well hello
0:19
friends and welcome to another Ask Zac
0:22
today we are going to talk about
0:24
relics we're going to talk a bit about
0:25
the history
0:27
and we're even going to do some
0:30
myth busting and
0:33
then I'm going to you know kind of talk
0:35
about my feelings about relicking
0:36
so i think you probably know how i feel
0:39
to a degree
0:41
so while you're thinking about it if
0:43
you've been enjoying the show please go
0:44
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0:46
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0:48
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0:51
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0:52
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0:56
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0:57
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0:59
what keeps the show
1:00
going thank you all right so relic
1:07
so long you know at least a couple of
1:09
years before the relics came out
1:13
I witnessed relic
1:16
and I was in joe glazer's shop here in
1:19
Nashville
1:20
and he had a white strap pickup cover
1:24
and he was beating it up and rubbing
1:26
gunk into it and everything
1:28
and I mean it just seemed insane
1:32
I mean I just thought what is wrong with
1:34
this guy
1:35
I mean because again you know
1:39
never seen anything like that done
1:40
before
1:42
and i asked him i said joe what are you
1:44
doing
1:45
and he said well Greg martin has a 55
1:48
strat
1:49
and one of the original pickups was
1:52
missing
1:52
and so he's got a replacement pickup
1:55
that we're putting in there
1:56
he said but i don't want it to stick out
1:58
like a sore thumb so
2:00
I'm just gently aging this
2:03
cover so that it'll match with the rest
2:05
of the guitar and so the guitar will
2:07
still look like a complete guitar
2:08
instead having one pickup cover that's
2:11
bright shiny white and two that are old
2:15
and so then I asked him further i said
2:17
what made you you know kind of get into
2:19
that and he said well
2:21
had to do with studying the way art has
2:23
been restored
2:24
and just the way uh craftsmen
2:28
have to do things in order in like in
2:30
Europe or
2:31
you know with antique furniture or
2:34
antique you know old homes you know
2:36
where you have things that need to be
2:38
repaired
2:40
but you can't you know you don't want to
2:41
refinish the whole thing and so you
2:43
learn so they've you know these
2:44
craftsmen have learned how
2:46
to do repairs to old pieces of furniture
2:50
without making it look obvious that it's
2:52
been repaired
2:54
so to restore things
2:57
so that kind of started things you know
2:59
going and then of course
3:01
you know in the in the mid 90s you know
3:03
fender came out
3:04
with the the relic series and this is
3:07
kind of where the myth busting
3:10
comes about all of a sudden this story
3:13
started being told
3:14
and it was the relics came about because
3:18
fender sent some guitars to Keith
3:21
Richards
3:22
and he saw them and he said they look
3:24
too new why don't you go beat them up
3:26
and bring them back
3:28
well according to fender and i spoke
3:31
with john
3:32
page who was the original head of the
3:34
custom shop so from the mid
3:35
80s through late 1998 he was the head of
3:39
the custom shop
3:40
john page then jay black who was the guy
3:44
that started the relic series and it was
3:47
his idea
3:48
and then also Vince Canetto who actually
3:50
did the finishing
3:51
and relicking of the relics that were
3:54
made in the
3:55
up until about late 1998
4:01
anyway they all said that that story was
4:03
false
4:04
and they said the best that they could
4:08
tell
4:09
is that they had a relationship with don
4:13
was who's of course a well-known record
4:16
executive record producer bass player
4:20
and apparently they did some work for
4:21
him where they either aged a base
4:24
or they made some parts that had to be
4:26
aged to match and then
4:28
uh Keith Richards guitar tech and i
4:31
never can't remember his name it's
4:32
Pierre de Beauport I'm sorry if I say
4:35
that wrong
4:36
anyway he ended up asking for a uh
4:40
a an aged guitar
4:43
and then from that um john page and jay
4:47
black got together
4:48
and they decided to make a prototype
4:52
no caster and a prototype Mary kay
4:56
strat and they didn't tell anyone about
4:58
it because they
4:59
they thought that if they told anyone
5:01
higher up at fender
5:02
the whole thing would just get shot down
5:06
so they uh they had these prototypes
5:10
and they took them to the 1995 namm show
5:13
and they had them in glass cases
5:15
and with the other kind of high-end kind
5:17
of artwork
5:18
custom shop guitars and everyone kind of
5:21
thought that they were
5:22
you know vintage instruments that they
5:24
were kind of spotlighting
5:26
as like the heritage offender but no
5:28
they would say
5:29
no these are our new relics how many
5:32
would you like and of course it went
5:33
over like gangbusters
5:35
and and then you know they they quickly
5:38
found that they
5:40
you know they weren't prepared to uh
5:43
you know to really do all of the aging
5:45
and so
5:47
in non-customary fashion it was
5:50
decided to have an outside
5:53
you know you know an
5:56
outside company do that for them and so
5:59
they knew Vince Canetto
6:01
and Vince Canetto had been doing some
6:03
refinishing
6:05
and making aged black guards and things
6:08
like that and again this was about
6:09
restoring guitars it wasn't about
6:11
fooling people you know it was about
6:13
taking your 53 telly that
6:15
someone had you know removed the black
6:18
guard and put a white guard with their
6:19
name on it
6:21
and you know just restoring it and
6:24
so they they contacted Vince Canetto
6:28
and Vince Canetto set up an operation
6:30
outside of st louis Missouri
6:32
and so they would send him bodies and
6:33
necks and of course those
6:36
necks had a lot of flame to him and that
6:39
was because
6:40
at the time that was seen as
6:43
kind of a line of demarcation between
6:46
the standard factory models and the
6:48
custom shop guitars most the custom shop
6:51
guitars got
6:52
curly or flamey you know necks and so of
6:55
course
6:56
all of those relics all those bodies and
6:59
necks that they were sending
7:00
to uh to vents were you know
7:03
heavily figured and so vince would
7:06
finish them
7:08
and he would age them hardware
7:11
bodies necks and then he would label
7:14
them and so if you have a Canetto
7:16
era strat or talia or no caster which I
7:19
had
7:20
i don't have them anymore but i had a a
7:22
diamond dealer
7:24
strat which was it was gold with
7:27
gold-plated parts
7:28
white scratch plate and had a gold
7:30
chevron right here with a diamond in it
7:32
and it had a suede leather gig bag and a
7:34
tweed
7:36
a road case it was tweed but with metal
7:38
corners and stuff I wish I still had it
7:40
but anyway I had that I had a 51 no
7:42
caster
7:43
that were both kineto era and so if you
7:45
take them apart you can find they have
7:47
these white stickers on them with
7:49
numbers and that's so that it lines up
7:50
because
7:51
he would match bodies to necks and then
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he would send all the hardware
7:56
and screws and bodies and necks back to
7:59
fender
7:59
and then that's when it be you know made
8:01
into an actual guitar
8:04
and that was kind of the way it went and
8:06
they did that from you know 95 through
8:09
you know late 98 99 and
8:12
of course one of the big marks is um
8:16
if you look on the back of the headstock
8:18
it will have one embossed
8:20
you know uh fender custom shop logo
8:22
where it's actually pressed into the
8:24
wood
8:25
and then when it went uh to uh
8:28
you know fender doing it in house then
8:31
it went to the uh
8:32
you know the uh the black uh decal that
8:35
you see on
8:36
all the the current ones all the ones
8:38
from 99 up until today
8:40
so so that's kind of the story of uh of
8:43
the relics
8:44
and then how do I feel about them well
8:47
I like relics I like them a lot I think
8:50
uh frankly I think
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good relicking is it's art it's fine art
8:55
i mean this is a a dano caster
8:58
and you know this was made in 2019
9:01
and I think his aging
9:04
you know is amazing I mean I and I tend
9:07
to go for lighter
9:09
aging I don't really go for heavily aged
9:11
most of the time
9:12
and uh the reason for that is I think
9:15
it's
9:16
easier to make it look more realistic if
9:18
you're doing light aging I think the
9:19
heavier the aging
9:22
the harder it is to do and I think
9:25
to do it correctly you have to charge
9:27
more for it
9:28
and I think one of the few that does it
9:30
well is uh
9:31
I mean I think dan does a great job of
9:33
it I think nacho
9:35
I don't you know I don't know who's
9:37
doing it if he's doing it himself or
9:38
you know he has other people you know
9:40
working for him doing it but uh
9:42
i think as far as heavily aged he does a
9:45
good job
9:47
I will say that uh fender
9:50
made a really cool run of what was
9:53
called
9:54
heavy relic telecasters they made 1953
9:58
heavy relic telecasters in 2011 and
10:00
2012.
10:02
and I have to say they are some of the
10:04
most convincing
10:05
looking you know kind of post Conetto
10:09
you know relics and i know that duke
10:11
Levine
10:12
plays one a lot a lot of times when you
10:15
think it's his original black guard he's
10:16
actually playing a
10:19
2011 heavy relic and you know you won't
10:21
be able to tell until he
10:23
turns and you see the decal on the back
10:24
of the headstock
10:26
but those are really cool guitars um
10:29
of course I love Jeff sims aging I love
10:32
dan strains aging
10:34
and then you know even though he's not
10:37
really
10:37
known for it bill crook does great aging
10:41
and so this is the
10:44
paisley telly that he did that he uh you
10:46
know of course
10:47
added toner you know and and relict
10:51
the sides and the and the neck and
10:54
everything and he does great work
10:56
the reason I like relics is it just kind
10:58
of the guitar already feels kind of
11:00
comfortable and
11:01
if they've rolled the fingerboard edges
11:03
i mean that's a big part of it to me but
11:05
i think also it takes the curse off
11:07
of what i call you know the first ding
11:11
and when a guitar already has some
11:14
relic on it and stuff I just feel like I
11:16
can go take it and do whatever I want
11:18
with it I still want to be careful with
11:19
it
11:20
but uh I don't feel the uh i don't feel
11:23
so
11:24
scared about something you know
11:26
happening to it
11:28
so I really like the I like the relics I
11:30
think it I think it's a cool thing
11:32
uh and again as long as it's done well
11:35
um i don't want to get into like a
11:38
bashing thing but I will say
11:40
you know a lot of guys don't do it well
11:42
just because they haven't looked at old
11:43
guitars
11:44
i mean if you want to do good relics
11:47
you need to have either owned old
11:49
guitars or you need to own a lot of
11:51
really good books
11:52
and dan strain does good work because
11:54
he's owned a lot of old guitars and he
11:56
has a huge library
11:59
of uh of books you know on old guitars
12:02
and
12:02
you know he's constantly looking at
12:03
pictures dan strain and I
12:06
went to songbirds museum which just
12:09
closed
12:10
down in Chattanooga we went there a
12:12
couple of weeks ago right before they
12:13
closed
12:15
and of course you know we had to wear
12:16
masks and everything and
12:18
it was great getting to go through there
12:20
with him because he's really looking at
12:22
the wear
12:23
and sometimes you'd be disappointed when
12:24
he saw an old guitar that was in mint
12:26
condition
12:27
because he would rather see one with
12:30
some
12:30
checking in the finish and stuff so that
12:32
he could pick up you know
12:33
new ideas and so a ton of respect for
12:36
that
12:37
yeah and Vince Canetto as a friend
12:40
and uh really enjoyed getting to hang
12:42
out with him at namm shows and things
12:44
like that and
12:46
and uh you know he's a real artist you
12:48
know
12:49
you look at you looked at those Conetto
12:51
you know strats and teles and uh
12:54
yeah he really put a lot of himself in
12:55
those and uh
12:57
i think that's the difference some of
12:58
the there's some road warns that uh that
13:01
you know of course fender made of course
13:03
it's not an ex a horribly expensive
13:04
instrument and i think you can save
13:06
those by
13:07
doing you know kind of touching up some
13:09
things on them
13:11
but uh some of them just look hideous
13:13
and there are some fender custom shock
13:14
guitars which I'm not gonna
13:16
bash them but you know I said nice
13:18
things about the heavy relic series but
13:20
there's
13:21
there's some that just look so fake and
13:23
stuff but
13:24
everyone has it's it's really hard to do
13:26
well
13:27
and uh yeah so there's kind of
13:31
the relic story and i hope you've
13:33
enjoyed it
13:35
and it's just for for giggles
13:39
because I haven't played the whole video
13:42
I'm gonna do
13:42
uh one one lick for you just to end on
13:46
and uh and this is what what i would
13:48
call kind of like a
13:50
an old school hot lick and I've heard
13:53
James burton do this lick
13:55
I've heard Chet Atkins merle Travis uh
13:59
the ventures and it's fun and it's one
14:03
that's really good for picking fingers
14:05
so this is good picking fingers exercise
14:06
so here it is
14:08
[Music]
14:11
so it's
14:20
that's fun uh it's fun to play like on
14:23
working man blues you know
14:30
[Music]
14:36
you can kind of tail off like that and
14:38
go
14:39
so anyway little lick for you to end
14:43
on a uh on a fun playing note so but
14:46
thanks for watching and I'll see you
14:47
next time bye