I'm just curious, how many shades of candy apple red are there... I see one picture and it seems very red (like the American Specials), others CAR's seems darker, more akin to Candy Cola. The MIM standards seems to lean towards lighter/brighter red... and the Blacktop Strat body I've been working on seems pretty dark... kinda like the Old Candy Red color available on some MIJ, CIJ guitars... how many shades of red fall under the umbrella of candy apple red?

Most of the differences are attributable to the color of the undercoat. The brighter "more red" CAR's use silver, while the darker "more warmer" shades have gold underneath. Likewise the clear topcoat (if used) and how it ages plays a role in the appearance.

HTH

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

I think this about hits it. Like i mentioned in other posts; I eventually settled for a gunmetal blue on the last strat I built, but i stripped it recently because i want to do a green. But when I was looking into doing Candy Green, what stopped me was all the different colors that had to go into it. Gold, green, and some other thing. I believe after the base sealing coat, you had to shoot a gold, then a green w/something else. I'm going for a mix of Emerald or a green that's like the equivelant to a gunmetal blue, but green.

The gunmetal was a great color, especially with a tinted maple neck (i know theyre all maple, but Im talking about maple fretboard, one piece neck.

BTW, Are all of your rosewood necks binded? I always wondered if it sounded different than a regular rosewood, because Im 90% sure that the binding, unlike most bindings where they just go on the outside of the fretboard, is actually a thick vaneer of pvc ( i know its pvc) that goes on over the top of the neck, then the rosewood cap goes over the plastic. so Its like a 3layer fretboard; Rosewood, plastic, then top of the maple neck. I think its the nicest looking neck Fender neck. I assume its a EJ RW neck you put on your builds. Am i correct?

Thanks for the info...

This one (the Blacktop body) has a gold undercoat which you can see in the trem cavity. It's just strange, and maybe it has more to do with photographing it, that there seems to be such a range of shades of CAR

+1

A similar situation exists with Lake Placid Blue.

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

This is one of my favorite topics. I use to do custom paint for classic and Street rod cars and then later ventured over into refinishing guitar bodies as well. In the old days when Candy Apple red first came out, I did several cars with it. What a pain to do. Anyhow, Fender took this finish and started using it on guitars. As pointed out it consisted of a base coat in a very fine metallic color such as silver or gold and then a transparent color coat followed by clear coats. The color varies greatly by several factors. How many color coats are applied, each one making the color darker, and then how much clear and on top of it, age yellows the clear coat, even changing the color more.

Fender used this on Candy Apple Red, Midnight Blue, 7Up green (Candy Apple Green), Midnight Wine colors in the late 80s through the 90s. Here is a Midnight Blue body I stripped. Found out that it had been both CAR and CAB several times over. Talk about a thick finish and pain to remove.




Fender did some interesting candy finishes in unconventional ways too. Such as Crimson Burst. It had metallic around the edges and then the transparent CAR color coat giving a sparkle around the edges and Ash grain showing through the top and back:



They did this same thing with a Vintage White base coat, followed by a several coats of CAR red around the edges and then transparent CAR color over the whole body making this color. I guess you could call it a Lip Stick Red Burst? I have no clue what fender called it:



Lipstick red was nothing more than a Vintage White finish with a transparent Red color coat, followed by clear as well.

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Wow...that's something else! A real gobstopper effect going on there.

What a beautiful job,certainly far nicer than the Candy Apple Blue job I did on my '65 Mustang.

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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.

Thanks for the info all...

So then, I wonder what other colors are in Candy Cola? Again, sometimes it seems to take on a dark sheen and other times it looks very much like CAR. I've haven't ever had the opportunity to compare the two side by side.

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Nice Job!

Sounds good too!

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=60365

Cheers!

Andy

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