It's because the pretty happy colors sell first! Hence they were GONE when you got to the store.

Also look at this guy! Does he look like someone who would splash wacky colors on his stuff?



However, he was significantly hipper when swinging with his high school bandmates:



He did invent Candy Apple Red and Fender Blond...so give the man some credit! The other colors Fender used were stock car colors first and they just renamed them. Look around on the expressway and notice how drab car colors are now. Then go back to the guitar store and see whether today's cars or today's Fender instruments look drabbest!

Brother Dave, These are also the pictures of the man who came up with the very futuristic stratocaster guitar design. So, yes, I do think these are the pictures of a man who would use splashy colors. Remember there was a time that for a few dollars more, you could get any color Dupont made.

+1



If these finish colors are "drab", I'm just not seeing it.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Whats drab and boring here

Wasn't it Henry Ford who said when referring to the cars he was building at the time "you can get any color you want as long as it's black" ? I have to agree there's not many guitars any prettier than a black one with black pickguard. Just my opinion.

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OK, I'll hum a little bit, got it now?

Is it too much to ask for a medium green Strat? A purple Tele?

You really need to sell that blue one. It's distracting attention away from your other fine instruments. I'd be happy to help you out. I'm just that kind of guy!

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'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

It would take an awful lot for me to let that go.

I don't find Fenders drab--but then again that is a matter of personal taste.

I like to see the wood grain.

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.

They produce colors that they know will sell. It is the same thing that applies to car manufacturers. I found this NYT article from 2010 about car colors. The most popular color at the time was silver. Black and white were tied for second. I would say the same applies to guitars. Sunburst, black, white, and red sell really well, while other colors don't.

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10 ... lor-again/

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Ryan

Cars are drab these days as well. I like '50s cars where you could get turquoise and white, black and pink, black and yellow, two tone green, and hundreds of other combinations.

I agree. I'm okay with the present color selection of cars and guitars, but I also like the occasional sonic blue, surf green, yellow, etc.

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Ryan

It's hard to gauge how well a color will sell outside a limited spectrum of colors if you barely step outside that limited spectrum. Is it that "Sunburst, black, white, and red sell really well" or is it perhaps the guitars are still selling despite the redundant use of colors?

Marketing research is a double-edged sword. While it can offer insight, marketing research is also reactive, and is usually the last to know when a change is wanted by the people the research is based off of, and is further complicated by the fact that there are hordes of people who really don't know what they want, except that they want to jump from trend to trend, whatever the trend may be.

We see this scenario in pretty much any industry that pumps out product to a consumer that is based on what they think the consumer wants whether it be music, cinema, or the colors of a guitar. Look at the history of music. Look at the pattern of breakthrough artists, followed by the subsequent signing of artists who are similar to the breakthrough artists. The marketing research showed that Nirvana did really well, so the record labels signed every crappy band that they thought the consumer would buy because, HEY, sunburst, black, white, and red sold really well before.

Dodge (Chrysler) is an American company that seems to know that cool colours sell. I'm not a fan of their automotive products in general but they do know how to mix interesting paint that sells well despite the drabness of Hondas, Toyotas and GMs in the present day. With Fender sales exceeding all others you'd think they could make a colour or two besides red, white, black and sunburst. However, they're not stupid. With maybe 75% of their business (from what I can see) based on artificially aged guitars, ie: vintage reissues, closet classics, relics, road worn, etc. there is little reason for them to make bright and cool colours because they know the vast majority of buyers prefer bland and fake over real and vivid.

Why are Fender colours so drab?
That's what sells.
Blame the market, not the company.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I bought a Daphne Blue '50s Classic Strat last year. If it had been a dull color, I probably would have passed. The color is what drew me to the guitar in the first place, then the way it played and sounded sealed the deal. I also bought a CAR Standard Tele back in May. CAR isn't the brightest of colors, but it is a pretty color. I just wish the different series had different colors. Almost every Fender guitar is available in sunburst, white, and black. I want a medium green guitar, but it will be hard to find one. A green Jazzmaster or Jaguar would be awesome.