NGD! It's red...

Had a local guitar builder put together a custom Strat for me, which I finally got my hands on over the weekend. The body and neck are from Allparts, alder and maple respectively, and finished in nitrocellulose. The body has been modified a bit to have deep, '50s style contours. Feels great. Some pics.





My pair of '50s pinups


It's my first nitro finished guitar, and I really love the feel of the finish. The neck is a C shape with a 10" radius. I was concerned it would be too thin, as I am used to the quite chunky neck of my Esquire, but I'm very happy with the feel.

Pickups are Bareknuckle Apaches, and the hardware is Gotoh. Really love the pickups. Bright and clear, as Strat pickups should be, and definitely have the '50s quality they're supposed to. I could go on about how great they sound. Rings for an age too. Very happy with it, it's exactly what I wanted.

Believe it or not, Hank Marvin was not an influence on my choice of colour. I'm a '50s nut, and Fiesta Red is a colour synonymous with the era. And I'm also a bit of a Knopfler fan.

 

Cheers guys. There's no orange at all in the finish. It's simply pure red nitro basecoat. I discussed it with the builder a little, and we figured that's probably what Fiesta Red was in the '50s. The orange, or sometimes pink, appearance comes with wage, I think. Most reissues, from what I've seen, are a bit orangey to replicate that aging. Not dissimilar to necks being tinted more amber to replicate the aged colour, I guess.

 

Slightly old thread, but thanks for the comments anyway! I finally got a felt covered guitar stand rather than a rubber one, so I can now put the Strat on it without worrying about the possiblilty of damaging the nitro finish. It's great to have it out of the case. I have to stop and look for a minute every time I walk past, it really is a great colour and is even more vibrant than the pictures show

JDRNoPro, I think I'd just put the steel saddles back on the Esquire, (I prefer them) and hadn't adjusted the intonation before taking the picture. They're more normal looking now.