Crusader Posted July 13, 2022 Report Share Posted July 13, 2022 I am hopelessly insane, I can't afford this, but but but its one of the last Ash bodied Fenders. And one must have! I'm not crazy about the colour, it looks pink but who cares, its Ash. Its an American Original 50s Stratocaster. Has 9.5" radius fretboard and "soft V" neck profile, nice & chunky, almost the same profile as my 59 Reissue Les Paul and with the 9.5" radius its not too much of a transition after playing the Les Paul . It only has 21 Frets but I will survive, its not a problem for Yngwie so no problem for me I tried one out 5 years ago and I totally loved it but at the time I had my sights on a Gibson Songwriter which I bought. After seeing that Strat I went and checked it out again, then the third time it was sold. When I rang up about this one this morning they said it was sold and I said "I feel sick" So I went to another shop which had one online in hope they actually had it in the shop but on the way there the other shop rang and said they've actually still got it, the sale went wrong somehow and it was out the back So I went there afterwards and tried it out against some other Strats with Alder bodies and although I couldn't tell a great deal of difference I was won over by the neck profile, fretboard radius and other features And hey here's a piece or interesting trivia. At the first shop I went to today was the guy who sold me the Songwriter, and he and the guy who sold me the Strat have the same name! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADFinlayson Posted July 14, 2022 Report Share Posted July 14, 2022 Nice, I love the slightly pink hue see-through finish. A friend has asked me to do him a swamp ash tele in see-through olympic white, So there's something else to learn. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RVA Posted July 14, 2022 Report Share Posted July 14, 2022 Beautiful! I love the color. You might find that it grows on you. I also like that they went with the 9.5 radius over the historical 7.25 (personal preference). Congrats on a great guitar! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted October 13, 2022 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2022 On 7/14/2022 at 7:41 PM, RVA said: Beautiful! I love the color. You might find that it grows on you Yep it sure has. I don't see the 'pink' any more its just white Only thing with a Strat though is the tremolo and the associated tuning issues. I've got a set of locking tuners, I might have to chuck them on this 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted January 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2023 Talking about the colour, an old friend has a Tele that is yellow and he says it was the same colour as my Strat when it was brand new. I'm not sure about this, is that how it you get what they call TV yellow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted January 19, 2023 Report Share Posted January 19, 2023 1 hour ago, Crusader said: I'm not sure about this, is that how it you get what they call TV yellow? TV yellow was made in purpose to show a guitar as white on a black and white TV. Pure white would burn through, resulting just a shiny white blob. Remember, in the late 50's and early 60's even rock bands wore dark suits against which a pale guitar would show well - which in turns was good for marketing guitars! "Mom, I want the kind of a guitar the <band> had on TV! It looks soooo cool!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted January 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2023 22 hours ago, Bizman62 said: TV yellow was made in purpose to show a guitar as white on a black and white TV Yeah that's what I remember reading somewhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 21, 2023 Report Share Posted January 21, 2023 It's one of several unconfirmed stories surrounding the origins of TV yellow. Another one is that the 'TV' stood for 'Telecaster Version', supposedly Gibson's response to the Telecaster butterscotch colour. Personally, I suspect both stories are just folklore. I highly doubt Gibson would go to the lengths of producing a colour for such a narrow application (ie, good looks on black and white TV), nor would they purposely try to jump on Fender's coattails and use the Telecaster name to ID a similar colour. What's more likely is that TV yellow is just a homage to the yellowed woodgrain finish applied to many pieces of furniture at the time, which would have included TV cabinets. Wikipedia suggests that the Les Paul TV Model, which the colour was first applied to, was ID'ed as 'TV' more because it was anticipated that it would act as a mascot for the Les Paul and Mary Ford TV show. The finish itself was actually described by Gibson as 'limed mahogany': 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted January 21, 2023 Report Share Posted January 21, 2023 Interesting! The "Telecaster Version" story isn't logical as it includes an advertisement to the rival. As one of our politicians has said, no matter what they write as long as the name is right! "TV" for television might well have become from the Les Paul TV show as a nickname. But I wouldn't underestimate the power of black and white television either. As Wikipedia says, broadcasting was mostly black and white until the mid sixties when over half of the programs would be in colour. 50 million televisions wasn't a small marketing media and music programs were popular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted January 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2023 30 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Interesting! The "Telecaster Version" story isn't logical as it includes an advertisement to the rival Hmmm, good point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 22, 2023 Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 21 hours ago, Bizman62 said: But I wouldn't underestimate the power of black and white television either. As Wikipedia says, broadcasting was mostly black and white until the mid sixties when over half of the programs would be in colour. 50 million televisions wasn't a small marketing media and music programs were popular. I think television played a role in bringing the electric guitar to a larger, younger audience than it had at any time in the past. TV was a cool thing. Les Paul was a cool thing. Combining the two into a marketing juggernaut would have been an easy thing for Gibson to do. The TV Model itself was a cut-down version of the flagship Les Paul that would have appealed to budget-conscious customers wanting to get as close to Les Paul and Mary Ford as practicable. The 'TV' suffix was also later attached to the SG as a stripped-back version of the same big brother, but again it was never specifically offered in a 'TV yellow'. But I don't think TV studios had any say in how Gibson chose to paint their guitars, thereby starting some kind of demand for a colour that looked good when beamed across the country. Gibson themselves marketed the finish as 'limed oak' and 'limed mahogany'. It's more likely that consumers themselves substituted the term 'TV yellow' over time as a kind of portmanteau of the 'TV Model' moniker and the shade of yellow it was mostly associated with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted January 22, 2023 Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 3 hours ago, curtisa said: I don't think TV studios had any say in how Gibson chose to paint their guitars, thereby starting some kind of demand for a colour that looked good when beamed across the country. Most likely the TV studios didn't say anything about the colour unless asked. Then again, I've heard that the TV people may suggest avoiding certain colours in clothing on a broadcast. But the Gibson people had eyes as well and they definitely wanted their guitar to look good on any TV so they may have chosen a colour that looked good - possibly at first by accident. The official name is one thing, a nickname is another. And the name "TV yellow" may have it origins in the mid-sixties when colour broadcasting bypassed the 50% margin, showing people that the guitars previously seen as white were actually yellowish. Of course all this is just speculation, even the people who might have been in the TV business back then may rather have told a good story instead of a happy accident. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted January 22, 2023 Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 37 minutes ago, Bizman62 said: Gibson people had eyes as well and they definitely wanted their guitar to look good on any TV so they may have chosen a colour that looked good - possibly at first by accident. Buy that colour wasn't then automatically applied to the remainder of their guitars, particularly their flagship models. It was only used on a small subset of their offerings, and even then only on their low/midrange offerings. Specifically choosing an unusual colour on the basis that looked good on a cathode ray tube on a budget model while ignoring the remainder of their more valuable/important models makes no sense. The TV yellow colour as a response to the look on B&W TV is a myth, nothing more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted January 22, 2023 Report Share Posted January 22, 2023 20 minutes ago, curtisa said: that colour wasn't then automatically applied to the remainder of their guitars, particularly their flagship models. It was only used on a small subset of their offerings, and even then only on their low/midrange offerings. Ahh... So much for that theory. Unless they really wanted the poor masses to buy their less expensive products. But that idea seems too far fetched. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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