One of the first things you’ll see when visiting the Cara Hot Rod Guitars website is the line, “No, you can’t just make a guitar look old by tossing it down the stairs!”  While this line is quite humorous, it doesn’t mean that the staff at Cara Hot Rod Guitars isn’t serious about their craft.  They do try to bring a bit of fun to the work, but they can create a great relic guitar that looks like it’s been around for years while sounding like a modern, perfectly-made instrument.

Cara Hot Rod Guitars has a shop located in Delaware, but they don’t actually sell anything or provide lessons.  Instead, the entire facility is dedicated to creating relic guitars and custom guitars, so if you want to visit, you should call ahead and make an appointment.  One of the coolest things that the company does is give you an idea of what your guitar will look like after the relicing process.  When you give them a guitar to relic, they will first photograph it and digitally age it, showing you what the final product will look like.  You can then make suggestions and work with them until you’ve got the instrument you want.  Then the craftsmen at Cara Hot Rod Guitars go to work and create the perfect relic guitar for you.  They also handle repairs, so if you’ve damaged your guitar in some way (or if “a friend” dropped it), you can get it fixed so that it will look as good as new.