Why is yellow such an unpopular colour for guitar?

blobb

Gordon Smith - Steve Diggle special edition.

AK99

stonevibe said:

https://www.sellmyjem.com/uploads/5/1/5/6/51568669/2395405_orig.png

That thing pulls off that rare trick of managing to clash with itself. Jzzz.

ronnyb

Does this count? Vintage white gone banana yellow.

Philly_Q

Moe_Zambeek said:

.

On my first ever trip to guitarguitar, just after they opened in Edinburgh, I was delighted to find a custom shop SG in TV Yellow on the wall…£1800 I recall. Unfortunately it was crap  

That shop opening was a godsend - I got to try so many guitars I’d drooled over pictures of and convinced myself I wanted, and was constantly surprised by how much I disliked them in person.

Yeah, I've had that experience a few times.  A strange feeling of disappointment, mixed with relief that you didn't spend the money.

v12cat

stonevibe said:

https://www.sellmyjem.com/uploads/5/1/5/6/51568669/2395405_orig.png

To me, these look like an RG coloured in by a 5 year old. 

Devil#20

Butterscotch tele's are lovely and everyone should own one. TV yellow guitars came about because they looked white on monochrome TV I think. Might be wrong but I think that might be the TV bit. 

ICBM

v12cat said:

To me, these look like an RG coloured in by a 5 year old. 

They’re what the RG was meant to be originally . The RG is a simplified version of the Jem, not the other way round.

I think they look great - the pyramid inlays especially are a master touch - and I’d quite like to play one in a completely inappropriate context, just because!

I have to admit I’m not a huge fan of when the colours don’t match well though - the pinks in particular can look quite clashing when they’re slightly different shades.

Voxman

ICBM said:

^ I prefer the green, but those early Jems look great in yellow.

I always liked the Vintage Yellow on the early PRSs too - one of the first two PRSs I ever saw in Chandlers in about 1986 was one. (The other was Royal Blue.)

I'm not really sure if that colour (same as mine - I believe it's called vintage amber) qualifies as yellow, but it's the nearest I have  to a yellow - and it's interesting as it kind of fluctuates from a deeper amber to a more yellow amber depending on the light - so here's my 2002 PRS Cu24 (with zebra pickups and birds):

Tannin

Cue the inevitable picture-post of a Yamaha Flying Banana

AK99

Voxman said:

I'm not really sure if that colour (same as mine - I believe it's called vintage amber) qualifies as yellow, but it's the nearest I have  to a yellow - and it's interesting as it kind of fluctuates from a deeper amber to a more yellow amber depending on the light - so here's my 2002 PRS Cu24 (with zebra pickups and birds):

I believe that colour is officially called 'Heavily Plaqued' by the true aficionados...

BillDL

Can you relic a heavily plaqued guitar using an Oral B and Sensodyne?

Neil

Devil#20 said:

Butterscotch tele's are lovely and everyone should own one. TV yellow guitars came about because they looked white on monochrome TV I think. Might be wrong but I think that might be the TV bit. 

I think the TV thing came about because Les Paul and Mary Ford had a very popular TV show at the time. 

kentuckyklira

thecolourbox said:

It is strange, I like yellow

This is still on my "ooh that would be nice" list

I like those but, mine would have to have 3 pickups and a Bigsby!

paulphoenix

I like yellow guitars.. and there's none more yellow than my Ibanez surely?!...  Behold the S1XXV-FYE: 

Stock photo


In the flesh:





And I own this rather yellow offering ...

skullfunkerry

This is actually officially Birch Green, but it's been called yellow on more than one occasion:

I'm crazy, I am

BillDL

The only yellow guitar I have ever owned was a "Switch Vibracell Wild 1" electric.  The body and integral neck were moulded in one pass as a hard plasticky shell infilled with some kind of honeycomb polyurethane resin that the designers referred to as vibracell.  Trevor Wilkinson was heavily involved with the design.  That was back in 2004.  Cort had already played with this idea in the late 90s, so the idea wasn't new.  The Switch company didn't last too long even though they had a fairly large range of models in 2005 (by then up to the "Wild IV" iteration).

The body was moulded with rounded over (but angular in linearity) top contours for the central scratchplate & pickups and the bridge, and down another step for the knobs and pickup switch.  The model I had was fashioned in a way to resemble a Parker Fly, or at least the squared-off angular top horn was.  It had a man-made ebony-like fingerboard with a Gibson scale, single humbucker with coil split switch, hard-tail string-through-body bridge, and Groverish machine heads.  It was very light at only around 7lbs (3.1kg), was a great rock machine with its powerful pickup, and was a good conversation piece.  Unfortunately I forgot to bring it in from the back seat of my car in the driveway one night while carting in other equipment and I forgot to lock the car.  An opportunist prowler taught me a valuable lesson and stole it.

Good photos here even though they are showing it as "sold out":

https://evolutionmusicstore.com/products/switch-vibracell-wild-1-yellow-electric-guitar

Switch at Summer NAMM 2005:

PDF of 2005 catalogue (with the "Wild" model now iterated from "1" to "IV"):

https://www.joness.com/gr300/pdf/vibracell/switch_guitar_catalog_2005.pdf

Philly_Q

@BillDL Thanks, I was trying to remember the name of those Switch guitars the other day, in connection with some other thread.  Can't remember what thread it was now though...

Moe_Zambeek

Philly_Q said:

@BillDL Thanks, I was trying to remember the name of those Switch guitars the other day, in connection with some other thread.  Can't remember what thread it was now though...

Was it a thread about yellow guitars?

BillDL

You're most welcome.  I actually liked that guitar, even though it was as successful as, and shared a similar longevity of production with, the Sinclair C5 and the Bond Electraglide (had one of those also).  It's about the only kind of guitar I could ever see myself owning in bright yellow.

kentuckyklira

BillDL said:

The only yellow guitar I have ever owned was a "Switch Vibracell Wild 1" electric.  The body and integral neck were moulded in one pass as a hard plasticky shell infilled with some kind of honeycomb polyurethane resin that the designers referred to as vibracell.  Trevor Wilkinson was heavily involved with the design.  That was back in 2004.  Cort had already played with this idea in the late 90s, so the idea wasn't new.  The Switch company didn't last too long even though they had a fairly large range of models in 2005 (by then up to the "Wild IV" iteration).

The body was moulded with rounded over (but angular in linearity) top contours for the central scratchplate & pickups and the bridge, and down another step for the knobs and pickup switch.  The model I had was fashioned in a way to resemble a Parker Fly, or at least the squared-off angular top horn was.  It had a man-made ebony-like fingerboard with a Gibson scale, single humbucker with coil split switch, hard-tail string-through-body bridge, and Groverish machine heads.  It was very light at only around 7lbs (3.1kg), was a great rock machine with its powerful pickup, and was a good conversation piece.  Unfortunately I forgot to bring it in from the back seat of my car in the driveway one night while carting in other equipment and I forgot to lock the car.  An opportunist prowler taught me a valuable lesson and stole it.

Good photos here even though they are showing it as "sold out":

https://evolutionmusicstore.com/products/switch-vibracell-wild-1-yellow-electric-guitar

Switch at Summer NAMM 2005:

PDF of 2005 catalogue (with the "Wild" model now iterated from "1" to "IV"):

https://www.joness.com/gr300/pdf/vibracell/switch_guitar_catalog_2005.pdf

I have the 2 humbucker version here somewhere, in YELLOW!