Show off your BEAT Fender AVRI or Custom Shop Guitars

[TinyBabyBrandon]

I thought it'd be cool to do a dedicated thread to posting photos of non factory relic guitars that have naturally relic'd over time and use from the modern era. It's cool to compare and contrast the way these modern guitars age as compared to their vintage counterparts. After a little searching on the web, there's not a lot of places where people are posting photos of these guitars in heavily used condition. I. do not want this to be a relic vs. non relic post. We all know there are opinions out there, but this is just a place for showing how a new, non relic modern (1980's onward) guitar has aged over the long haul. I don't have one to get us started, but I am curious, so..... If you got 'em, post 'em!

 

[jb_abides]

No pics but my AVRIs (52 Blackguard, 57 Strat, 62 Strat) are not relic'd looking at all, or even closet classic like. Maybe case queens... but they are used and cleaned, and I don't abuse them i.e. I don't gig out with belt buckles and beer. How much honest wear when they get wiped clean and kept in cases in between... sorry I am boring.

Really, they are holding up almost too well for their age; plus, every time I go online to look at them in the market, I see two camps: (1) those that are beaten look more ratted-out in a 'non-relic'd' way: more broken down than worn with a patina of a bygone age, and (2) those that look pretty darn good...

So, I wonder why isn't more of a desirable fuss made over them, why do prices fall well below other eras for US Fender guitars with great specs and build qualities. They seem like they should rate akin to Gibson Pre-Historic, but they don't. There's very little buzz or coveting, seems to me. Any ideas as to WHY?

 

[TinyBabyBrandon]

Yeah, that's kind of the point of this thread, really, to see how these guitars age vs vintage guitars. They both have nitro (debatable about how vintage the nitro really is as we could easily go down the plasticizers/ poly undercoat vs. fullerplast, etc....) there are vintage case queens too, but far less it would seem. Even case queens of the vintage ilk seem to age around the edges just from bumping around in the case. Seems most vintage, pre '68 Fenders tend to have similar checking despite undercoat. And CS Journeyman relics to me look extremely inauthentic to the real thing, hence why I'd like to see some real relics from the modern era.

 

[jb_abides]

They were spec'd as nitro, and smelled a bit of it, but my bet is there's ample plasticizer / poly undercoat as you suggest, that are keeping things more stable and therefore the relic'ing will neither appear as overdone as Journeyman or as nicely worn as some of the lightly aged CS variants, just kinda damaged. Which has its own thing, to some.

 

[jb_abides]

Here's one that's seen a bit of a beating, that comes off more like damage than relic'ing.

Note the under-layer finish, I think Lemmo's correct this was a factory do-over, which might be why the metallic candy apple red was easily flaked away at that location.

 

[jb_abides]

Here's another with neck wear, random chips, etc.

Good close-up footage at the end of video. More signs pointing to another finish beneath? or just colored primer?

 

[jb_abides]

Very clean 52 Blackguard, like mine but righty. Kept the dark circuit!

BTW this was lockdown day.

 

[jb_abides]

Good wear on a 52 AVRI Tele

 

[jb_abides]

Here's a members gallery which has good shots of AVRI 52 Tele wear

https://imgur.com/a/UDZaOf5

Example

 

[jb_abides]

Here's an older thread with essentially the same thrust, showing a 62 AVRI Strat in Candy Apple Red with seriously progressed wear revealing build-appropriate gold under-layer prior to the translucent red, with some real greening going on.

Easily the most worn AVRI I have ever seen and cited as totally honest wear. Yowza! Case too.

AVRI: How do they age?

While the AVRI series has unfortunately been discontinued, there are really nice deals on the used market. The ones I've seen usually have the odd chip here and there, but I haven't seen any heavy wear yet. To those of you that own one (any model): How did yours age? Any checking appearing...

www.lespaulforum.com

Sample pic, there are other good ones!

File Under: Playing Goals...

(or, alternatively, biochemistry avoidance)

 

[TinyBabyBrandon]

All good finds! I have a friend who has an older, maybe 87ish, AVRI in CAR that has very similar wear to the last one posted. Tons of wear, with the shoreline gold undeercoat along with some blue in there too. Seems like they do wear in an "uglier" way though. Often I see the finish doing the orange peel thing in reaction to sweat. Definitely a much different type of wear than seen on the original vintage guitars. I'd be interested to see some custom shop NOS's that have been through the ringer to see if there's a difference in the nitro and how they wear with a ton of bar hours, etc... So far it would seem that these modern guitars do not wear in anywhere near the same way as a real golden era guitar.

 

[Otter]

A lot of the earlier AVRIs (1982,1983) had very flaky finishes. Took Fender a couple years to find the right lacquer recipe and/or technique. The front of my '82 AVRI looks pretty good, the back is flaky as hell. Previous owner did a coat of overspray to keep it from getting worse. As you can see, it's not legit play wear, it's just a bad finish

 

[calcheyup]

Really, they are holding up almost too well for their age;

I'm in this boat too.

I have an '04 Clapton that was my first nice guitar. I promptly gigged with it, dropped it countless times, had beer spilled on it, stored it on whatever was convenient (tables, couches, carpet, etc). From 5 feet away it looks like a brand new guitar. There are a few paint chips and about a zillion scratches in the clearcoat, the portion where my forearm sits is starting to dull a bit, but that's it. I understand it's not an "old" guitar, but it's a 20 year old guitar that has been played daily for that entire time.

I also have a relic sunburst Strat and had one guitar tech comment that he didn't like relics, saying that he thought the relic looked great but "you used to have to earn it." I told him you can't "earn it" anymore, the way modern guitars are finished.

He didn't have much of an answer for that one.

 

[Amp360]

I'm in this boat too.

I have an '04 Clapton that was my first nice guitar. I promptly gigged with it, dropped it countless times, had beer spilled on it, stored it on whatever was convenient (tables, couches, carpet, etc). From 5 feet away it looks like a brand new guitar. There are a few paint chips and about a zillion scratches in the clearcoat, the portion where my forearm sits is starting to dull a bit, but that's it. I understand it's not an "old" guitar, but it's a 20 year old guitar that has been played daily for that entire time.

I also have a relic sunburst Strat and had one guitar tech comment that he didn't like relics, saying that he thought the relic looked great but "you used to have to earn it." I told him you can't "earn it" anymore, the way modern guitars are finished.

He didn't have much of an answer for that one.

I have an 87 or 88 Clapton and if you look at it up close, it's pretty beat up but looks really nice from five feet away. Fender really figured out how to do the finish right in about 87.

 

[calcheyup]

I have an 87 or 88 Clapton and if you look at it up close, it's pretty beat up but looks really nice from five feet away. Fender really figured out how to do the finish right in about 87.

Love the wood grain on that neck!

 

[pa-tom]

Here's my '89 AVRI52, most of the wear on mine is on the neck. The body has some scars, but pretty tough. My '88 is mint.

 

[garywright]

I have a beautiful 2000 Aztec gold ‘57 ri strat …it’s been played but always taken care of with no real signs of wear.

 

[Amp360]

I wonder if this one would count. Story may also be TLDR, but I'm a little nostalgic.

In 2001ish I played on a record for someone. I was living in NYC and was living in a glorified closet with two other people, which was really expensive. 9/11 happened and I got offered $1000/wk to go on a promo tour which consisted of radio stations, malls (for example, we played at the old waterfall in the Prudential in Boston, which was neat for me), and opening for other groups.

I had some decent guitars at the time, an old Telecaster and a Les Paul Standard, which was my first good guitar. I used these at first then we went overseas so I needed things I wouldn't have to worry about. I think I was able to get either $1000 or maybe $1500 for equipment and I ended up buying a couple of SG models - a faded one that was used and a yellow one with a gloss finish that was cheap because it was yellow and had been sitting around. I also had to buy a delay pedal and one of those purple Line 6 filters to copy the record.

Anyways, long story short the record blew up and as a reward, I got money for better guitars. I got this sparkle (which was rare at the time) Fender Telecaster with Strat switching. It wasn't a relic but I wore a big spot on the bridge where I keep my pinkie and the finish somehow broke into a bunch of big pieces.

I call it my Fender PRS because it plays beautifully, has amazing fretwork and low action but sounds kind of flat. It's really fun to play, but doesn't really sound all that inspiring. On big stages it looked great and with this particular show running this guitar into an SLO and a Twin I doubt anyone knew the difference.

Here's the SG which also became a relic

I can't find any pics of the faded SG right now that aren't of me playing it live but the neck got broken off and in between a tour I sprayed it white and turned it into a Jr., which I ended up giving to a friend.

I guess I didn't end up putting the bar on it, but it looked pretty cool. I did put the older tuners on it.

Then I got sent a brand new white SG in the mail one day, which were kind of hard to find and it was missing the neck. Then I got a red one and that one had the same issue!

A friend of mine, Ed Roman, had this photo on his site for years!

So then I just got a Les Paul instead. Black was the cheapest one at the time.

 

[corpse]

Nice pair. Great story.

 

[DutchRay]

Here's my 1991 '57 reissue strat. I got it new, the shop I worked from had ordered a sunburst and this came in. I think it's called Ocean Turquoise. It used to be blue, now it's green-ish. All the wear and tear happened while playing it on stage, I even knocked out a dude with it at some point

Mods: Round string tree, 1954 neckplate, brass saddles, Bill Lawrence Humbucker. Trem arm is broken and stuck in the trem block, nut is broken and glued back together same for the pickguard.