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Hi-

I am not a luthier. Just a guitar enthusiast.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to make a new acoustic guitar look really REALLY old? Old like a row-boat that's been bleaching in the sun on the beach for 40 years. Grey lifeless cracking wood is what I'm after.

I would start with a $99 epiphone or some other disposable guitar. I've considered everything from laminating on a photo finish to burning the surface with a torch to leaving the guitar in bleach for few months. But I'd prefer that the guitar remain playable.

Here's a picture to give a rough idea of what I'm after for the face:



Not sure this is possible, so any ideas would be appreciated - thanks.

I am not going to ask why though I want to. An open flame is asking for diaster. You are going to have a hard time getting the wood to bleach out because rapidly because the wood is sealed and covered with finish and most manufactures use cat poly of cat urathane so getting the finish or wood to age quickly is not going to be an easy process

Hey- it's me again. I would sand all the poly off first. My biggest concern is getting the yellow color completely out of the face. I've been researching wood bleaches for a while - but it seems that they do the opposite of what I want - livening/brightening up old wood. I'm wondering what kind of chemicals can really desaturate out the yellowish natural color of a guitar face and turn it super old and ashen grey.

I'm not really sure why I want such a beat up looking guitar. I already own a bunch of normal guitars. I just think this would be a really fun thing to own and play. Sort of like how owning a dark-ages crossbow is more fun than a sparkling new rifle.

Jackie, just to clarify . . . It's the color you're after? You're not interested in cracking the lacquer?

Guys, I'm thinking of an ammonia bath, but I don't have first hand experience. What do you think?

I've never had an ammonia bath, James, but if you think you need one!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Yeah - I think getting the color completely out of the face is my primary goal - I'm thinking that sanding off all the clear and hitting it with very abusive chemicals is the way to go. Sorry that the picture I posted shows a wooden plank with deep cracks in it - I know there's no way I could get a guitar face to actually crack like that - I would just rely on very rough non-uniform sanding and maybe streaking with some dark stain in order to create the appearance of additional texture .

Thanks

Aesthetically and philosophically, I don't think you'll get a lot of support here; and as far as protecting the wood from the elements goes, you're going to need to at least treat the surface with a matte or semi-gloss oil varnish. I'd be more surprised if we can't find the know-how to make it work though.

Some guitars are yellow or orange with stain, which I think would be hard to remove, and some have the color in the finish, which would be easier to remove.

Well that's disturbing!!

Sound to me that most of the things to get a really aged technique would damage the glue joints too! Maybe it would be just better to get the sides bent, neck carved and sanded, and get the top and back sets and place them in the sun for 6 months or so! (Maybe more). Finish is designed to protect the guitar therefore it has to go one way or the other! Water and sun will do the rest!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

here's a mockup of what I want (photoshop). Do you think there's any way I could achieve this look, with a lot of rough sanding, ammonia, black stain, and lots more rough uneven sanding?




Ever since I looked at a vintage-looking tobacco burst guitar, I've felt that 'vintage' is not really what I'm looking for. I want a guitar that looks REALLY old.

What you're after is very simple... just build your guitar with old bridge planks or barn beams... I think it would be very cool!

long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

A guitar is a living breathing organism. To put the guitar through the abuse you want in order to change its appearence will unfortuantely also change the playability of the same. Lack of humidity or too much of it changes the dome (among other things) which changes the action which changes the...
The leg bone is connected to the knee bone and the knee bone is connected to the ankle bone etc.
You could be opening pandora's box but a 99 dollar guitar probably isn't very playable to begin with anyway so best of luck.

Leave it in the sun for a few months, you'd be surprised. You could always accelerate the process by leaving it in a tanning bed. UV does bad things (or good, in your case) to wood and finishes. Fuming with ammonia to remove some more colour, once you've UVed it to death, would probably work, as well...maybe buy two in case the ammonia fuming destroys one after the extended UV exposure

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

I completely missed this earlier.

You might try the woodworking guys at the sawmillcreek forum. The problem that I see is that weathering that deep in most wood would destroy guitar tops because of the thinness -- you'd be left with a wall hanger. Start with something that has a cedar top -- one of the Godin offshoots. Cedar can weather and still hold up physically. Good luck.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

You might find an airbrush artist (T-shirt shop or van painter) and let him have at it.

You could always drop it down some stairs


also i don't know if acoustics can take sandblasting or if you can finish it, but i know that gets a really nice weathered effect, mabye a darkish brown stain too?

One sure way to make a guitar look 40 years old, trouble is, it takes 40 years!!!!

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Just to clarify, this is not something you plan on being playable in the end, right? I assume we're talking about a wall-hanger, saloon decoration sort of thing.

If this is something you want to keep playable, I feel I would be doing you a great disservice in not being fully honest - that would be a really dumb idea. No offense, but before you waste any money and destroy a previously functional instrument I feel you deserve to know. I can see the appeal as a bar room wall hanger (though I would just find an old flea market junker for this), but if you want to play it, I reiterate, this would be a really, really, dumb idea.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

You could buy one of these:

http://www.guitargal.com/cgi-bin/display.pl?db=db1&tp=tp2&show=138

Hopefully I did that right. It's made out of reclaimed whiskey barrels and distillery washback vessels. That's pretty cool. Here's the builder's website:

http://www.fyldeguitars.com/index1.html

It seems like it's close to what you want. Looks like it's a little more expensive than $99, though.

Matt

Well theoretically, bleach should take care of the color or sunlight, if you have some time to spare. As for a cracks and stuff... Alternating between soaking it in cold water and putting it into an oven would probably put a few cracks in the thing (particularly the oven part...). I wouldn't go so far as to set the wood on fire, but an oven could provide the heat to crack the wood without scorching it black. The big question is whether or not the glue joints would hold up from such treatment. If anything, you could take the guitar apart, treat it like crap and put the pieces back together with fresh glue. ^^