How do I acheive this color?

proxy

proxy

New member
Well as I'm sure you all know I'm building a telecaster. I want to make the body vintage white but I can't find the color anywhere. I can find vintage cream (but looks gross) and blonde and olympic white, but no vintage white. Anyone know where I can go or if a clear coat over olympic white will do this etc..?

Color is like this...
9275000200_md.jpg

Where Olympic White is much more white. It even has a slight blue component to make it look even more so.
 
Last edited:
Re: How do acheive this color?

Re: How do acheive this color?

go to www.reranch.com those guys sell nitro paint and have all the different fender colours...the site also tells about all the differetn blond and butterscotch colours used and found on Tele's over the years.
 
Re: How do acheive this color?

Re: How do acheive this color?

I've looked there, but no vintage white info, or so that I could find.

The only things I could fnd that are somewhat close would be blonde, vintage cream, and olympic white.
 
Re: How do acheive this color?

Re: How do acheive this color?

mix vintage cream and olympic white?
 
Re: How do acheive this color?

Re: How do acheive this color?

Look in the Products section and you'll see this...

Available Colors
Wood Satin Clear Coat
In response to those of you who have asked for a finish that feels less like polished lacquer and more like natural wood, Wood Satin Clear nitrocellulose is now available. It will work over Neck Amber and unlike tung oil will protect the neck from from warping due to moisture absorption. Wood Satin can also be used to give a guitar body a flat finish.
Tinted Clear Coat
Another product that the customers asked for.... Tinted Clear Coat is available in either a gloss or satin finish. The nitrocellulose clear coat has been tinted with a slight amber/yellow wood dye blend to replicate the look of aged lacquer. The tinted clear can be used to age a color, new bindings, pickguards or age the typical wear areas of a relic.

White Lacquer Based Primer
White primer is suggested for use over the Sand and Sealer
coat and before the application of the color coat. A satisfactory finish can be accomplished without the use of a primer, but more color coats may be required. The white primer coat will dry to a matte finish, therefore allowing greater adhesion of the color coat. Light sanding of the primer coat is acceptable if necessary.
Fender Neck Amber
Neck Amber replicates the amber look used on Fender necks as well as many other solid body electric necks. It is shown here on maple. The color can be adjusted from the darker look of the fifties and sixties to the lighter look of the seventies by varying the number of passes sprayed. The aerosol contains the correct wood dye color mix but contains no lacquer in the mix. Therefore, it must be clear coated after the color has been applied.

Fender Blonde
The color is slightly whitish and was mixed to the color found in the neck pocket of a '62 Telecaster. The color originally appeared in 1956. It is a pigmented color that opaques the grain if sprayed too heavily. The grain should be opaqued about 50%. Clear coat with nitrocellulose for a finish that will age over time.


Butterscotch
Butterscotch is an wood dye blend which does not opaque the grain. It has been matched to the body of a '52 Telecaster Reissue (1983). The color also works well on birdseye maple capped Tele's as it enhances the birdseye. It can be used for tinting maple necks as well. Shown here on ash.


Butterscotch Blonde
Although the original color as applied in 1952 may or may not have not been the color we know today, nearly 50 years of aging (and a lot of cigarette smoke) has given us the color most associated with the Tele's of the early fifties. The color is pigmented and should be applied lightly so as not to completely obscure the grain. This is the color you need for your new "Relic"
 
Re: How do acheive this color?

Re: How do acheive this color?

and......

Where's the vintage white?

There is definitely a noticable difference between blonde, olympic white, butterscotch, butterscotch blonde, white primer, clear coats, and vintage white.

I'm not trying to push your buttons, but I have no idea what you are getting at.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

Contact kmcguitars (ken)...he mixed the transparent white on my guitar. The color is out there, but it may have to be mixed to order. The color we did Seymour's tele in is I think the color you're looking for.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

Is there truly a color called "Vintage White" or is it just Olympic White that has aged?

Maybe try mixing a drop or 2 of amber in the white or in the clear coat.....see if that helps.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

PUCKBOY99 said:
Is there truly a color called "Vintage White" or is it just Olympic White that has aged?
Click to expand...

Zakkly what I was thinking...that creamy vintage white was just the 30 year aged color (look at the malmsteen strat reisssue..his original 50s model that is based on was white when it was new)...but I guess in recent years they've tried to achive that natural aged look and come out with that color?
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

Mmm I'll give kmcguitars a holler, perhaps I should ButNut would know too.

Vintage white is supposed to be Olympic white that didn't get a clear coat and has aged, but I'm too impatient to wait at least like 25 years. But as Fender can to nitrocellulose vintage white on new guitars, like the pic I put up, I'm hoping I can too.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

JeffB said:
Zakkly what I was thinking...that creamy vintage white was just the 30 year aged color (look at the malmsteen strat reisssue..his original 50s model that is based on was white when it was new)...but I guess in recent years they've tried to achive that natural aged look and come out with that color?
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

I had a Strat in Olympic White & it was starting to yellow nicely....if you took the pickguard off, you could really see the difference.

OR....go to Home Depot & grab some Antique White. Try playing around with it on some scrap wood.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

Like in that picture
9275000200_md.jpg

Olympic white and artic whites would be like the background, and I'm shooting for the color on the guitar. Vintage cream and blondes have a little too much of a yellow aspect to it.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

I'm almost positive that that's the color we did Seymour's Tele in. Dawn at naked body guitars did that job, and it was fantastic...but expensive. $400 is what she charges for a body, + $200 for the neck. Again, awsome but expensive.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

If you take the color of my guitar, and reduce the transparency (mine is mixed to a transparency of 50% or so), I think you would be there. Look at the difference between the color of the picguard and the guitar. A transparency of 90% or so should obscure any grain on your body, and give you the color you want. I know Ken has some additional white left, because he went thru several mixes trying to get my color right.

strat2.jpg


outback2.jpg
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

proxy said:
Like in that picture
9275000200_md.jpg

Olympic white and artic whites would be like the background, and I'm shooting for the color on the guitar. Vintage cream and blondes have a little too much of a yellow aspect to it.
Click to expand...
I've achived that color Before by lightly misting the neck Amber on the 1st
pass of clear coat. This way you tint it to your taste. If you don't want a high gloss finish? Stewmac sells satin Lacquer clear coat
or you could wet sand with 2000 after you rub it out.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

Stew Mac has a book on finishing with info on this color.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

Mmm, I gotta run to band practice right now, but sounds like good info so far. Keep it coming. I might end up with Olympic white after all, this 62 strat reisuue is supposed to be Olympic white.
0100100805_md.jpg

Color is such a subjective subject ahhh.
 
Re: How do I acheive this color?

proxy said:
Color is such a subjective subject ahhh.
Click to expand...
Indeed. As I've mentioned in other threads White is not a color, But a Shade.
The human eye perceives shade's in certain intensity of light. For example
Olymipic white in certain lights and angle's you can clearly see it has a
blue hue to it. But in other lighting it looks perfectly white. 20 years working
as a Printer I had to deal with this everyday. We had a special light booth
for setting and mixing Ink. This way things could be consistant. If you mixed
a color outside the booth. Then remixed it inside... You would have two
different shade's. :smack:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top