Höfner custom shop RELIC

[ilan]

https://twitter.com/hofner_guitars/status/936251776877068289

Whodathunkit

[Chris P.]

One of my Höfners is matte. It plays so much better and it feels so much better. I saw some matte prototypes which were great and ths one is cool too. I'm sure they'll sell a lot!

[Alanko]

Looks like the sort of playing wear you get on old violins. The violins and violas my parents acquired for my brothers and I when we were kids looked a bit like that!

[Dave W]

Fine if it were honest wear, but it's not.

[westen44]

Looks like the sort of playing wear you get on old violins. The violins and violas my parents acquired for my brothers and I when we were kids looked a bit like that!

It reminds me of the wear on my grandfather's old violin. All his kids were musically talented.  But one of his daughters married someone who was tone deaf.  It was their child who ended up with the violin.  C'est la vie. 

[ilan]

Good violin makers have been doing artificially aged finishes for ages. It's not considered or perceived as not honest.

If a bass feels better I'll play it better. And distressed finishes - real or artificial - feel better than shiny new under my hands.

[Dave W]

Good violin makers have been doing artificially aged finishes for ages. It's not considered or perceived as not honest.

If a bass feels better I'll play it better. And distressed finishes - real or artificial - feel better than shiny new under my hands.

Aged, yes. Not deliberately worn through in places.

[Chris P.]

Aah, the relic discussion again: as I always say: it's utterly stupid and still I love them, haha! Same as active versus passive or short versus long. Just a taste. But if you like it, Höfner did a good job. Better than some other jobs. If you don't like it at all: don't bother.

[Dave W]

At least it's more realistic than that stupid looking Fender Brad Paisley Road Worn Tele, each with the identical phony looking bare spot.

[Alanko]

Good violin makers have been doing artificially aged finishes for ages. It's not considered or perceived as not honest.

If a bass feels better I'll play it better. And distressed finishes - real or artificial - feel better than shiny new under my hands.

My brother had a violin made for him, and it had an aged finish. It wasn't like a worn in/out finish, it just looked like a subtle sunburst which I think was a copy of one from an old Italian violin. Maybe. There weren't patches of bare wood!

Oddly the violin sounded like you would imagine a new violin to sound like; sort of bright and fresh! My brother had a friend who was allowed to play a Stradivarius cello at an auction. The cello was basically going to make the jump from one bank vault to another, so my brother's friend was surprised that they were permitted to play the cello for a while. Two things happened, apparently. Firstly the sound of the cello stopped everybody in their tracks. Secondly, the cello took a while to warm up and come back online as an instrument.

As boys we all reckoned that our violins sounded better when we had been playing them intensely. When we came back from, say, a holiday they didn't sound as played in. A pleasantly worn finish wouldn't have helped us out any, and I still wince when I think about some of the relic'ing I meted out on those instruments by accident or out of frustration!

With the cello in mind I'm surprised by the trend of favouring 100% authenticity for vintage mass-production electric guitars. It is pretty much a given that the Stradivarius cello will have been worked on over time. The fingerboard might be replaced, the sound post might be replaced etc... a Stadivarius can be extensively rebuilt and still worth top dollar.

Personally I like to roll the fretboard edges on my guitar and I prefer parchment pickguards to bright white ones. I don't mind relic finishes, but I don't like mass-production relic finishes like Fender's various Roadworn offerings. Plus, some genuinely worn pre-CBS Fenders look fake. We have a slightly perfect-world view of how old guitars should break in and wear down.



When I was a teenager I used to keep my viola in its case next to the radiator. At some point the fingerboard dropped off the instrument! I cleaned up the glue join and then re-glued it with white glue. I didn't get the alignment perfect, so there was a subtle overhang on the treble side of the neck. When I went to university my viola playing lasted about 6 months... oh well, I was quite good at one point! I'm the viola player in my band, even though I'm playing bass. Honestly, if you get stuck in a rut playing bass, listen to some string quartets and work out what the viola is and isn't doing.... anyway! My parents took the viola to a local luthier a few years ago, and he was spitting tacks about the state of the fingerboard repair. I never told my parents of my DIY repair, so they considered it something that the previous owner had carried out. Luckily the viola is back in one piece and the fingerboard is fitted correctly.

[ilan]

This is an Antonio Stradivari "Hellier"1679 model replica that a friend of mine, an accomplished violin maker who studied and teaches in Italy, has made for his daughter.

BTW this is the guy that does all neck resets on my Höfners. He's the only one I trust with the job. And of course all the work on my old upright.



This is the real Hellier Strad -

[Pilgrim]

Both are quite lovely!!

And when it comes to wear, I have never been able to understand why someone who owns a guitar or bass wouldn't take care of it like it was a valuable violin or cello.

Over years, wear does occur, but to my eye there is a very clear distinction between natural wear and carelessness or abuse.  And natural wear doesn't occur nearly as fast as some people who beat up their instruments would like you to believe.