Correct colour for Hank's fiesta red strat

[rogerkay]

Hi !

Can anyone help me here. I'm doing up a strat replica to look as near as possible to Hank's fiesta red strat. I'm basing it on the Fender Custom shop 56 NOS / Custom Classic Strat. This has the Fiesta red nitro cellulose finish and I want to get as near as I can to this colour. If anyone out there knows the RAL number or anything about the colour mix it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers Roger

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Roger,
Have a look at this thread:
charliehall.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=guitars&thread=6801&page=1#61971
Regards,
Charlie

[Tone]

Hi Roger

Which one of Hank's Strats are you trying to replicate? They weren't all the same shade of Fiesta Red!

Cheers.

Tony

[peterbower]

Roger

Tone is right, the fiesta red colour did change and the best example of this can be found in A.R. Duchossir's book. The Fender Stratocaster. worth a read. There are some good colour photos of early Fiesta red Strats which show quite a light pink hue, later models became more orange with a deeper pink hue.

According to Mark Pressling who was employed by Arbiter when it was decided to make a budget Japanese HM signature model, he sourced a very early precision base in Fiesta red and sent some paint samples to Fender. I saw this bass and it was Fiesta red with a light pink hue, this is the colour that Fender opted for. It was when the prototype model was shown to Hank at Arbiter that he commented that it looked very close to the Strat that Cliff had mail ordered from Fender for him to play.

I hope this has been of some use in choosing a colour, but I suspect that the colour argument will continue.
I guess colour like sound can be a very subjective thing.
Regards

Peter

[sheendigs]

Hi Roger
Here are three different codes for Fiesta Red, go to your local car paint shop and tell them to mix it:
PPG = #70618, Dupont = #59548, Duco = #2219-H
You will still need a varnish on top of your colour...
Sheendigs

[Deleted]

Hi Roger,

Peter is right when he comments that the 'Fiesta Red' colour of Hank's many Strats varied immensely and I am sure that he never had two the same !!

When Tony Ramsden (Tone) and I compiled the guide to Hank Marvin and The Shadows Custom Shop Stratocasters (a copy of which may be downloaded free from this website) we photographed all four main models - The Signature, The Autograph, The 40th Anniversary and the 50th Anniversary. Each and everyone was a different colour.

At one time I was fortunate to own 3 out of the 4 models at one time, so was able to compare them directly in natural light.

What I can say is that .. the Signature model was the closest to the current Fiesta Red as supplied by Fender on its modern guitars. The Autograph was slightly more Pink and the 40th Anniversary was distinctly more pink than red.

The 50th anniversary guitar which both Bruce and Jet saw and commented up was, according to them, the closest of all to the original colour of 34346. It was slightly darker than all the others, and when seen in isolation it appears just what it was called - 'Custom Red'. But put alongside a modern Fender Fiesta Red, the subtle pinkish tones are obvious. In photographic terms, Standard Fiesta Red is a warm colour, but 'Custom Red' is much cooler.

If you wish to copy one of these Custom guitars rather than use standard Fiesta Red then the one you most likely are going to be able to get the colour correctly on is the 50th Anniversary. It's probably the only one where accurate records of the colour used still exisit. Fender call all the other models 'Fiesta Red' in their description, but certainly none of them are simply that.

Tony (Tone) will correct me if I am wrong, but a lot of work was done by Mark Pressling at Fender and Howard Gillespie at Oasis in establishing the colour for the 50th. I would hope that, should the right approach me made to thr right person, you may be able to obtain details of the specification of this colour.

Good luck

Best,

Ian

[peterbower]

Guys

You are all getting a we bit anorak with this colour thing.

I saw Hank play a black Strat in 1961 at the Old field Tavern Greenford, [now no more ] and I also saw him play a white one once at another gig. A mate of mine said he even saw Hank playing a sunburst Strat.

Peter

[Deleted]

Peter,

Roger's original question asked about colour matching exactly as possible Hank's Fiesta Red Strat. We've all done the very best we can to help him and given as much detailed information as possible.

What's the problem with that ?

He's not asked whether Hank played a black one, white one or for that matter a sky-blue pink one with a yellow stripe. It's RED he's interested in.

Should we not try and keep our posts succint, to the point and on-topic ?

Best

Ian

[peterbower]

I also did my best to help in the colour matching and just added in the bit about other colours Hank had used as a point of interest only, so please don't ridicule that.
I have no problem with any of these questions.
No body is ever going to get an exact match but some thing pretty close would in my book be OK.

Peter

[Tone]

Hi Peter and Ian

Peter - you never mentioned the white Burns and the green Burns! OK, we (or some of us) could be accused of being anoraks but I don't see anything wrong with that. It's part of the interest and enjoyment of our 'hobby' and the fact that the Fiesta Red issue is unlikely ever to be resolved doesn't detract from that - indeed it helps to keep it going.

Ian - I think it was Mick Johnson who prepared several colour swatches for Howard Gillespie to show to Bruce and Jet and it was one of those that was chosen as being the closest to the original colour of 34346. I don't know if Hank saw those samples in the flesh but I suspect not because I think he would have been in Australia at the time.

In his first post, Peter referred to the colour of the Japanese HBM Signature Strat being based on an early PB and Hank commented that it was very close to 34346. Hank also made a similar comment about the 40th Anniversary and, having owned examples of both guitars at the same time, I can confirm that a side by side comparison showed that the colours weren't quite identical but they were very, very similar. However, a side by side comparison of the colours of the 40th and 50th Anniversary Strats (both from the photographs on Ian's Custom Shop guide and physical inspection of the two guitars) clearly shows that the colours are not the same at all - the 50th is obviously a darker pink and you could never mistake one for the other.

So, on the one hand we have Bruce and Jet saying the darker pink is closest to the original whereas Hank says that the lighter pink is correct. Someone's memory would appear to be incorrect but, as I said, I don't think we'll ever find out what the definitive answer is.

I should think that Roger, who originated this thread and who I see is a new member (welcome, Roger), is wondering what on earth he started!

Cheers.

Tony

[peterbower]

Tone & Roger

Thanks for your frank and sensible reply. As you can see Roger, there are subjects that people have strong feelings about and they become contentious as disagreements begin to surface.

You will notice that each person will defend the colour they have on their Strats as the definitive Fiesta red, but all this has done is create arguments about colour and who said what is pretty unhelpful, so I withdraw from further discussion because all it does is make things more confusing for you. I suggest you make your own mind up.
Any body wishing to beat me up further on this issue, will not get a reply.
Peter

[Charlie Hall]

OK, I was wondering whether to delete some of the messages in this thread but on second thoughts I'll leave them here, since there now seems no likelihood of it getting out of hand.
Please continue the original discussion if you wish.
Regards,
Charlie

[joeboy]

Hi All

I've been involved in the refinishing trade for most of my working life, there have been main stream colours that were popular for many years. If someone were to hand me a set of colour samples of varying tints of the same colour I could not say for certain from memory which was correct.

In fact manufacturers often had several tints of the same colour. Fiat were one of the most notorious in the 70's & 80s, I remember one of the yellow's they finished their vehicles in had over 20 different varations (I believe it was 28), a real nightmare when it came to trying to match to the original finish.

Even if you could get your hands on Hanks original guitar, it would be most unlikely that you would still see the correct colour of the day as pigments change over time & it will not look the same as it did when new, not such a problem with more modern paints.

All you can do is make an educated guess

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Robert,
The top coat was usually a clear laquer that yellowed with age, thus varying the colours even more.
Regards,
Charlie

[joeboy]

Hi Charlie

That makes it even more difficult, it also depends a lot on how the guitar has been stored heat, humidity, sunlight etc.

Pinky Red is near enough for me

[malcolm]

Have a look at Hyundi car paint the accent model doesn't look too far off, i sprayed one of my guitars with this colour and even if i say it myself it looks really nice.

Malcolm

[alanbakewell]

Feb 21, 2011 21:56:49 GMT rogerkay said:

Hi !

Can anyone help me here. I'm doing up a strat replica to look as near as possible to Hank's fiesta red strat. I'm basing it on the Fender Custom shop 56 NOS / Custom Classic Strat. This has the Fiesta red nitro cellulose finish and I want to get as near as I can to this colour. If anyone out there knows the RAL number or anything about the colour mix it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers Roger

Hi Roger, some three or four years ago,in a previous job, I had access to a photospectrometer. With this device I was able to match exactly the colour on my Custom Shop 1956 NOS Stratocaster. ( Fiesta Red ).
I made a few spray out cards and offered them to anyone interested.

The exercise proved a couple of things.

I) The colour on the sprayout card matched my guitar perfectly.

2) I tried it against many "Fiesta Red" Strats. none of which matched exactly.

I did, at the time make the point that the card matched my guitar and that I made no claim at all that this was the definitive Fiesta Red. In fact having compared that card against many, many guitars I came to the conclusion that "Fiesta Red" was in the eye of the beholder.

The Strat that Eric Thacker had at the time was lighter and pinker.
( Or should that be more pink )? Many might call this "Flamingo"

Ian Plant's ( Six Channel ) Excellent Brason Strat was a lighter red.

Keith Mantle's superb ( and very expensive ), 40th anniversary Strat. was lighter but possibly the closest to mine.

I would be delighted to help you in your quest Roger. If you want to send me an e-mail alanbakewell at sky.com ( Replace the at with @ ) give me your phone number and I'll ring you.

My experience was simply that "Fiesta Red" is lost somewhere in the mists of time. The best we can hope for is a colour that we're happy with.

I'll gladly talk to you and see how I can help.

Cheers, Alan.

[Bojan Drndic]

Here's an interesting website:

www.curtisnovak.com/restorations/FenderColors/index.shtml