by George Lewis » Sun Oct 16, 2016 12:40 pm
Hi All,
FWIW, all this talk of resprays, fading reds, different colours under different lights, colour film for pictures, my mate has an original 195.. or 196.. Fiesta red Strat etc.
Believe it or not, they are all true !
However, in 1964 I ordered from our local Australian music store a "Red" Fender Strat which had to come from Fender in America.
At that time we had fire engine red look-a-likes .. and from the Fender Strat brochures that is what we expected the Strat would be like.
There was never any mention of Fiesta Red or any other specific red ... the order was just for a Red Strat .. like The Shadows had.
The day it finally arrived was unforgettable. We opened the case and were greeted with the most lovely smell of fresh cellulose laquer, a lush red velvet lined
interior and ... a guitar that was not Red but Salmon coloured !
This it remained, no matter whether indoors, outdoors or under the kitchen table and fading had nothing to do with it. The music dealer insisted this is what Fender supplied as a red Strat.
So clearly, at that time, Red for Fender, was variable, no doubt subject to what was in the shop and mixed at the time .. the nominal name may have been Fiesta Red because that's what it said on the can !
To insist that everyone, including Hank and Bruce etc were colour blind in stating their guitar was a Salmon coloured red just because others weren't, doesn't make sense. I think in those days Fender used whatever was available including paint.