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Post subject: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 8:57 pm
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Hi everyone! i am very curious to know which years did Fender use Sonic Grey on the Strat. Interested in re-painting my 60's Strat and i want to make sure I am using the correct color choice. Hope some of you can help me with information on the Sonic Grey color.
Thank you all!

Rob


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 11:35 pm
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I'm no expert with Fender colors, but let's get the topic rolling with a couple of superficial and random pointers…

First, AFAIK the color used in the vintage fifties-sixties Fenders was called Sonic Blue, which is a car paint from General Motors. The current "Sonic Grey" shade is close, but the reason for the name upgrade is not clear to me.

Second, painting a guitar with a "period correct" color could mean just about anything.
There are odd/random examples of vintage Fenders with a color that's not on the official menu, so one-offs did happen.
And the effects of aging, depending on different paints and different conditions have turned instruments to something totally different.

So, very much IMHO, there is no "one right way" to refin a guitar, since any option could have happened, at least in the "alternate reality". (That name is a nice invention from FMIC's Marketing & Confusion Department.)

One more thing: I understand you're talking about a sixties type guitar (Classic Series or something like that).
But if you're talking about a real, vintage, made-in-the-1960's instrument, forget the refinish and let it be what it is - and post pics. :wink:


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 12:45 am
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I agree. I do not see sonic gray mentioned in any literature I have come across from that era but of course it may have been used …. :D


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 12:46 am
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The other issue is, what is the original guitar? To be period correct the refinish should be nitro cellulose. If the original body isn't that would involve a strip or sand down.

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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 1:51 am
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Hi, thank you all for your replies. I totally agree leaving it what it is, its just that browsing the instrument finish color chart at fender.com (https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/art ... olor-Chart)
I came across #48 Sonic Grey and quickly i imagine what a great color for a strat that is.

Reason for thinking of repainting is that the former owner of my guitar installed a Floyd Rose which i do not like, restoring it to the vintage look will require a paint job because of that floyd rose cavity. Though im still thinking it through weather to go on with the restoration, it will take lots of work especially restoring the original nut from that floyd rose locking nut on the neck.

I am just wondering what year Fender used Sonic Grey on the strat, I also couldnt find much information online.


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 1:59 am
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Not familiar with Sonic Grey myself (although I see the colour you mean on the chart), but as others have said, Fender colours vary enormously. I was in a guitar shop recently where two Fiesta Red (as per the hang tags) Strats were hung next to each other - and they were completely different colours! My own Custom Deluxe is Fiesta Red (albeit nitro) and is a different colour again.

I also have Sonic Blue and Surf Green Strats which are different colours to those I've seen in shops.

So if you do decide to refinish in a Fender colour, I'd suggest just going for the nearest match to the colour you've seen!

Cheers - Peter.


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 2:07 am
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I agree with everyones thoughts. I guess i'll go get some parts and go on with the resotoration. Bone nuts, vintage S saddle bridge and all.
Here is a sample Sonic Grey i came across at casinoguitars.com:

https://casinoguitars.com/collections/f ... sonic-grey

Very nice! :o


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 3:16 am
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That is the new color name FMIC has for mysterious reasons chosen to use.

On the guitar once more; what model and how old is it?
I'm thinking that a Floyd upgrade (well, it is an upgrade, from the functionality viewpoint…) could be considered "vintage" too, if it was done a long time ago. Plus, marks of a Floyd returned to a six screw trem will most likely show.


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 10:56 am
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jmattis wrote:
That is the new color name FMIC has for mysterious reasons chosen to use...


As you noted very eruditely earlier "That name is a nice invention from FMIC's Marketing & Confusion Department."

We are still in the dark as to the basis of the original guitar. Is it an actual guitar from the 60's or a subsequent 60's type model? If the former, despite its chequered past, I might be inclined to put the original body in a box and use a new 60's style body to accommodate the original neck and as many original parts as can be salvaged.

Even if previously butchered a historically molested true 60's guitar is likely to have more value than an, as new, restoration. As such my suggestion is to use what you can of the original without significantly physically changing the original parts then using stand-in parts where necessary to achieve the specification you desire......if that makes sense?

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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 11:16 am
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I agree with John.

I'm getting the impression you are talking about a real vintage Strat from the 60s.
If that is not an accurate observation please let us know.

If it is accurate then I guess you are confronted with a difficult choice.
Leave a vintage guitar in its current state, that being heavily modified and undesirable to you.
or
run the risk of making matters worse on the value side for the sake of having a more personally pleasing instrument.
I don't think I would be able to make a call like that unless I was actually confronted with it personally.

If it's not truly vintage and it is instead a "60s" Strat with a serial number indicating it was made some time in the last decade or so then the value issue is much less troublesome and I would say just do whatever you want with it.

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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 11:52 am
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I'm going to guess that you wanted a vintage Strat, but couldn't afford a perfect one.

So you bought a modified vintage with the intention of restoring it. Not particularly as an investment, but because it's the most affordable way of getting a vintage Strat.

A skilled resto shop can easily fill the bridge routing so it'll be invisible under an opaque finish.

The nut slot is a harder choice. Easy resto if you're willing to just have a slab of rosewood added onto the shelf and cut for a regular nut.

But trickier if you want to regain the original round-lam appearance. (Could be done by any shop that can do the body, but would add cost.)
------------------
Sonic Blue, Old Sonic Blue, Faded Sonic Blue, Sonic Grey -- there are a lot of variations that overlap. And are hard to photograph accurately.

All colors are like that to some extent. There are different shades of black. But wider variations of the Sonics. So you can go with any you like and be reasonably "historically correct". But don't expect any one you chose to turn out exactly the way you think it will. It'll be close, and all the Sonics are cool, but it may be a touch greener or bluer or greyer than the sample.


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 1:15 pm
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John Sims wrote:
As you noted very eruditely

I had to look eruditely up in a dictionary...


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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2019 12:41 am
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jmattis wrote:
John Sims wrote:
As you noted very eruditely

I had to look eruditely up in a dictionary...


With a brain so full of important guitar facts I am not surprised you have elected to use the space set aside for words like "erudite" to hold information of more use. :-)

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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2019 1:11 am
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:lol:

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Post subject: Re: Stratocaster Colors!
Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2019 8:31 am
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