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Post subject: what's up with Mint Green?
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 7:09 am
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So, I know that sometime during the '60's Telecasters were made with Mint Green pickguards. By the time I git obsessed with guitars ('66 or '67) Teles all had white pickguards. Was there a point when Fender switched from mint green back to white, or were mint green pickguards all originally white but have aged to the green color? I have a couple of new guitars with the mint green pickguards - the earlier one's is a real pretty soft mint green color, the newer one's has a yellowish tint. Is there a standard mint green color or do they all vary? thanx!


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Post subject: Re: what's up with Mint Green?
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 8:01 am
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It's always been my understanding that the "mint green" pickguards were the result of a chemical reaction between the materials and glues used in the early 3-ply pickguards. They were supposed to be white, but they pretty quickly turned that greenish color. By the middle 60s Fender changed the materials used and they were the color they intended - white.

Fender has over the years tried to replicate that color, so you wind up with ones that look greener and ones that look more yellow, particularly depending on who is creating the "aged" ones for the CS models.


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Post subject: Re: what's up with Mint Green?
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 9:30 am
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Agreeing with the previous, mostly.
The white layer in the celluloid pickguards turns to yellowish (thus the parchment pickguards) or greenish (-> mint green pickguards) with age, chemícal reactions and UV. Some apparently also were transparent to a certain point, so the black midlayer gave the white some hue.
Another thing with these "nitro" pickguards is the shrinking with age - up to a point when screw holes crack or pickups aren't straight.

But things change, that discoloring flaw that once was a problem for the manufacturer and customers, is now considered desirable. Just like relicing... :lol:


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