Many people even some vintage dealers don't understand what Fender Blonde is. I see people listing Olympic White as blonde espscially when the white has yellowed out. I also see some Natural Guitars or yellow guitars listed as blonde. Fender blonde was a custom color in the 1960's which cost an extra 5% in 1966. Many early 1950's teles & P-Basses had this color as standard. The color is translucent which shows the grain thru the wood. It is kinda "yellow/tan" in color. So if you're selling guitar get your colors strait. No matter is it's yellow out & no graim shows thru the finish it was probably once Olympic White.

Thought we were talking bout wimmin there for a mo!

"I also see some Natural Guitars or yellow guitars listed as blonde"

While you're correct that originally there was only one blonde and it was a milky whitish slightly translucent color (over ash usually, sometimes with bluish gray grain filler), Fender now also calls some other colors "blonde" (and now they officially call the original blonde "white blonde"). "Butterscotch blonde" is a yellowish version of blonde -- it lets the grain show through a little, but it's not a clear tint like amber. There's also "honey blonde" and "vintage blonde" in addition to "white blonde" (the original blonde). Blonde has come to mean a partially translucent finish that lets the grain peek through.

And then there's the Eric Johnson white blonde over alder that looks a lot different than white blonde over ash.

So it's technically wrong to call any modern Fender simply "blonde", even if it's the original traditional blonde. Now there's always a color in front of it.

edited to add: There's also the issue of paint application. The opacity/translucence varies depending on how heavy a hand the painter had and on how dramatic the grain is. If the painter sprays thicker coats on a plain body, the grain barely shows through and in some light the finish may look opaque. Thinner coats let the grain stand out more. The basic hue of the finish also changes with thickness because you see more of the pigment than the underlying wood. Some white blondes do look solid white under camera flashes.

When I bought my '73 Strat, I had to choose between blonde and sunburst with the maple neck...I chose blonde, but it turned yellow on me after many years on the road!

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Yeah, I realize that there are new colors that are blondes. A friend of mine has a honey blonde highway one Jazz Bass. If you look thru G Base here are alot of older guitars that are not blonde but called blonde by the dealers description. Fender's 1966 color chart spelled it BLOND. No e on the end. My mistake.

I was dissapointed at this post I thought we were going to make fun of blondes here

LOL just kidding didnt mean to offend anyone if I did.

No.... that was just to see If we were all paying attention

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