gear page…. The guy had gotten it in a trade and was told that it was “artisan aged” but the guy lied to him, someone had tried to age it themselves by taking 120 or 80 grit sandpaper to the finish!!! (I’m not joking) So the guy I bought it from was very upset and really felt defeated. And basically just wanted to get out from underneath it. So we made a deal. It’s a 2023 CC 535 in Dark Cherry Sunburst After opening the case, and evaluating the damage done to the finish and how deep the scratches were, and the fact that the gloss was gone, I decided to take the bull by the horns and try to make lemonade with the lemons I was handed. If Pete Moreno were still alive, I would have taken it to him I sure do miss Pete I thought about taking it to a professional luthier and seeing if could be buffed out, but that would have cost a lot of money and I’m sure there would have been no guarantee that he would have not burned through the finish. So the first thing I did was completely disassemble the guitar. Took all the hardware off. Pickups out. Dropped all the electronics inside the body. Then I wet sanded the back of the body, front of the body and the front and back of the headstock with 2000 wet/dry sanding paper. I sanded and sanded and sanded and sanded The scratches were just too deep. I was afraid I was going to go through the clear. After sanding, I put some liquid scratch remover on it, that I bought at the auto parts store and used my cordless drill with a small buffing wheel. I buffed and buffed and buffed… the gloss started to come back but 75% of the scratches remained. Then, to bring back some more of the gloss, I took some turtle wax and my drill and buffed on it with the car wax some more. I was really happy with the amount of gloss I was able to get back!! It just looks like an old, scratched up Heritage now!!! Then I pulled all the electronics back up, installed a different set of pickups (I’m not a big fan of the 225 classic pups), put the tuners and hardware back on, oiled the fretboard. Then put new strings on it and did a complete setup!!!! I’ll let you be the judge. But I think it looks A LOT BETTER. Yes, it still has a lot of scratches in it, but at least it’s not all dull looking now. It’s always gonna be a player because of what some dumbass did to the finish. But in reality, it just looks like a guitar that has been played A LOT 🤣 Anyway…the most important part is that this CC 535 PLAYS AND SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY STELLAR!!! It’s a friggin TONE MACHINE!!! BEFORE…. AFTER…..

Last year I had a choice of a 50% off relic'd CC or an H-150 for the same price. I like both of them but chose the Relic'd CC. it's kind of cool to have a new guitar that I don't have to worry bout dinging up.

I don't want to perform a relic job on my Custom Core, but I would instead REALLY like to know how those guys at the Heritage factory perform that lacquer crackling effect on their CC guitars. I don't want to know how other people do that, I specifically want to know to how those guys at the Heritage factory perform that lacquer crackling effect on their Custom Core guitars. Yes, upon learning this trade secret, I would like to strongly consider doing some DIY like that to my own CC guitar.

I can relate.

Nice pedal. The other guitarist in our band uses one, he loves it!

To me, Relic'd guitars FEEL much better, SOUND much better (less nitro finish), and I don't have to worry about dings. We have been through this before, but many artists including Greg Koch, have stated publicly that the weathered & less finish on relic'd guitars make them ring & sustain better and they have more bloom & overtones. I didn't buy relic'd guitars because of the look, but for the feel and sound. When I bought relic'd/aged guitars, they were either "ultra light" or "light aged" guitars because they look more like vintage aged guitars.

I've never personally relic'd a guitar (or re-licked one). But some of the best Telecaster tones I've ever heard came from a Nachocaster which is a heavy duty relic'd guitar. This one... I think the one I played cost $6000. And up to that point, I would've never ever considered spending that much on any guitar, modern or vintage. The most I've ever spent is $4500. But that guitar had me rethinking about what a guitar is worth. It was that good. As a matter of fact one of my best friends bought a used one just like it for a $1000 more, and he thought it was the deal of the century, HE LOVES IT!!! And the fact that you could nick it, dent it, whatever, and wouldn't lose a cent of value is kind of appealing. These guitars now sell for over $8000 new, and there's a waiting list. He sells them that fast. So people pay even more than that for used ones if they want one immediately. Frankly, I don't think I'd like if the man himself, Nacho, made me one that would look new. It just felt so good, and better than any vintage Tele that I've ever played (I've played a few). A few weeks before I played this one I had a 50's whiteguard Tele at my house and this Nacho smoked it! Here's the only song that I recorded with it, a song which came out of me with less than 20 minutes of play time on it. The pickups just sang and the vibration in the wood rattled my ribs...

Yes I was paraphrasing with that Hendrix comment. Lots of reasons people want old worn looking guitars. And why not? if it inspires you to play more, or enjoy using it, it's all good. Even if you hang it on a wall & never play it, it's art. Not my place to judge.

wow that is a really good idea!

BTW, I like the way you named it. It's good that you got it in before my trademark came through. You got to use it for free!

I'm so sorry to hear this. I looked at this and my first thought was the year he was born was the year I graduated from high school. Just not fair, way too young. RIP.

Good question, Rich . . . my guess is that the Richcaster will sit at the outside with the 535 in the middle. I'll be able to tell my axes from a hole in the ground! 🤣

It's always fun to spend other people's money! 😁 I'm looking forward to the tone report. Will it sit midway between the 530 and 535?

I thought I was done chasing the full-hollow-with-humbuckers will o' the wisp. Then, the esteemed Talisman Rich posted in another thread that Wolftone makes HBs in P-90 size . . . Little wheels in little head turned . . . Found a 2023 530 in ebony at Dave's Guitar for $1750 and bought Wolftone Legends for it . . . Ebony is good color so I can tell my axes apart: 535 in OSB, 530 in red, and now RichCaster in ebony . . . Looking for good bankruptcy lawyer . . .