Antigua is back

[ilan]

Squier Antigua P-bass ($418), Bass VI ($454), Strat and Tele Custom available for preorder at European retailers.

Yeah, it's pukeburst, it looks like your granny's cooker or fridge, but it grows on me.

[Ken]

I'm a fan of that finish. Probably no left-handed version, though.  Plus I don't find Fender comfortable.

[Alanko]

It is an audacious colour. I like it but my wife hates it. It goes beyond the realm of bad taste and back into being cool, for me. 

I've seen photos of, I think, one original guitar in zero hour condition and the finish looked like a sort of grey burst over Olympic white? The cheese-yellow-green tones all come from the clear coat yellowing, potentially. This would make the Squier finish an aged Antigua rather than exactly what rolled off the production line? My Antigua timeline is a bit approximate; I know they made the finish to hide glue seepage issues on the Coronado guitars in the '60s (quite a profound 'smokeburst' finish), but also rolled it out on many models in the late '70s?. I've seen photos of Antigua Mustang basses.

It wouldn't be too hard to find a maple neck with dots and a big slutty '70s Fender headstock logo to make the bass truer to the originals. I don't like blocks on a P Bass.

[Dave W]

Hideously ugly as ever.

[Alanko]

Kitchen sold separately.

[morrow]

I still get a shudder when I see one.

[gearHed289]

 

[ilan]

The cheese-yellow-green tones all come from the clear coat yellowing, potentially. This would make the Squier finish an aged Antigua rather than exactly what rolled off the production line?

Fender have applied Antigua as a NOS some years ago. A friend of mine got a Strat, I thought it looked incorrect. We perceive Antigua in its lightly aged form.

Some 70s Antiguas didn't have lacquered guards, so the only body shows yellowing.

[ilan]

Before and after clearcoat yellowing

[Alanko]

The Squier finish looks ultra yellowed then. A shame! I think the MIM stuff from ~10 years ago was closer to the originals?

[ilan]

The Squier finish looks ultra yellowed then. A shame! I think the MIM stuff from ~10 years ago was closer to the originals?

Agreed, but almost everyone associate vintage with aged, so from a marketing point of view they made the right choice with the hue.