Mine will never get that kind of wear because I don't play that hard or often enough to wear out the polyester suits they all wear. I can respect honest wear, but manufactured wear seems a bit pretentious to me. I want the battle scars to be from years of playing and good (or bad) stories.
I will never understand reliced guitars. Is the term "poser" no longer a thing? Either do it yourself through playing it, or buy a used guitar that someone else played to death. You need to find the sweet spot between used and vintage. The pawn shops should be full of these in six months or so. I have an olympic white strat that has reached that perfect buttercream color and the poly finish has some chips and cracks. It's a cheap MIM with no finish on the back of the neck. That's about as reliced as I go. That OPs particular guitar would have a more burnished and darker finish if that clumsy strummer did all that. Also, he'd be on his fifth pick guard and we'd see some wear on that and possibly the edges of the pickups. Metal pics might do it but the pick-guard would be a mess.
"Just keep whanging on it, Beav! In half an hour, we'll be able to sell it, for 10 times what your Dad paid for it!"
Yes, picking wildly above the pickguard with a metal pick, enough to where the finish is stripped after a couple years, is necessary for an audience to enjoy the music. Even when it's well known that there are legitimate rock stars like Clapton and Gilmour who have 1950s guitars that they never ragged out this badly, over decades.. I guess we feel sorry for them and their audience? ..and I am a fan of relics that are tastefully done.
This "type of wear happens" when some poseur wastes time screwing around with his Harbor Freight angle grinder instead of practicing guitar. There is no way this bs can happen with anything related to actual playing.
