Lately I've been having a powerful craving to purchase a Fender Telecaster and have been scouring the web looking at different models, configurations, colors, options, etc. I've seen many-a-plenty Tele's and as my desire and knowledge have grown, with it I've begun to feel more and more disgusted with the relatively new trend of brand new, factory made "Relic" guitars.

These "Relic" guitars are manufactured to look as if they are very old, heavily played and worn & torn. Apparently they appeal to a certain end user who wants to pretend. Someone who wants to have their friends come over and see the guitar on a stand and say, "oh wow, cool old guitar, man". Maybe they want to stand on stage (prolly playing cover songs) and have the audience get the impression they've been playing that guitar forever and will think it's fucking cool, bro.

Willie Nelson's famous old guitarYou see, there is something genuinely cool about a guitar that has been passionately played and loved. An instrument that has been through the trenches and played to express the feeling of its owner. Imagine hanging out with Eric Clapton at his house and he's got an old Stratocaster sitting there on the couch that he began playing back in the early 70's. Maybe he recorded "Layla" with it. You can see the scratches and dings on it, and when he shows you its back, the paint has partially rubbed off from pressing against his blue jeans. That 6 string has been there. It's been played and played and played. It has soul. Here's a guitar that has the artists blood, sweat, love and soul embeded into it. This guitar has created truly beautiful music. Now THAT is damn cool. That guitar is a piece of history and you want to hold it and try and feel the energy within. Very cool. Very cool, indeed.

John Lee Hooker back in the dayBack in the 1930's through the mid 1960's, musicians just wanted to have a guitar to play. They weren't too concerned about appearances ~ it was about the music. Sure a fancy guitar was nice, but it was mainly about playing. As big business got deeper in bed with music, commercialization and profit slowly but surely became priority. The 1970's began producing some rather shallow musical acts that were more about appearances than music (which can sometimes be really cool!). Into the 80's the music industry became even more commercialized with the creation of boy bands, while pop songs became more formulated and over-produced and were fed to the American sheeple. The 90's took it to the next level and with the new century beginning, the music industry had assumed control leaving personal musical art in it's past. Yeah, okay, that's kind of harsh, but it's mostly true. Sure, there will ALWAYS be real artists creating brilliant music, but it gets harder and harder to find and hear and the music industry is mostly disinterested in art.

The point is, because of the extreme commercialization of music, the young and impressionable masses who most often choose new and modern music, are listening to artists whose music has met the music industry's criteria, which is formulated and sales proven. The days of major record companies fostering and nourishing up and coming talent are long gone and radio stations are left with commercialized crap (there are always exceptions). So.., kids get programmed into a commercialized state of mind and these fake new old weathered guitars become appealing. And I throw up.

Guitar Hero kid rips it upSomewhere along the way, guitar manufacturers began to realize there was a market for "reissue" guitars. They watched their old 1950's and 1960's models selling for $25,000 and found out people dig that old look and feel. Soon after companies like Fender began creating a "Relic" line of guitars in which they spend a great deal of time and effort to make brand new guitars look like they were played by Muddy Waters and discovered in an attic covered in 30 years of dust.

I don't fault Fender for exploring new avenues of revenue but I do want to smack the fool who wants to pose and look cool holding a fake. C'mon people! WTF?! What ever happened to integrity? Posing ain't cool ~ integrity is cool. I believe that such things should be earned. Look at the guitar on the home page of this site. I bought that guitar brand new in 1984 and have played the living crap out of it. All the wear and tear is real, from real time spent.., sweat, passion and drunken stumbles inflicting dents and scratches on its sexy body. It was a toil of passion and it's the only way. It's the only way for me.

Here's the guitar I want to buy. Notice it's brand new and looks brand new. I will try and take good care of it but I won't over-baby it ~ I'll play it. If it gets dings and scratches, that's the way it goes. The only thing more sad than an instrument being over-babied is an instrument trying too hard to look like its earned its keep.

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