Car Colors Used To Be So Cool, They Inspired Guitar Companies To Use Them, Too

The results are in, and once again the most popular car colors are white, gray, and black. Boring! If you want to know what it was like when parking lots weren't an endless sea of sameness, walk into your nearest guitar shop, and behold the spectrum. Many of the classic shades you'll find were originally inspired by cool colors that automakers offered back in the 1950s and 60s. 

There's a Sea Foam Green Fender Stratocaster. And a Cardinal Red Gibson SG. You've got pastel Shell Pinks, Pelham Blues, and a healthy dash of metallics. Before these shades were on stages, they were showroom staples. Cars and guitars grew up together as fixtures of the post-World War II 1950s pop culture craze. We were entering the Space Age, and Americans went cuckoo for chrome, tail fins, and other rocket-inspired design cues. As Detroit rolled out the metal and rock and roll took hold, companies like DuPont were busy creating new colors and paint finishes with their industrial-sized chemistry sets. Meanwhile, accountant-turned-radio repairman Leo Fender was tinkering with electronics. He dropped the first Fender Esquire solid-body guitar in 1950, and the legendary Stratocaster in 1954. 

Using automotive paint wasn't just a way for Fender to tap into style trends. The bolt-on neck design of Fender solid-body guitars revolutionized their mass production. Fender became the Ford of instrument assembly. Auto paint dried fast, was factory-friendly, and widely available — inspiration was parked everywhere. 

The range of cool color options for cars in the '50s and '60s spanned everything from dull family sedans to luxury and sports cars, and guitar makers tapped into that. A 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport could be ordered in Pelham Blue, which also appeared on 1960 Cadillacs. You won't find it on a modern General Motors machine, but it's a classic Gibson shade that's still available on iconic guitars like the Les Paul Studio and Gibson SG Standard '61. 

For golden tones, Gibson borrowed Oldsmobile's Golden Mist Metallic and Bronze Mist Metallic. Gibson generally wasn't as keen on vivid colors as it was on natural finishes, but these remain catalog standards. 

Fender, on the other hand, was all-in on the color spectrum. Chevrolet coated plebeian 1957 210 Sedans, and cars like the '62 Impala, with a cheerful Surf Green. It's one of the more enduring Fender Stratocaster colors that still looks amazing. Fender grabbed Shell Pink from DeSoto, and the deeper Burgundy Mist from Oldsmobile. The uplifting tone of Fiesta Red was from Ford, which famously applied it to Fairlanes and Thunderbirds in the late '50s.   

Speaking of Thunderbirds, guitar companies lifted car names as well as colors. The discontinued Gibson Thunderbird Bass and still-popular Firebird guitar arrived in the 60s. Gretsch launched its own Corvette as a low-budget hollowbody option in '54, before reviving it as a solid-body in '61. And Fender is still cranking out Kurt Cobain's favorite, the Mustang.   

Black and white are classics. But what contemporary car colors would look great on a guitar? Audi's Nardo Grey showed up in 2013, and made a subdued luxury statement that seems to have oozed across the automotive canvas. It's a bit more ubiquitous now, but Nardo Grey is nice, and could be a perfect color for a guitar in a band with a severely industrial aesthetic and subdued mood. After all, there's psychology behind the colors we choose. Some guitarists just want to blend into the scenery, and let the music do the talking.  

Looking beyond the clay-colored mush that surrounds us, it's not hard to picture Mazda's beautiful Soul Red Crystal Metallic on a Strat or SG, flickering under stage lights. Peel Out orange from a Dodge Charger would make for a pretty slick Gretsch Electromatic Jet. Jeep keeps going back to the well for Tuscadero Pink Wranglers, which is a great color that's also perfectly suited for a hair metal tribute band. Toyota could deliver Caribbean vibes with Wave Maker, as seen on the 2026 4Runner TRD Pro, or the incredible depth of the Lexus LC500's Ultrasonic Blue Mica 2.0, if you're into the blues.

It's easy to get lost in the sameness, but there are some great car colors out there. Guitar companies just need to know where to look — or, they could just one-stop-shop, and raid Porsche's Paint to Sample catalog. It offers 230 colors, and some sound like they were made for six-strings: Lorettapurple. Rubystar. Moongem. Sure, they're outrageously expensive, but isn't your music career worth it?