CANDY APPLE RED FENDERS

Candy Apple Red was reputedly Leo's favourite finish and, as this small selection from a very large collection proves, it looks fantastic on any Fender guitar

- Words Huw Price Photography Phil Barker

Much like Gibson's 1950s sunbursts, the look of vintage Candy Apple Red Fenders varies considerably. We'll be discussing the reasons for that later as we examine six examples from a collection of around 50 that will be coming up for sale at Gardiner Houlgate over its next few guitar auctions.

Auctioneer Luke Hobbs tells us: “They’re not all great guitars because, probability-wise, that’s never going to happen - but the thing the owner really wanted was at least one example of every model in Candy Apple Red. Another issue with some of these guitars is that the owner was a serial buffer, so in some cases he flattened the finishes down and made the lacquer checking less pronounced than it should be.”

Candy Apple Red is one of those colours that divides opinions - most guitarists either love it or they quite like it. So, before examining each of these guitars in detail, let’s check out the origins of the finish and discuss how the application method differs from Fender’s other metallic custom colours.

From the early 1960s onwards, Fender offered a fairly wide choice of custom colours. Some are vanishingly rare and genuine vintage examples are seldom seen, while others are almost as common as sunbursts. Of the 21 factory custom colours Fender listed during the 1960s (not including the sparkle and metal flake finishes and one-off specials), 12 were metallic.