This is why a Sonic Blue finished in Nitro will always look different to one finished in Poly. this is due to how light enters the first few thousandths of an inch of the paint’s surface and is reflected back to your eye. Let me interject that even if a manufacturer like Sherwin Williams, or whoever, makes two different types of paint, the same color, say one in Nitro and the other in Acrylic lacquer, or Poly… the will never look exactly, precisely alike. Further, should they want to make less exotic guitars, they can choose a less costly paint, have it blended and call it Sonic too, even though it’s obviously a subtly different shade when compared to the initial guitars. the manufacturer can just have something blended that approximates the color, call it Sonic, and start spraying guitars.

Since the name Sonic Blue is no longer “owned”. should you find an original guitar, the color has suffered the machinations of time, pollution, sweat, dusty smoky bars, etc… so that none exist today that remain the “pure Sonic Blue” as issued issued five decades ago.… so what do ya do? Jump forward another decade or so… all of a sudden vintage reissue guitars are a hot item… but no one is making Sonic Blue or Fiesta Red, or Seafoam Green to the original specifications, and.

thus, by the end of the 70’s the name Sonic Blue, as specifying a specific color, simply slid into obscurity… For those cars that were still on the road, if paint work was required, they depended on the local body shops to have a custom batch mixed for the small job…. the paint manufacturers just discontinued making it. However, by, say ,1972…there were relatively few 1956 Caddies on the road… the need to keep cans of Sonic Blue on the shelf was fading… and at some point. Reason, so when ya backed into a telephone pole, the body shop could call Dupont, Ditzler, ICI, PPG, etc, and order a can of something that was an exact match… It was used by Fender from 1960 - 1972īack then any Sonic Blue had to be an exact color match to that found on the Cadillac. That is further compounded by the legacy of colors throughout the history of guitars…Īs an example, let’ s consider Sonic Blue… the same can be applied to any of the vintage colors… Sonic Blue was a color used by General Motors in 1956 on the Cadillac. in a photograph transmitted over the internet, so that the resulting color seen at “my end” could be completely different from what was intended… But I hope it illustrates why a guitar that may be powder yellow in your hands, may look Butterscotch blond, Pale Green, Light blue, or plain old White. Since we’re “guitars”, such precision is not really necessary, close is usually good enough. You cannot trust a photograph, be it with Kodachrome, or some digital methodology. I used this system in the mid 60’s as a graphic artist, it’s still the number one system used to insure color accuracy today. It is basically a calibrated system assigning reference numbers to differing shades of colors, so someone in say, Los Angeles, can make reference to a specific number and have someone in Berlin produce art that is precisely the same color. For this reason, Advertisers, Artists, Photographers, etc, etc, rely on the Pantone system. This has been an ongoing issue in the many industries where color accuracy is paramount.

There is simply way too much chromatic distortion occurring in the electronics and the monitors we use… Also the guitar colors are rarely created to chromatic industry standards… so “Mystic Mist” from something like 1995 may be something completely different from “Mystic Mist” the guys at Sherwin Williams look up. The transmission technology cannot guarantee that I will see the same shades you are transmitting on the monitor. Neither is referring to a specific guitar. here's a dissertation I did a few years back, perhaps it will help in understanding the variants in colors wearing the same name, but looking obviously different.įew realize how difficult it is to match a color on a vintage guitar perfectly… primary reason lies within the word “perfect”.įirst, if you are requesting a specific color, sending an illustration over the internet is NOT the way to achieve success. 'Prices and specifications may change without notice.' that includes subtle shades of a color. Olympic white is whatever Fender says it is at any given moment.

Olympic paint color match