Gibson distressed model [Archive]

Kirk Albrecht

Mar-08-2004, 8:10am

Maybe Charlie can weigh in here, but I am not sure I get the soon to be released Master Model distressed look. #Do mando players really want a new mandolin which looks old, is beat up (sort of) before you buy it? #Why not just a great Master Model which looks, well ... new, since it is new?

I can see taking an old Loar in distressed condtion, but why a new mandoling made to look old? #Don't most of us take great pains to keep our new instruments looking new?

FWIW, I also didn't get Fender's attempts at the distressed looking Strats either.

Mar-08-2004, 8:43am

There was a long thread on this but I can't find it in the archives. #The bottom line there was that some people like the look, some don't. #Enough have ordered to justify production to Gibson.

Found the thread Distressed model discussion (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=12;t=10172;hl=distressed)

Brookside

Mar-08-2004, 8:59am

Each to their own I guess but I do see your point and it's not my cup of tea either. There are homebuilders where I live who offer distressed floors and kitchen cabinets. They install them new using fine materials and then beat the hell out of them with chains. I had the pleasure of seeing it done once and I couldn't keep from laughing my head off.

grsnovi

Mar-08-2004, 9:54am

It would appear to be a trend in instrument "options" started by the Fender Custom shop. You can now by a brand new instrument that looks like it was built in 1950 and that is beat to death. Gibson offers them too, and their finishes are aged as is the hardware.

So, you pay EXTRA to get a brand new instrument that looks like its been poorly handled and abused for 50 years.

I don't get it...

garyblanchard

Mar-08-2004, 10:04am

I have decided that I don't need distressed instruments as I am a "distressed look" musician. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

Kirk Albrecht

Mar-08-2004, 10:06am

Thanks for the link to the original post. Boy - some emotions flying on that one! Hope I haven't stirred up a hornet's nest again!

If I had a choice, I would buy a non-distressed master model, but it's still about $10K over my instrument budget right now!

Big Joe

Mar-08-2004, 10:20am

Actually, Fender did not start the trend. They just jumped in on the bandwagon. This has been discussed in detail earlier. I believe we decided each to their own. We can only make about six a year, so there is plenty of demand for that. If you see it and play it you could easily become a fan. Most have. Just different strokes for different folks http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif .

Walter Newton

Mar-08-2004, 10:21am

I think distressed electric guitars might make sense for a few rock stars who want (relatively!) cheap "replicas" of their valuable vintage instruments to take on the road.

Spruce

Mar-08-2004, 10:42am

Or on an even more elevated economic scale (and probably where the trend originated), the violinist who coughed up 25K in the 60's for a fiddle that is now worth $3 million bucks, and costs 25K a year to insure....

They just don't want to show up at rehearsal one day with a shiny new fiddle, but rather a "bench copy" (doesn't that sound so much more refined than "distressed"?) of their Strad, which is now parked at a safe-deposit box, uninsured....

It just makes sense in that world...

evanreilly

Mar-08-2004, 11:13am

I played one at OAI; it was mitey fine!!!

Spruce

Mar-08-2004, 12:12pm

Here's what I'd like to see a modern bench copy of a Gibson F5 look like.... # # # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Big Joe

Mar-08-2004, 12:25pm

Hey Bruce! Get your pennies out and rolled. You just might see one. Are you ready for it to be shipped??? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif . You just never know what we might do, and since Charlie knows Monroe's mandolin better than anyone, it is not beyond the scope of possibility.

Spruce

Mar-08-2004, 1:06pm

I'm serious....
I think it would be a great tribute and a cool project...
And if they ever do a movie of Big Mon's life, well, there you go...

Nolan

Mar-08-2004, 1:56pm

I know Fender was building what they called "relic" (distressed) strats and tele's at least 10 years ago and we all sat around the music store and had the same discussions....
I'm curious who was doing it before them back then?

Mar-08-2004, 1:58pm

Ughhh...

grsnovi

Mar-08-2004, 2:12pm

Well, you could offer the opinion that all art forgeries fall into the category, so any instrument selling for big bucks in the vintage market would be a candidate for this sort of treatment. I was not aware that any major builder was offering the option on an "over the counter" basis prior to FMIC but I don't know that for a fact - they're just the ones who popped to mind.

KevinM

Mar-08-2004, 2:22pm

I'll venture a guess that unlike the distressed Teles and Strats the "vintaging" process may also have favorable (or at least noticeable)sonic effects on the MM.

Spruce

Mar-08-2004, 3:52pm

"I'm curious who was doing it before them back then? "

It's probably as old as violin making itself...
It has become very popular in violin making in the last 25 years or so in new work under a maker's own name, although there are countless forgeries out there that were frauds right off the bench that date back hundreds of years...

Antiqued violins started appearing in violin-making competitions (and winning) in the mid-1980s or so, and now they are almost the norm...

Also furniture makers in the 19th Century trying to copy the old stuff would fall into the catagory....

grsnovi

Mar-08-2004, 4:07pm

If OAI can only produce six of them a year, I'm betting there are at least a 1000 "boomers" who want a "Loar" replica as close as possible by the current builders of the brand.

Some of the "replicas" being turned out in the guitar world are replicating the (no longer made) capacitors and using cloth covered wire.

Of course, they're also embedding chips in the neck so that they can be identified as "new".

Then, there is the whole bit where they attempt to replicate a well-known and specific instrument - down to the scratch pattern on the back.

sbarnes

Mar-08-2004, 6:58pm

i'm sure you all probably know but fender offers these 'classics' in 3 configurations...
1. new old stock...(new)
2. closet classic...(aged in appearance but not beat up)..as if it's been in a case in the closet for the past 20/30 years
3. relic ...(beat up) pretty bad....they have the same nicks, gouges, rusted hardware, etc. of the one modeled after...for instance on some the original player had 5 tuners of one brand and one of another and the replica has the same configuration

I don't get it either....maybe the closet classic but not the relic.....
by the way BIg Joe, is there a site where one can put in their gibson serial numbers and get a date of manufacture?

MANDOLINMYSTER

Mar-08-2004, 7:26pm

They are fine instruments with......PATENIA!!! ( spell check?) :DFor those less familiar thats a weathered look that comes with age. But #today is duplicated by furniture makers and the like, its an aquired taste http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

AeroJoe

Mar-08-2004, 11:00pm

This "distressed" thing goes back alot longer than you might think...my fiddle is a late 1800's-early 1900's Guarnerius copy, made in Germany. It is one of the so-called "trade intruments" common to that era. Thousands of these were made, some pretty nicely, as in the case of mine. I had it appraised by John Mongomery's Violin Shop in Raleigh at $2000. Point being, it has three fake "cracks" in the top, a real but uneccessary grafted scroll, and an honest label stating in Latin that it is a Guarnerius copy, then a smaller label above that saying "Made In Germany". I love the thing...and the fact that it appears as old as it really is NOW is sorta ironic since it was made to look a hundred years old BACK THEN...
(huh?)
Anyway, that "distressed" (aged, antiqued, whatever) thing is nothing new...