Fender Antigua

thegummy

Anyone else love this finish? I really like the look of it but think it might be a bit Marmite.

More importantly, any good pics?

Dominic

I remember being captivated by them in the late 70s.......thought they were the bees-knees
Now when I look at them I get that 80s Rag-rolling feeling

ICBM

A friend of mine has a ‘78 Antigua Strat he may be thinking of selling...

guitars4you

certainly distinctive and yes somewhat of a Marmite discussion point

I refer to them as mushroom sunburst

Maybe part of the issue with the Antigua finish is they are found on so many late 70's Fenders, as that era is not exactly seen as the finest time for the company

Caffeine_Vampire

I kinda like them but for some reason they make me want to eat McDonalds. 

ICBM

Caffeine_Vampire said:

I kinda like them but for some reason they make me want to eat McDonalds. 

I'll be honest, I think they look like what can happen *after* you've eaten too much McDonalds...

guitars4you said:

I refer to them as mushroom sunburst

Or more commonly known as 'vomit burst'...

Vile, at least on solidbodies. It looks OK on the Coronados it was originally created for - to cover the burn marks left by routing the binding channels because CBS/Fender didn't use the correct feed-to-speed ratio for their tooling, yes really! - but that's because they have a quirky German-semi-acoustic vibe to them anyway. I still probably wouldn't choose one on purpose though.

TheMarlin

I quite like them, in an ugly-beautiful kind of
way. I used have a CIJ Fender Antigua strat.  Was a quality feeling guitar, but sold it on. 

EricTheWeary

When I first had a bass I had an audition of sorts and the guitarist had a strat in antigua. I'm pretty sure I'd never seen one before ( possibly never seen a Fender that close up before) and he seemed like a cool guy. So, I like it although I appreciate few do.

Not long ago a shop was advertising a complete set of antigua Fenders ( strat, tele, jazz , precision, maybe a jazz - not quite sure) for some silly price. Not far from me so I thought I'd go have a look but they'd gone. So, someone else likes them ( and has more money than sense). 

King85

Reminds me of when you used to make paper look aged in primary school by burning the edges and brushing tea or coffee on it.

thebreeze

I wonder why they're called Antigua?  To me the name conjures up bright colours, party time, turquoise azures, limes, vibrant palm tree greens etc.  Not a dreary foggy morning in an English provincial town.  I saw a Tele in cash converters about 5 years ago (£600 I think) and nearly bought because I thought it would be nice to have a US Tele.  

dangriffiths

I think the Novo ones look amazing

bazxkr

I loves em.............a 70s re issue on the bay at the moment giving me jitters

ICBM

dangriffiths said:

I think the Novo ones look amazing

Apart from the guitar, yes .

The colour is much nicer than the Fender version.

Philly_Q

There's a nice one on eBay at the moment.  One of those Japanese sellers so it's probably not really in stock...

I like the look, but I've always wondered how they make the scratchplate - is it just painted and if so does the paint flake off?

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

I like the look, but I've always wondered how they make the scratchplate - is it just painted and if so does the paint flake off?

Yes and yes.

I very briefly owned - it was a passing-through deal really - a '79 with what appeared to be an *original* black pickguard, that didn't look like it had been stripped. The serial number stickers on the guard and the body did match, so it was the right one. From what I've read somewhere the very last were shipped like that after they ran out of the painted guards before the bodies, so it may have been genuine. It looked much better than they normally do but weighed about as much as Ailsa Craig, and had the same sort of resonance.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:
It looked much better than they normally do but weighed about as much as Ailsa Craig, and had the same sort of resonance.

I thought who's she, it's not at all like @ICBM to make such a harsh comment about a woman.

Now I see.

Bellycaster

Might be a daft question, but why did they name it an "Antigua Finish"? Antigua is an Island in the Caribbean, isn't it?

#confused 

Schnozz

Best finish Fender does IMO

57Deluxe

literally makes my skin crawl every time...

Funkfingers

Bellycaster said:

Might be a daft question, but why did they name it an "Antigua Finish"? Antigua is an Island in the Caribbean, isn't it?

#confused 

Too many Camberwell carrots.

steveh

I had one of the originals, a maple board strat from the 70s.
It took three people to lift it and sounded like a wardrobe.
I'm afraid I can't get rid of that connotation.