customizing guitars...

DiRtyFranK38

if i wanted to make an old guitar say, look like mike's old beat up strat, with all the chips and sanded down wood and all that, how would i approach it? i have a tradition strat that i was looking to sell, but i thought about it and the guitar looks and feels great it just needs some improvement. i might install some really good pickups in it, and put locking tuners, and then finally, cuztomize the finish. it's like a glossy red right now, with a diamond pickguard. can i literally just take sand paper and sand down certain areas and chip certain areas and just make it look all messed up? or is there a certain method to it. i am NOT getting it professionally done no matter what, so please don't suggest that. but if anyone knows, or has done this, let me know. thanks!

exhausted

http://www.relicdeluxe.com/

might help

DiRtyFranK38

exhausted wrote:

http://www.relicdeluxe.com/

might help

thanks, it did!

ianvomsaal

Just try to make sure the neck is in good condition or it won't really be worth doing any modifications.
If the neck is in really good shape, maybe getting the frets replaced with stainless steel is a good choice
Stainless will last you a lifetime if you plan on keeping the guitar. You can also use a dremel tool with some
small sander bits to age up the body and make it look worn in -- But this also depends on the existing finish,
and the wood the body is made from. If it's fairly bad wood you probably won't want to sand down to the
wood, and depending on the existing finish, you don't know what breaking/chipping it will do the rest of
the finish - breaking or chipping the finish could compromise the integrity of the entire finish (I've seen the
finish on a P.O.S. guitar that got chipped, completely crumble and crack away within a few weeks).
Depends on what the guitar was finished with.

- Ian