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Back in the day before we knew the proper Fender colour names, Sonic Blue was often referred to as Duck Egg Blue in a similar way to the Flamingo Pink description of Fiesta Red. I guess someone coins the phrase and it catches on, whether accurate or not.

Back to Fiesta Red - look at this video of Joe Bonamassa with a beautiful 1965 Strat.
https://youtu.be/GOiEMwFnZjc

Regarding red fading - yes from my time in plastics I recall red was notorious, fading quickly and badly unless very expensive pigments were chosen which customers often baulked at. Cable manufacturers used to cover up red sheathed power cables in their outside stockyards to stop the exposed top of them going - well it has to be said - pink!

I've also noticed privately over the years that coloured items from the USA generally fade much faster than those from the UK e.g. DVD covers.

A white guitar could become yellow by lack of sunlight, instead of sunlight.
Sunlight keeps it white (bleaching).

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.

Err, is that salmon colour like this? (see photo link attached)


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/23 ... 13b354.jpg

cockroach wrote:Err, is that salmon colour like this? (see photo link attached)


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/23 ... 13b354.jpg

No.

This picture is obviously so very worked on in the color department, maybe it was a b/w picture to begin with....
That George dealer or others just ordered a red strat, says more of the lack of knowledge or the lack of a official colour chart ....
The official name of that darn red was firm from middle 57 till now, very sad is that the paint colour itself wasn't thru the years...
Look at my avatar you can see 7 of 9 (that sounds familiair ...) they all differ in colour in the same light ...

Cheers Rob

And to make things worse there is huge variation in the colour of Salmon.

I think mine was Canadian or maybe an Alaskan Pink Salmon !

George

Maybe Cliff ordered smoked salmon pink !

If you'd told Fender you wanted a darker red, they could have sent you a Dakota Red one. Dakota Red was available from 1960-69 (same as F. Red) and is a true Fire Engine Red. I also happen to think it's a nicer colour (heresy on here, sorry!). I've still got two Fiesta Red ones though.