Hello, im new to the forum and my first post.

I have just purchased a new 09' or 10' olympic white american standard jazz bass. When held next to a MIM or Squire olympic white it is not as stark white as the Squire or MIM, but more of a vintage white or slightly faded white. (It is not yellow in any way) Is this a difference in paint between origins of manufacture? I thought olympic white is olympic white no matter if it's MIA, MIM, squire or whatever. Maybe it is vintage white (which I dont see as an option for new american standards) and someone at the factory wasnt in the right light to see and thought it was olympic white? Maybe thats just how that olympic white paint batch turned out? I was expecting the whitest possible shade but am starting to like the off white. Please posts any thoughts or ideas

Welcome to the Forum Thumper 82'! Congratulations, for your new bass guitar!

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I think it's just a matter of the name "Olympic White" being used for the imports as well as the MIA's just to maintain a familiar nomenclature amongst different Fender products, and the actual formula of the paint will vary slightly from country to country. I'm guesssing.
It's likely you may not have ever noticed the difference until you compared them side by side. I'm sure Fender is probably counting on that. I don't see it as a big deal.

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'08 Fender Am. Std. Jazz bass, maple fretboard, charcoal frost metallic finish
'10 Squier VM Jazz bass, maple fretboard, natural finish
Ampeg BA115
'09 MIM standard Strat, maple fretboard, sunburst finish
Fender Super Champ XD

I have an 08' American Standard Strat, and it is sort of off white. If i'm not mistaken, Olympic White is not the whitest of white. I think Arctic White is the closest to pure white in the current color chart. No Arctic White Am Standards, though.

Thanks all for replying!

I think your both right as the MIM and Squire I held it next to were advertised as olympic white and mine was a shade darker, so the paint and clearcoat could be a little different between different countries of origin and I forgot about arctic white (the brightest white) so the olympic white should be a little less white than the arctic. Those Squire & MIMs advertised as oly white sure were white though. I couldnt have imagined em being any whiter. Maybe they were actually arctic white. Anyways mine is starting to really grow on me and don't think ill be returning it!
Cheers

10' Standard Am Jazz
07' Rickenbacker 4003
07' Lakland Bob Glaub sig P Bass (Skyline)

This is vintage white 1982 AVRI from Fullerton. Sometimes Olympic white will yellow over time but generally not to the point of looking like Vintage White.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

Here's a mini history lesson in Fender colors.

Nowadays guitars are finished in polyurethane. Back in the day, they used to be finished in nitrocellulose lacquer. It was the same kind of paint used on cars in those days. Nitro has a few positive points and a few negative points, one of which being that the colors would age and yellow over time (which is a positive or a negative thing depending on your point of view!) The rate at which the paint yellowed depended on its environment; it would yellow faster with exposure to sunlight, cigarette smoke, and so on.

This was especially true with guitars that were clear-coated; that is, guitars that had a layer of clear nitro shot over the color layer. So some of the Olympic white guitars of the day happened to be clear-coated and the ones that survived until today yellowed like crazy. Some of the Olympic white guitars were not clear coated and consequently did not yellow (at least at the same rate). So some old olympic white strats look mustard yellow, and some will look white.


here's an olympic white strat that was color coated, from 1973:
http://www.nealsvintage.com/images/fend ... _white.jpg
and one that wasn't, from 1961/62:
http://www.pinrepair.com/vgi/colors/stra62wc.jpg

By the way, polyurethane will not yellow over time. So whatever color your polyurethane guitar is, it will be fifty years from now.


*Disclaimer! The following I'm not sure about but I think is the case.*
back then the only solid shade of white available was Olympic White. I THINK Vintage White was introduced as a color that mimicked an old olympic white guitar. As shown by BlackCatBone they definitely had vintage white around as a choice by the time they started making the reissues in 1982.
*end disclaimer*


Anyway, you get the drift. You can see how a lot of confusion over what is and what isn't olympic white could happen. But the bottom line is this -
Olympic white in its natural, unaged state is a little off-white, it's white with a bluish hint.
Vintage white is essentially a yellow that could range from light yellow to mustardish. The pic that BlackCatBone posted is an example of an extremely yellowed vintage white - since the reissues are clearcoated in nitro, my guess is that they shot it in a light yellow called "vintage white" which aged after twenty years or so.
If you want a blinding shade of white, the whitest it could possibly be, go for Arctic White.

My personal preference is the Olympic White.

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life is too short for bad tone.

I saw a few obvious descrepancies with shades of white on a recent guitar hunt.My Jimmie Vaughn is supposed to be olympic white but another olympic white Strat in the same showroom was much brighter,my Olympic White looked much closer to a vintage white one that was there and an Arctic White there was far Whiter white than any of the rest.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.