I am considering buying a crimson red fender deluxe player's stratocaster with gold hardware, however the colour of the guitar in the pictures that are on the fender website and photos are posted by people who own the guitar are considerably different. is this just my computer/camera quality, etc, or is fender making it look darker than it actually is?

fenders photo: http://www.keymusic.com/gfx_productcode/111651/2/Fender-Deluxe-Players-Strat-Crimson-Red-Transparent-Rosewood.jpg

a user photo: http://www.gearnuts.com/images/closeup/xl/1600-StratDPRCRT_body.jpg

the lighter red looks nowhere near as good, and if that is the real colour of the guitar, should i settle for the more consistent sunburst instead?

I've heard that red is very difficult to photograph accurately, particularly with a flash.

The ugly red looks like a bad photo with respect to focus. That doesn't mean they did capture the color more accurately.

I would bet that the marketing photo would be done by professional photographers and would have better color accuracy but there's no guarantee of that.

Is this an online purchase where you can't see it before buying?

_________________
In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.

IMHO the colour would be closer to the second picture.

I have a Tele Deluxe in the same Crimson Red Transparent and the colour is very vifferent depending on the amount of sunlight etc. Have a look at the photos of my guitar on my webite and you will get a feel for how the colour "changes".

http://www.2tuguitars.com/classic-playe ... eluxe.html

_________________
ukraider
"money cant buy you love but it can buy guitars!!!!!!"

I would be inclined to go with the color as it appears in the photo on the official Fender website:

_________________
Bill

I like everything except the gold crap

Personally, I search for everything I need in google images search. There always are thousands of images about the guitar, so you can have a clue how that guitar will look like