When relic’ing, I have always found it helpful to consider the factors that cause guitar finishes and parts to age naturally. It’s actually pretty convincing for a later-50s look already, but the ’54 we have on loan has a darker shade. My other reason for making Goldtop test pieces is to try and figure out if there’s a way to make the Goldtop lacquer darker and greener. It’s all very complex and it’s going to be a big challenge to get this looking right. Then you may see a third type of hairline crack that actually goes with the wood grain to bridge the lateral cracks. Following similar patterns, there will also be finer checking lines that are lighter and less obvious. Some lines are deep and wide and look dark – often with some verdigris. On close examination of vintage Les Pauls, it’s also apparent that various types of checking tend to be present on originals. I also practise the curves and lines that characterise Goldtop checking patterns. I always induce a few dents and dings before using air dusters for checking, because the crack lines tend to form around the damaged areas as they would on a vintage instrument, so I decide to do the same here. Press too hard and there’s a danger of cutting through to the wood – and if the blade isn’t sharp enough, you may end up with chipping rather than fine ‘checking’ lines.
I use a craft knife rather than a razor, and very little pressure is needed. As it turns out, the answer is nothing at all, so I’m back to the blades. But it’s not what I need for the top.Ī couple of months later, when the lacquer has fully cured, I divide the piece into quarters and put one piece through a few freeze-and-thaw cycles to see what happens. Where some degree of randomness is appropriate, that’s fine, and using a borrowed ’54 Les Paul as a reference, the compressed-air method is going to be okay for the back and sides.
But I’ve also learned that, using this method, I have very little – if any – control over the direction of the lacquer cracks. In the past, I’ve managed to produce results that I’m happy with by using inverted air dusters, and I’m able to control the look and intensity of the checking to some extent. Furthermore, when there is pronounced lacquer checking, it runs laterally, rather than following the grain along the body’s length. When you look at original examples, you can see massive variation in the extent of the lacquer checking, the colour of the gold and the amount of greening. No clear consensus seems to exist on how to correctly relic a Goldtop Les Paul and I suspect that’s because producing authentic-looking results is a challenging process. Although relic’ing most Gibson and Fender-style guitars is a relatively straightforward procedure, I approached ageing the Greco’s finish with some trepidation.
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