butterscotch blonde... tell me what you know?

There's at least one thread if not more in the Finishing area that discusses this finish color if you happened to have missed it/them.

 

Dan Erlewine has about 8 pages on how Fender did their old blonds in his book on finishing. Several different recipes for different years and effects. In one of the recipes he comments on how to make it less "butterscotchy". He also discusses how some of the color we see today is due to changes from the original.

 

Came in the mail TODAY!!! Love it so far my second blpnde

 

You should be able to pull this off with Reranch Fender Blonde and then add some tinted gloss over the top until you get to the color you are looking for.

 

Re your first photo: It’s not difficult; it’s just a few steps.

First is get an ash body.

Grain fill probably, but it can be skipped to get an immediate “sink into the wood” look for a relic finish.

Spray a substantial transparent white finish (you want it to be thick so when it wears a lot of white edge shows).

Spray a tinted clear. Sneak up on your desired result with multiple coats.

That’s all.

 

I would suggest buying a couple of Prevals, a can of lacquer and (good) thinner, and Mixol tints. It doesn’t cost but a tiny bit more than the multiple rattle cans.

Here’s a pic of one of mine that I think is what you’re going for. It was done with Watco/Preval; Mixol #25 white, and a mix of #5,#6, and #2 for the topcoat.

 

you seem to have a good idea of what you want, and it's not always easily discernible from what appears on a computer monitor, but I can offer the same advice many others here have offered. Run as many tests as it takes on scrap wood - which hopefully is more or less the same sample from the body you want to finish. When you get the color you want, make sure you take notes and then you may proceed on your body with a little more confidence.

 

Oh yeah, don’t forget to test, test, test. Some of the smart people advise to do your whole process on a test piece of ash first, before you even start on the real body.

I see someone smart beat me to it

 

Thanks

But it’s not hard - if I can do it anyone can.

I did have experience around coatings and stuff at work, for quite a while. That pretty much made me unafraid. I think a lot of people are scared, and they shouldn’t be. If you run a test piece first, you should get enough confidence to proceed

 

While the finishing process for blonde changed throughout the years, they always start out as just "blonde," and were painted with a diluted white. Even though the pigment was pure white, the finishes didn't appear pure white even at first. This is due to the yellowish-peachy wood showing through.

So again, the lacquer itself had pure white pigment in it, but the finishes were never pure white, even when factory fresh. They were a little peachy/tannish. But then the finishes would yellow even more, based on environmental exposure to things like UV and smoke (smoking was far more common back then, and far more common indoors at people's houses and music venues). That is why you see varying degrees of yellowing. The ones that are the least "orangey" are the ones that didn't receive very much UV or smoke exposure.

Fender changed their finish process shortly after the blackguard era, so that the lacquer didn't yellow as much based on environmental conditions. My guess is that they started using less clear coat, or possibly just started skipping the clear coat entirely, polishing the blonde color coats directly instead.

Then, around the late '50s or so, they changed the process again. This time, they started spraying the color coats more opaquely. This means either more white pigment in the lacquer, more color coats, or thicker color coats, or some combination of any of those three.

So, basically, you have:

1. Early blonde, which is associated with the blackguards: Broadcasters, nocasters, and early Teles. This blonde is usually quite yellowed, and usually lets you see the grain quite well, though there are examples that are not yellowed and/or that don't show much grain. This is what has become known as "Butterscotch Blonde."

2. '50s blonde, which is associated with white guard maple-necked Teles. It still shows plenty of grain, but is rarely very yellowed.

3. '60s blonde, which is associated with rosewood board Teles. It doesn't show much grain (sometimes none), and stays even whiter than white guard blonde.

The key for what you want is not to use too much pigment, and not to use a lot of (or NO) clear coat. Less pigment means more of the wood's color shows through, giving you the peachy-tan color you want, and allowing you to slowly built to the opacity you want, while also letting you build finish thickness, so you don't need to use as much clear coat. Not a ton of (or NO) clear coat will help to minimize environmentally caused yellowing over the years.

Personally, I love a bright white blonde that still shows some grain through it (but not a ton of grain), that will only slightly warm up to a very light honey blonde over the years. Basically, this is a white guard style finish.

 

Just so you know, not grain filling ash will leave you with very deep grain lines in the finish. I have done this before...but on purpose. It looks nothing like the original finishes. I would say that unless you want a very special effect, you should definitely grain fill.

Here are some in-progress shots of an Esquire I built from ash. The unfilled wood was stained green with many coats of copper napthenate wood preservative/insect repellent prior to clear coating. The matte shot is obviously prior to any clear being applied. The back shot is early on in the clear coating. The top shot on the workbench is the completed finish, which was a thick, polished clear shell over the green. You can see what a completed unfilled finish looks like in that shot.