Usually I am polite, I rarely comment other guys work in public or social media, but this time I'm going to let my tongue speak freely. I have a client in Portugal that has bought a body from Rebel Relic and a neck from Real Life Relics.
Like I always say, there are a bunch of people out there doing better relic jobs than me, and I consider myself learning every week that goes by, but when I saw the pictures that the client sent me (pics 2 and 3), I was pretty mad. The body is... acceptable (althought it clearly needed quite a few more coats of nitro to gain thickness), but the neck, an Hosco 9.5", had barely been painted. How can someone with a brand and a store call this a relic job?! For the love of God, be honest! The back had barely been tinted to give it the greyish look! I had never took so little time to strip a neck in 6 years of activity. It was a vision from hell ladies and gentlemen.
Moving on to my work, the client wanted to reproduce something like the example on pictures 4 and 5, taken from a guitar listed at Reverb.com. I refinished his neck, and when it comes to fretboard marks, I assume that it's not one if my strong points for the moment, and he liked it except for the fretoboard marks - remind me not to work ever again on client's parts... So I proposed him to buy another Hosco, same model, and do a second neck, and he would choose at the end from both. Done.
The first picture is the final result, approved by the client; it's the second Hosco, less relic'd, a thinner finish, hardware installed, Fender CS decals, and a CS neck plate, relic'd too. The pictures from the 6th to the end are the comparison between the his Hosco from Real Life Relics, refinished by me, and the second Hosco, on the left, finished also by me. IMHO any one of the two now is way better than the first when it arrived to my shop.
A last note: this was probably the last time I applied Fender decals. I don't like doing it, it don't think it's honest, and I'm really thinking on selling several dozens I have in stock. In fact I own hundreds, but I'm tired of it.
