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What Color for S-Type Partscaster


velorush

Question

I know before I ask this will result in nothing conclusive and in the end 'it's your guitar, paint it what you will,' but I thought I'd throw this out here and at least get some opinions.  Sometimes it is helpful just to discuss to either confirm or deny what I knew all along.  So here it is: after perusing the Fender Custom Shop Strats for going on a year and after receiving some helpful encouragement from some here, I've been working on an S-type partscaster.  This has actually been extremely surprising.  I was shopping for parts when a complete partscaster popped up on the StratTalk board.  It was most of what I was looking for and at a reasonable price, so I bought it.

Attach10536_20170104_110251_zps37dghc1f.

What I bought was an American Special ash body that had been black, but stripped down to the sealer coat, a Callaham vintage bridge, the Gilmour set of pickups (CS '69, CS fat 50's, SD SSL-5) and a '57 AVRI neck - basically a Gilmour Black Strat clone that had been stripped.  Oh, with one of the new hardshell cases, too.  I'd never played the '57 AVRI neck, a nice "V" shape that measured 0.84" at the first fret.  It was fun for a little while, but there just wasn't enough meat there for my hands and I knew it was going to have to go.  After some consultation here on the Board, I purchased an Allparts fatty (inch thick first to 12th) and a set of hipshot locking tuners with their new mounting system that requires no holes drilled.

It is magnificent!  I can't stop playing it.  And now we're getting into weather warm enough to paint the thing and I'm overwhelmed by the possibilities.  My favorites are Black, Antique White (i.e., Yngwie yellow), Fiesta Red, Sherwood Green.  Given the fretboard on this one is (my favorite) maple, I'm a little hesitant to go with my favorite color, Fiesta Red (that, and everyone in the house winces at the thought).  Sherwood looks great (IMO) with maple, but the varying definitions of Sherwood make it kind of a crap shoot.  Yngwie yellow, like Fiesta Red, would look better to me with a rosewood board.  So I was pondering doing it up like my favorite, the cold-dead-fingers Strat, the '97 Roadhouse I traded off to Punkavenger:

P1010008alt.jpg  

I even have a brand new tort guard ready to go.  I was set.  Black/tort it is!  Then I happened across this on the RebelRelic site this morning:

2S36-970x650.jpg

This (IMO) is a fantastic green!  It's not Sherwood, it's not Kelly, not British Racing Green.  It's just very nice green.  I just heard back from RebelRelic (it's 6:25PM in the Netherlands and they are answering emails like it's 8:00AM) - it's 7up Green, I suppose like on the first-gen Eric Clapton Strat. 

Any thoughts?

The other options, the most famous Fiesta Red / Maple board:

Hank+Marvin+Cliff+Richard+Shadows+Perfor

Sherwood with maple:

maxresdefault.jpg

Yngwie yellow:

fender-strat-malmsteen-2001-cons-full-fr

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I'd recommend Dakota Red, it's a deep red and looks really nice IMO, and it's nowhere as glaringly painful to my eyes as Fiesta Red.  If not that, Sherwood Green is always a good choice.  I'm not crazy about the green that RebelRelic uses or the Candy Green color, it seems to me to be a little too close to the Olive Green color that has gotten trendy in the last year or so.

Edited to add:  If all else fails, there's always natural transparent (with a little vintage yellow tint of course)!  

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Does it have to be guitar colors? Because there are a ton of car colors that would look great on a guitar and be unique at the same time.

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4 minutes ago, hamerhead said:

Does it have to be guitar colors? Because there are a ton of car colors that would look great on a guitar and be unique at the same time.

Funny you should mention that, Fender and Gibson thought the same thing, back when cars were big and gas was dirt cheap:

http://www.guitarhq.com/fenderc.html

http://www.guitarhq.com/gibsonc.html

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8 minutes ago, hamerhead said:

Does it have to be guitar colors? Because there are a ton of car colors that would look great on a guitar and be unique at the same time.

Candy Apple Red with a matching headstock...

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Yep, Crunchee beat me to it.  Pretty much all of the custom colors are car colors - Sherwood Green, for example, first came out on the '57 Mercury.  Fiesta Red is from the '56 Thunderbird, etc.

Couple of things I should have mentioned that are absolutes and go against the norm of most:

1. there are maybe two blue colors I can stomach. I'm just not into blue the way most are.  One of those colors I have on P-Bass, but I don't want to match that (light metallic blue - I seem to recall Fender Customer Service telling me it was technically "Teal Green Metallic" but it's not green at all, even with yellowing of the clearcoat) . 

IMG_1761.jpg

2. I absolutely loathe matching headstocks on Fender-esque guitars.  I don't know why, but one of my favorite things about them is that beautiful bit of uncovered maple on the end.  Painting it just seems to take away.  Both points goofy, I know.  Everybody loves blue guitars (they sound better) and everybody loves a matching headstock...

Oh, the other blue I can stomach is Lake Placid blue (an old Cadillac color) but with infinite possibilities, why go for something that is just tolerable?

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What, no love for the metalflakes?!

:D

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1 hour ago, cmatthes said:

What, no love for the metalflakes?!

:D

c5192c853d324025ef6e9d19b5ef33cd.jpg

You know, I hadn't really thought about it.  I haven't shot metalflake since I was in high school (yep, I shot an actual bass boat!).

Here's a more subtle rendering, an actual candy green shot over a silver base coat.  It was on Reverb some time back, a one-off Custom Shop Strat:

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A little more depth than the Clapton 7up Green.

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2 hours ago, velorush said:

c5192c853d324025ef6e9d19b5ef33cd.jpg

You know, I hadn't really thought about it.  I haven't shot metalflake since I was in high school (yep, I shot an actual bass boat!).

How about a two-tone green metalflake? Darker green or a blue/teal hint along the edges; kind of like a very subtle burst?

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All your choices are legit...go with what will make you happy when you reach for it. You made it seem like you really want the Fiesta Red. Do it.

The option that I'd love: Capri Orange. 

I love orange and oceanburst and jazzburst.

I like colors, especially for Fender types.

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Here's a unusual and wicked green for you -- Gretsch's "smoke green" scheme. I don't know what the two individual greens that make up the scheme are called. The examples on the bench are a '62 Annie I'm bringing back to life and a modern MIJ reissue a client brought to me when he saw I was working on a "real deal" on the shop's Facebook site.

Image may contain: one or more people and guitar

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Also, considering you have the Gilmour electronics package -- I highly recommend doing the Gilmour mod via a push-pull or a mini toggle to get neck + bridge and all three pickups simultaneously (not available in standard strat blade switch wiring) if you are a lush clean guitar sounds nut. I've done it on two recent strats that have crossed the bench and was pleased enough with those two extra/new sounds that I'm going to do the same mod to my G&L Legacy when I find some free time.

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2 hours ago, Jeff R said:

Also, considering you have the Gilmour electronics package -- I highly recommend doing the Gilmour mod via a push-pull or a mini toggle to get neck + bridge and all three pickups simultaneously (not available in standard strat blade switch wiring) if you are a lush clean guitar sounds nut. I've done it on two recent strats that have crossed the bench and was pleased enough with those two extra/new sounds that I'm going to do the same mod to my G&L Legacy when I find some free time.

Actually did that on a prior Strat and liked it a lot.  IIRC, I got a mini switch in a box of parts from Bubs.  I really liked having the option.  I've used the S-1 switch for some other switching schemes (even though the S-1 isn't the most sturdy bit of kit).  That would keep additional holes to a minimum.

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I've stuck with colors that dont stick out most of my life.  I'm currently working on a partscaster and I decided on something bright and different from normal for me.  Surf green.  I vote Fiesta Red.  I think it looks great with a maple board.  

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23 minutes ago, velorush said:

Actually did that on a prior Strat and liked it a lot.  IIRC, I got a mini switch in a box of parts from Bubs.  I really liked having the option.  I've used the S-1 switch for some other switching schemes (even though the S-1 isn't the most sturdy bit of kit).  That would keep additional holes to a minimum.

I can't stand those S-1 switches. Use a push-pull pot in your bottom tone control to avoid new holes.

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Metalflake (or Metallic) Chartreuse is where it's at!  

Trois%20Lapins_zpsqfjfp7x0.jpgChartreuseFlakeStrat61014_zpsc4104f3c.jp

mcmjmfcmsm_zps1mjvqxyv.jpgChartreuseflakeStrat42514_zpsec5f1f51.jp

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Fiesta Red and Sherwood Green would be good choices.  Since it is a parts guitar you might as well live it up by using a one of the custom colors from the past. 

 

Fiesta Red and Sherwood Green could be mixed together into Firewood Brown. 

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Inca Silver ain't too shabby...  

 

:rolleyes:

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