How genuine is the wear on this neck?

Wolfetone

Still looking for a cheap Strat type guitar for my youngster. I came across this and was wondering if the wear was natural or contrived? Is there a way you can tell if there's impossible wear?  For example, with this amount of wear on the board, how many fret replacements would there have to have been?

I'm only asking out of curiosity before I contact the seller.

the_jaffa

Looks contrived to me

Modulus_Amps

Agree with Jaffa. seems strange

What is going on with that low E string?

robgilmo

What year is it? Looks like a Silver logo so 90's? How worn are the frets? That would have had a thick polyester finish on it would it not?

terada

Looks like marker pen 

Winny_Pooh

Sure it's not just built up sweat gunk? (Gross!)

Stuckfast

I have a Silver Series Jap Squier that has almost identical markings on the fretboard. Mine hasn't seen much use over the years so I'm pretty sure it is not conventional wear. I wonder if they used some particular chemical in the finish that does this?

axisus

I couldn't say as I'm not interested in Maple fretboards so I never really look at them. What I will say thought is that the genuine worn ones do in fact look as ugly as that! I hate the way that varnished maple fretboards wear, it's not an attractive look - and I'm usually a big fan of (good looking) relics

peteri

Utterly contrived, and badly contrived at that

SNAKEBITE

Looking at some of the ebay threads I've seen worse attempts......

ICBM

Why does it matter? Your kid wouldn’t touch a thing that looks that nasty either way. It’s only old people who find knackered-looking old junk attractive.

proggy

I agree with @terada , marker pen.

Fiftyshadesofjay

I'd honestly forget that heap of junk and just get one of these - https://m.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ms15bk.htm

Wolfetone

ICBM said:

Why does it matter? Your kid wouldn’t touch a thing that looks that nasty either way. It’s only old people who find knackered-looking old junk attractive.

It doesn't really matter but I am curious as to how someone can tell the difference between fake and genuine.

You're probably right about my daughter being repulsed by the 'vintage' state of this but there again she's a fourteen y/o into The Kinks, The Beatles, Hendrix, ELO, Wilbury's, Floyd, AC/DC, and Clapton so you can never tell.... 

proggy

Wolfetone said:

ICBM said:

Why does it matter? Your kid wouldn’t touch a thing that looks that nasty either way. It’s only old people who find knackered-looking old junk attractive.

It doesn't really matter but I am curious as to how someone can tell the difference between fake and genuine.

You're probably right about my daughter being repulsed by the 'vintage' state of this but there again she's a fourteen y/o into The Kinks, The Beatles, Hendrix, ELO, Wilbury's, Floyd, AC/DC, and Clapton so you can never tell.... 

You've certainly done a good job getting her into real music, fantastic.

peteri

Wolfetone said:

ICBM said:

Why does it matter? Your kid wouldn’t touch a thing that looks that nasty either way. It’s only old people who find knackered-looking old junk attractive.

It doesn't really matter but I am curious as to how someone can tell the difference between fake and genuine.

You're probably right about my daughter being repulsed by the 'vintage' state of this but there again she's a fourteen y/o into The Kinks, The Beatles, Hendrix, ELO, Wilbury's, Floyd, AC/DC, and Clapton so you can never tell.... 

Good shout on the music taste.

With regards to wear - there are a few things people always seem to get wrong:

1. Colour - the colour of these does indeed look like marker pen, it just shouldn't be that colour

2. The shape, Fender mess this up too - they use some sort of polisher to take it out, why would you have wear that runs almost to the previous fret? I have genuinely worn necks and yes the divots extend back but not that far

3. Wrong places, again think of the chord shapes/scale shapes that most people play - why would you get that wear all at the second fret?

4. Inconsistent - if it's worn this much, why hasn't the edge of the neck worn? You see that a lot people will sand the finish off the neck, do a reasonable job - but the body is immaculate, just doesn't add up - look at the big picture first

p90fool

That's a tough one. Most amateur contrived wear covers more "heroic" areas of the fretboard than that - but you can almost see exactly which cowboy chords this player favours.

Does the owner have long, dirty fingernails?

chris78

I don’t honestly think you can tell. It makes me laugh when people criticse relic finishes and often they’ll be based on a real guitar. Brad Paisleys tele is a case in point. The arm wear was slated, his is exactly like it

stephen.wood125

Is the previous owner the human torch? I guess the finish would be poly and so hardly wear at all.

ICBM

I think it could be real. From what I remember, the neck finish on these was quite thin (unlike the bodies) and does easily indent with fingernails - and from what you can just about see in the pic, the frets are heavily worn too. But if it is, the owner is a dirty slob who probably never cleaned it. So that’s two more reasons not to buy it.

Wolfetone

ICBM said:

I think it could be real. From what I remember, the neck finish on these was quite thin (unlike the bodies) and does easily indent with fingernails - and from what you can just about see in the pic, the frets are heavily worn too. But if it is, the owner is a dirty slob who probably never cleaned it. So that’s two more reasons not to buy it.

I'll tell her not to lick the fret board.