Blonde, Butterscotch, Butterscotch Blonde ?

[skip62]

The original colors are confusing me. Please straighten me out.
Original 52 was butterscotch or blonde, over the last 50 years the finish has discolored to butterscotch blonde. Is this correct? and if so, which color is the "yellowish" color I'm use to seeing?

I guess what I'm asking is, what color was this when it started out 52 years ago? Thanks.

[bj]

... the original '50s broadcaster/"nocaster"/telecaster was issued in a "blonde" colour(Aussie spelling) which was a creamy colouring that allowed the grain of the body wood to be seen. These "blackguard' teles gradually yellowed and became darker with age (and sometimes with the smoke/grime/beer etc. that affected the finish) over many years. Gradually some buyers came to like the more yellowed colour of these originalteles and began to associate the "butterscotch" colouring with these old guitars. Fender even decided to market their 52ri in this "butterscotch" blonde colour, maybe to cash in on the perception that it was like that originally or maybe just because the "butterscotch" colour looks so good to so many of us.
I think that if you look at the current colour of a custom shop Nocaster you'll find that it is a little lighter and less "butterscotch" in colour. It's probably much closer to the original "blonde" of the 1950s.
Anyway that's my understanding. Others will undoubtedly chime in if I'm wrong.
Regards from Oz - bj

[skip62]

Thank you. I'm trying to decide what color to paint my new project and these colors have been confusing me. I wanted to make sure of what I was painting. Thanks.

[Scotland]

Approx 5 -6 months ago, when newly painted blonde ;



Colour right now ;



Admittedly, the real colour in the top photo was slightly more yellow than the camera showed but there has been quite a change in such a short time.

[0le FUZZY]

Here iss watt I member from daze gone by.

I modified Scotlands a liddo.

The first pix iss watt they look like then however many different shades are now on the Reissues depending where and when they are played.

Our old furniture and coffee tables looked this color inna 50s.

The first TELECASTER I ever saw looked li kiss(memory ain't all it should be):

But I really dew li kiss:

Good thang we all haff memories and differin opinions huh?

0le FUZZY

[skip62]

OK, now I'm just scared. I'm afraid of ending up with the wrong color. If it helps, I plan on using Reranch. The color I like is the bottom one. I also like the butterscotch of Keith Richards, it's more transparent. So Scotland, does normally change that fast, and is that nitro? I'm also hoping it doesn't change color over the years, yikes...

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help.

[Kevin]

I assume your talking about ReRanch colors, since those are the name you use. Scotland can't get that in the UK, so his colors won't be the same.

ReRanch Butterscotch Blonde is a nitro paint that will obscure the grain if sprayed heavily. Butterscotch, however, is an aniline dye/nitro blend that will not obscure the grain. How dark the dye blend gets depends on how many passes you spray.

Here are a couple of teles I did. One has Butterscotch Blonde paint; the other was sprayed with Butterscotch dye blend. Both have clear nitro topcoats.





Different lighting with the pics, but maybe it'll give you an idea of what they look like.

For comparison, here is a strat I've recently done with Fender Blonde from ReRanch.



The blonde is much lighter than the Butterscotch Blonde. You could probably get a decent facsimile of what an early tele really looks like by using the Fender Blonde with a tinted topcoat.

To answer your final question, if you put a clear topcoat of nitro or polyurethane on a guitar, it will yellow/darken with time. I've never seen one darken as fast as Scotland's, but I did have a baby blue Kramer that turned green after one year..... If you use an acrylic lacquer topcoat, it won't yellow as much.

[skip62]

MUCH clearer now, Thanks Kevin.

[JimboJ]

Speaking of butterscotch Teles... how come the 52 RI's that you see in the store aren't the same color as this?



The ones on the Fender website and Frontline are always a crystal clear transparent finish, and the ones you see in the store are always more of a murkey semi-clear finish. Anyone know why this is?[/img]

[purpletele]

I have a body finished in plain-jane Miniwax amber tinted Poly, and it looks exactly like Butterscotch one you posted. Any idea is the amber supposed to be that close? I was going for a more early seventies Poly look.

hmmm...

[skip62]

I'm bringing this back up, cuz the last 2 posts have good questions.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by purpletele

I have a body finished in plain-jane Miniwax amber tinted Poly, and it looks exactly like Butterscotch one you posted. Any idea is the amber supposed to be that close? I was going for a more early seventies Poly look.

hmmm...

The MinWax Poly does have an amber tint to it. It will just about match a MIJ strat neck if you have to do some touch-ups.

The Butterscotch lacquer -- not butterscotch blonde, which is a different animal, altogether -- from ReRanch is a tinted clear nitro. It has a golden, yellowish tinge to it, and is actually quite yellow on the first coat. I got the amber tone by spraying about four passes (two coats) of the color on that body.

As to why the 52RIs in stores look like they were dropped in a vat of highway departement truck paint, I don't know.

[Dacious]

Original '52s were similar to the current ones, finished with a translucent coat of yellowish colour topped with clear.

As Fuzzy said, that was a popular finish with furniture at the time. Leo's Tele prototype was painted in white acrylic and is still white today.

In around '54 'blonde' became whiter until it looked like a limed finish, but still translucent. So the colour on 50's whiteguard Teles as original was pretty well as it appears today on 50's Classics. They have yellowed due to the nitro yellowing.

Old No. 1




Jaguar with yellowed Olympic White finish - original colour was as seen under pickguard area.



Blonde was the original 50's name - it became 'blond' in the 60's. Nothing to do with Oz.

[bj]

Sorry - my original posting included a clarification about the spelling of the word "colour" which our north american friends spell without the "u". I wasn't referring to "blond/e".
regards - bj

[deanzat]

I just got a "vintage white" stratocaster. All in favor of Fender changing the name to "banana creme pudding" say "AYE!"

;-) DZ

[eryque]

Originally Posted by JimboJ

Speaking of butterscotch Teles... how come the 52 RI's that you see in the store aren't the same color as this?



The ones on the Fender website and Frontline are always a crystal clear transparent finish, and the ones you see in the store are always more of a murkey semi-clear finish. Anyone know why this is?[/img]

'Cuz someone at Fender decided that being able to see the woodgrain was a trademark of the vintage telecasters, so they doctor a picture to make the grain look more pronounced. It's difficult to photograph the slightly obscured grain of a butterscotch blonde tele, usually you can't see the grain at all in the photographs. In person, you can see the grain clearly through the murk.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by Dacious

Original '52s were similar to the current ones, finished with a translucent coat of yellowish colour topped with clear.

No. The new ones are pumpkin colored, in an attempt to make it look like a 50-year-old Telecaster (which it doesn't).

If you look at pics of old ones, you'll see that they are clearly much lighter under the guards than the color Fender is using today, and also sprayed much more thinly. The color we all associate (now) with old teles is the results of aging (i.e., "bar tan"). In fact, on some guitars that the clearcoat is wearing off of, the actual color coats look almost white -- but it certainly isn't the same color as an orange Hostess cupcake.

[Joel Terry]

Originally Posted by 0le FUZZY

<li>Here iss watt I member from daze gone by.
<li>Our old furniture and coffee tables looked this color inna 50s.
<li>The first TELECASTER I ever saw looked li kiss:

0le FUZZY

I wish someone would tack the picture above up on the noteboard at Fender's marketing department.

The immaculate orange shade of the '52 RIs and the N.O.S. Nocasters is ridiculous--it never existed! If Fender wants to reserve that rust shade for Relics, then fine; however, for a New Old Stock guitar, go with the original 1950-'53 blonde, please!

Just goes to show that the research and marketing guys at Fender don't always "dot their i's and cross their t's."

You know, it's the little things like this that bring to mind Fender's gripes and legal threats toward those Fender players who make "unauthorized" modifications to their guitars. If FMIC would do things right the first time, they would save themselves a lot of wasted breath in griping and a ton of money in legal bills.

The customer is always right, and I'm a lifelong customer of Fender. Furthermore, from this board, I'd stake a few non-FMIC employed members' in-depth knowledge of early Fender particulars over virtually any Fender employee. A bold statement, to be sure, but nonetheless true.

Joel

[TeleGeir]

Originally Posted by Joel Terry

You know, it's the little things like this that bring to mind Fender's gripes and legal threats toward those Fender players who make "unauthorized" modifications to their guitars. If FMIC would do things right the first time, they would save themselves a lot of wasted breath in griping and a ton of money in legal bills.

Hi Joel! What do you mean by that? What sort of players and mods are you referring to? Unless they are on Fender's payroll I assume people are free to do what they like with their own guitars.

Seems I am missing an important part of Fender history here?? :?

Geir :)

[Joel Terry]

Originally Posted by TeleGeir

Hi Joel! What do you mean by that? What sort of players and mods are you referring to? Unless they are on Fender's payroll I assume people are free to do what they like with their own guitars.

Seems I am missing an important part of Fender history here?? :?

Geir :)

Geir, it's just an overall rant about Fender's obstensible unwillingness to listen to customers. Certainly, colors aren't a legal issue; Fender certainly doesn't care what color a customer chooses to paint his or her guitar after purchasing it. It's just that Fender's R&D and Marketing aren't as meticulous as they should be, in my opinion. I mean, c'mon--an orange '52 RI? That's just out-and-out poor research!

The questionable mods I'm talking about are more along the lines of Fender players reduced to using copy decals to replace damaged or decimated original Fender decals after they fail to meet Fender's standards of decal replacement. Things like that. Perhaps this isn't directly related to the color issue, but it's definitely a modification issue.

Of course, if you wanted a truly original-looking blonde NOS '52 RI, you could lay out a wad of cash to the Fender Custom Shop. (At second glance, maybe the guys in Fender marketing know exactly what they're doing....)

Joel

[eryque]

Originally Posted by Joel Terry

Just goes to show that the research and marketing guys at Fender don't always "dot their i's and cross their t's."

I think it shows very clearly that they did their homework. Gotta remember, Fender's in the business of selling as many guitars as they can, not reproducing accurate replicas. They've figured out that they can do this very well by making products that look and sound kinda like the old ones. If they made a 52RI with the actual color the guitars were when they were new in 1952, they wouldn't sell nearly as many because they don't look like the old ones that everyone thinks of.

[ikkyu2]

Those are great pix, guys! Thanks!

[andrew]

Originally Posted by eryque

I think it shows very clearly that they did their homework. Gotta remember, Fender's in the business of selling as many guitars as they can, not reproducing accurate replicas. They've figured out that they can do this very well by making products that look and sound kinda like the old ones. If they made a 52RI with the actual color the guitars were when they were new in 1952, they wouldn't sell nearly as many because they don't look like the old