Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Wow, I've got loads of favourite finishes, it's hard to pick just 5.

Faves:

* Clear Satin (simple and classy)
* Blood Red w/Black Binding (complete cheese and bad ass for it!)
* Desert Sun Yellow (as seen on the RG550 and other Ibby RG shape geets)
* Loch Ness Green (as seen on the Jem777)
* Blueburst (Dean)


Can't stand's:

* Gold Top
* Carvin Harlequin Prismatique
* ESP Lynch Serpent
* Fender Paisley
* Fender Buddy Guy (Black w/White spots)
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

I like:

Purple anything with quilt top
Blue anything with quilt top
Ash Strat with natural finish and white pickguard/pickups/everything.
Wine Red LP

My least faves, by a mile, are:

Black Strat with white everything, a la Clapton.
Anything with cheesy graphics from the 80s, or that's trying too hard like a Dean Razorback.
Black superstrats (yeah, that's my very own guitar. Shame)
Tobacco sunbursts on anything.
Anything coming from Steve Vai.
 
Last edited:
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

5 Favorite (I lean more towards solid colors/sparkle finishes... if it's going to be semi transparent the wood better have straight grain preferably with some mineral streaking):

Black (grew up not liking it, but now that I'm older there's something very cool and traditional about it that I like)
Silver (always liked flashy sorta things and this just goes hand in hand - my #1 has a silver sparkle finish and that's a great live show guitar)
Wine Red (one word: classy)
Vintage White (another one like black, just goes great with so many different things... I never cared for bright whites, that slightly creamy color just rocks so much harder)
Orange (I've always lusted after some crazy orange flake guitar, you hardly ever see them)

Least favorite:

Tobacco sunburst
Cherry sunburst (my least favorite burst color of all time, they don't call 'em "clown bursts" for nothing... give me a honey or iced tea burst any day)
Purple (it's too feminine of a color for me... I see it and instantly turn away)
Polka dots (one of the ugliest designs ever)
Cheesy graphics (I just don't get it myself...)
 
Last edited:
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

1) Natural gloss/oil
2) Vintage/Olympic white (with tortoiseshell p/g on strat)
3) Bourbonburst
4) Amber (on flame tops)
5) Any dark cherry bursts

1) Sparkle finishes
2) Caribbean bursts
3) Tobacco sunbursts on LPs
4) Pinks (eew)
5) Sherwood green
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

So many people hate 3 tone sunburst I'm amazed it seems to be on the majority of american and CIJ standard and reissue strats and jaguars.

Fave 5:
Fender Jaguar in white with tortoiseshell pickguard (more then just the finish but i love this combination with the metal claws and plates!) also what strats if they have a non white pickguard but i think white looks better on a P-Bass then a strat.
Black with a whiteish pickguard (in particular Duo Jet's and Rickenbackers but also black strats with white pickguards and tele's with white binding)
A purple dye maple top (doesn't really exist much on mass manufactured guitars but I want a warmoth tele thinline in this style)
Surf Green
Translucent Blue (on flame or quilt maple LP's)

5 Hates
Maple top with sunburst and no pickguards
Bright yuck matte 80's finishes
Yellow
Purely black
Brown, Transparent colours that show some of the wood colour are fine but the dark brown that looks like you dropped your guitar in the mud aren't appealing to me
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Best
1. Cherry Sunburst
2. Honey burst
3. Light burst
4. Tobacco burst
5. Silver burst

Least
1. Black - very boring, unoriginal, uninspiring
2. Cheesy 80's graphics
3. Most metal flake
4. Fender sunbursts
5. incomplete relic jobs
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

my faves are:
Black over quilted maple

Black over Flame maple
http://www.willcuttguitars.com/_product_31273/Standard_Custom_Trans_Black_Willcutt_Special_Edition

Purple over Quilt or flame (needs to be dark purple)

My dream guitar:
http://www.willcuttguitars.com/_product_31273/Standard_Custom_Trans_Purple_Ultimate_Quilt

Black

Dark Blue over quilt
BlueSalas2.jpg


One of the most beautiful guitars I think, is the Cort Neil Zaza model

I like alot of others but it depends on the guitar..



Dislikes:
Tobacco burst
Heritage cherry burst if it has too much red
Browns Except tiger eye
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Favorites:
1: Les Paul Trans Amber with flamey top
2: Les Paul Vintage Tobaccoburst
3: Les Paul Worn Cherryburst
4: Les Paul Gold Top
5: Les Paul Honeyburst

Least Favorites:
1: Les Paul Geckoburst
2: Les Paul Latteburst
3: Les Paul Pewter
4: Les Paul Glitterflake (any glitter color)
5: Les Paul Flat Black (like the gothic series)
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Gibson Les Pauls had a color called Gecko that was horrible.

I cant think of 5 off the top of my head but Gecko is on top of my list.
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

FAVORITES

1. Candy apple red on a maple necked strat
2. Lake placid blue on a double bound tele
3. Black strat with white pickups, controls, knobs (D. Gilmour strat)
4. Goldtop les paul
5. Daphne blue strat

WORST

1. Two, three tone sunburst
2. Antiqua sunburst
3. White guitars (W.C)
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Favorites
1. Black
2. Satin Black
3. See-thru Black
4. Wineburst
5. Oil rubbed

Least Favorites
1. pink
2. polka dot
3. seafoam green
4. baby blue
5. cream
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Favorite:
Natural

Hate:
Quilt - Quilted maple is the "Hot Topic" of guitar finishes. Trashy.
All Opaque finishes --- let the wood see and be seen!
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Hates:
1. TV yellow. How can you like a color that was made for Black and White TV?

2. Cheesy, blurry Airbrush jobs. Usually involving a snake, Skeletons, etc.

3. Sunburst. I'm sure the first few were cool, but it's dead, Jim.

4. Guitars that look too much like furniture

5. Eddie "Frankenstrat" Clones. Again, over-done.

Likes:
1. Unusual Burst color. In fact, I'm thinking about ordering a green maple burst, and going for a "Green Lantern" color scheme with something like this:
PS2805A.jpg


2. Graphics that I haven't seen a million times. Like the first time I saw a Kamikaze, flying tiger, or camouflage pattern, I thought it was cool.

3. Orange Guitars. I have no idea why.

4. Despite 4 above, every now and then I see a wood pattern that's really, really, really cool.

I regret not buying this from warmoth when I could:
PS3201A.jpg

I like this particular body because I see a skull in the wood grain. My Girlfriend sees an owl, and her son sees a butterfly. It's like those Japanese suki stones.

5. Pearl finishes. although they seem to scratch really easily, and get fingerprints for days.
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Favorites -

On Fender-type guitars -
1. Vintage White
2. Daphne Blue
3. Surf Green
4. Black
5. Lake Placid Blue

On Gibson-type guitars
1. Trans Amber
2. Iced Teaburst
3. Washed Cherryburst
4. Lightburst
5. Butterscotch
6. Black

On EBMM Guitars
1. Morse Blueburst
2. Pacific Blueburst
3. Trans Blue

Finishes I don't like (regardless of the guitar)
1. Pink
2. Clownburst (really bright cherry sunburst where the red is almost florescent)
3. brown sunbust
4. All those funky bursts Gibson does.
5. Antigua
6. Metal flake
 
Re: Your 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Guitar Finishes?

Faves

1. Surf Green
2. 2-tone Smoke Green, as seen on the Gretsch Anniversary
3. White, but the choice of accents like hardware and pickguard make a HUGE difference
4.Sonic Blue
5. Various dark brown woodtones, from the Walnut stain of the Costello Jazzmaster to the Worn Brown of the Faded SG.

Least Faves

1. Sunburst, in almost all its incarnations. I could easily fill these five slots with bursts.
2. Fiesta Red
3. Black
4. Purple
5. Candy Apple Red
 
Back
Top