Gibson Custom Shop

[DeadJeep]

Working on a few few Lawsuit Les Pauls. One is a refin. I'm wondering if anyone has seen www.gibsoncustomshop.com and knows what techniques they use to age their replicas so convincingly.

[Duff Beer Man]

i thought relics were painted then they went back over them with sand paper, files and what not and roughed the paint up where they wanted it?

[DeadJeep]

I was thinking they might do some of that on the back, but for the front I was considering an abrassive hand soap and fine steel wool.

[DeadJeep]

Was also wondering how they do the binding.

[Marzocchi705]

Do a search for 'Relicing' youl find alot of info is already on the board.

[Pr3Va1L]

a can of CO2 pointed downwards should crack the paint. As long as it's nitro...

[DeadJeep]

Interesting. Is that hard to come by?

[erikbojerik]

The "blast of CO2" likely won't get you the pattern of finish cracking that you see on vintage instruments. Vintage finish (nitro) checking mostly follows the grain of the wood...the CO2 blast is more likely to give you a cracking pattern that looks like you threw a rock through a window.

[thegarehanman]

I don't know what the gas is, but the spray can wart removers are cold enough to check nitro. I don't remember where I saw that done, hmmm. Oh, about the checking along the grain. I haven't been exposed to tons of vintage instruments, but I have an old strat that's got a spiderweb finish crack in one of the horns. It doesn't look to follow the grain at all.

peace,

russ

[DeadJeep]

I've got a Gibson Country Western Model from the 50's and an Epiphone acoustic from the 60's. Their finishes are both cracked like you describe. I'll give Co2 a try on some nito'd scraps. Thanks for the input.