Aged My Gold Top Epi, EXTREMELY PIC HEAVY

[ibanezcollector]

Always wanted a worn down aged looking gold top, something about it is just beautiful.

So list of mods.

Deglossed Body and Plastics
Aged Metals
Aged Plastics
Polished body back up to a very very light semi gloss
New Pots and Switch
New Knobs from my 50's tribute, fits this guitar better

 

[Thrashmanzac]

very subtle, i like it

 

[PoonMasterMaster]

Beautiful! Great job

 

[LtdRay]

This aging i actually like

 

[noUser01]

... do me?

 

[asher]

That is incredibly sexy.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I much prefer this to the typical 'destroy the finish' aging jobs I've seen. I don't understand buying a new guitar fir over $1000 to have it look shitty but to each their own. This does look great though!

 

[makeitreign]

I was expecting a "relic" look.

This definitely exceeded my expectations.
Very classy.

 

[ibanezcollector]

Still working on her, decided to do the razor checking since it just didnt have the mojo I wanted.

Crappy iPhone pics, I forgot my camera at work..

 

[ibanezcollector]

Some of you might of seen this in the standard guitars area but figured it should probably be here, I have been relicing for around 10 years.

And its always a huge debate that you can not relic a poly finish, mostly because there are so many hack jobs out there.

But I believe and am here to show you with some time, effort, and a crap ton of various sanding tools it can be done.

I present my 1996 Epiphone Les Paul Gold Top that I aged. 100% Poly.

 

[Razzy]

Very nice.

 

[Wretched]

Totally nice! Care to divulge your trade secrets?

 

[broj15]

That looks like it turned our pretty well.

 

[ibanezcollector]

Totally nice! Care to divulge your trade secrets?

sure what did you want to know?

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Damn, das hawt.

 

[Thrashmanzac]

how did you get the long horizontal cracks? it is my understanding that this is the hardest part of a good relic job

 

[ibanezcollector]

the checking as its called is done by hand. I googled gold top les paul and found real images that had good checking I liked.

Then its grab the scalpel and begin to lightly scour the finish, it took 2 four hour sessions to check the entire finish. Since it was poly it will never check on it own. And something most dont know even the newer Gibson Historics with checking are done the same way.

You then take very fine sandpaper grits, 1000, 1200, 1500, and 2000 and basically wet sand the body. This removes the harshness of the cuts and after your done you can barely feel them if at all.

Then I use a stain usually a contrasting color to highlight the check marks. In this case I wanted some of the checks to be really dirty in high wear areas so I lit a few paper towels on fire and got a fresh bit of ashes, dip the paper towel in stain then into the ashes to give it that dirty look.

Once the stain has sat for a while then you wipe off the excess, and viola you got aged finish cracks.

 

[Hollowway]

Isn't this the guitar you just posted the same thread about a couple of days ago? Why are you starting a new thread? Or is this a different one?

 

[asilayamazing]

...whoops...