I have two legitimate “old” guitars, a 70s tele custom and a 60s hagstrom II. I’ve spent allot of time with both and I’ve studied the wear patterns and how the scars have been naturally buffed over time.

I’ve built a color that I like, now I need to work on the texture. On my real tele there’s allot of wear on the top of the headstock where its been bumped countless times. The finish has a slightly milky appearance where the abrasions have occurred. No big gouges, but allot of small dents and bumps that add up.

Now, to start on my guitar, this was a little harder than I thought it would be. The hardware was no problem, into the hydrochloric acid you go. It’s tough putting a ding into a finish you just completed. I chose a pair of end cutters for the first blow. Deep breath, tap, inspect, slight dent, good. change tool, framing square, tap, inspect, tiny gouge, good. Rinse and repeat. My favorite tool was a heavy plastic screwdriver handle, it made nice subtle dents. I liked the slight dents in the finish where the nitro didn’t show any signs of cracking but you could see the mark when you would turn the neck and inspect it. I created a ratio of about 10 dents to 1 nick. No gouges yet.

The next step will be to add a super thin wash of color to the damaged edges to simulate the grime that will accumulate in the wounds. At that point I’ll evaluate and repeat the process, dents and nicks and wash, making the effects more subtle with each pass. Hopefully this will start to simulate the depth you see in old guitar finishes.

Here’s the first round of dents and dings, no wash yet. I’ve created about 90% of the look I’m going for. The next rounds will be very subtle in comparison.