Question about custom colors for 1974-75 Teles

[ajc888]

I read somewhere that Black was a custom color for Teles made in the early to mid 70's (traditional style with 4 bolt). Could someone please comfirm this for me? What were the other custom colors? Thanks!

[Dacious]

In 1974 Blond was the only standard finish. The Custom colours were Olympic White, Black, Sunburst with Natural and Walnut as options. In 1975 these all became options and 'custom' colours were temporarily suspended until 1977 when Wine and Antigua were added.

All this is from the A.R. Duchossoir book. a.k.a. the Tele Bible.

[ajc888]

Thanks for your interesting info! I am still a bit confused about the term "custom" vs. "option". Did you actually have to order a custom color from the factory or were custom color teles stock items made in smaller numbers and just called custom because of the smaller quantity? If blond was the regular color, what percentage were black or other custom colors? Do custom colors demand much of a premium?

[Dacious]

Custom meant ordered from a dealer, who ordered it from the factory at a small upcharge - in the early days it was quite expensive relative to the guitar, later it was much less. Before Fender settled on a standard colour chart around 1960, you could have a Tele any colour that could be mixed, although very few people did.

America was conservative and most people had blonde or blond, and the few who did get something else wanted white or black. In the era of black'n'white TV performers probbly didn't care. Sunburst was the first 'standard' option. Blond was probably cheap - you need no undercoat and less colour coats than a solid finish. Solid colours always appear to have cost more. Colour coat in quality paint is dear. Clear is cheap(er).

Fender used nitro and acrylic lacquers (acetone thinners) - the biggest maker and supplier to the US auto industry and GM in particular was Du Pont so you could get pretty much any GM car colour and when Fender released the chart of 14 custom colours they are different Cadillac, Olds, Buick, Chevvy colours. Sonic Blue is Robins Egg Blue off a 1961 Caddy.

Option means Fender was producing variants in quantity which the dealers could stock. So optional was over the counter off the rack, Pret a Porter, custom was special delivery, bespoke, to sir's inside leg size.

I would go so far as to say canny dealers would order popular custom colours like white and black to keep in stock.

[ajc888]

Dacious, your information is awesome! Thanks for contributing to my Tele education! I appreciate your kind help. :D