Sparkle finish guitars are among the rarest and most enigmatic of Fender instruments. Decked out in metallic paint and embellished with metal flake, these dazzling beauties, though striking in appearance, often carry a mysterious past. While they are considered a true Fender finish, for a long time these special paint jobs were tasked to third parties. As custom finishes in the realist sense they extended not only outside the boundaries of Fender’s automotive-inspired custom colour chart but beyond the limits of the factory itself. Perfectly encapsulating the golden era of American guitars, cars and movies, these glittering vintage rarities are a jewel in California’s cultural crown.
“It was mostly about the hot-rod culture in California,” begins guitar guru David Davidson of Well Strung Guitars. “People associate sparkle finishes with surf, but it really wasn’t the surf thing so much as it was about the car culture in Southern California. That really was a big deal
