Blue Guitar article
Common Blue Guitar Mistakes to Avoid
Blue guitars attract buyers who sometimes focus on the colour at the expense of everything that matters. Here's what typically goes wrong and how to avoid it.
Buying a blue guitar is a decision some people approach with more care for the finish than for the instrument underneath it — and that's where things tend to go wrong. The colour has a way of making everything else feel secondary when it shouldn't. Here are the mistakes that come up consistently, whether you're a first-time buyer or someone adding to an existing collection.
Mistake 1: Buying the Colour, Not the Guitar
This is the fundamental error that all the others flow from. A blue finish doesn't make an instrument play well, stay in tune, or suit your musical needs. The colour is the last thing to decide — after you've established body style, pickup configuration, scale length, and your budget. When you find a guitar that ticks all those boxes and also happens to be in the shade of blue you want, you've done it correctly. Reversing that order produces buyers who end up with an instrument that looks exactly right and plays exactly wrong.
Mistake 2: Not Checking the Finish in Natural Light
Guitar shop lighting and photography lighting are designed to make instruments look their best. Warm, directional spotlighting flatters every finish, but it doesn't tell you what the guitar actually looks like. Blue finishes — especially metallic ones like Lake Placid Blue or Pelham Blue — can appear dramatically different under stage lighting, daylight, and warm-toned room lighting. A guitar that looks mid-blue in a photo might look nearly teal under LED stage lights, or much darker under fluorescent shop lights.
If you're buying in person, take it to a window. If you're buying online, ask for photos in natural daylight. And check the shade of blue against the hardware — chrome, gold, or black hardware reads very differently against the same finish.
Mistake 3: Assuming All Blues with the Same Name Look the Same
Finish names are not standardised across manufacturers. "Daphne Blue" on a current production guitar may look somewhat different from a vintage example — the formulation changes, the lighting varies, and the ageing of a nitrocellulose finish can shift the tone considerably. One brand's "Midnight Blue" is another's "Navy"; "Ocean Blue" means different things in different catalogues.
If you're chasing a specific shade, verify it with real photographs of the exact model you're buying, not just the name. Reviews, customer photos on retailer sites, and forum threads with multiple examples are far more useful than a paint chip on a spec sheet.
Mistake 4: Overlooking Setup Because the Colour Looks Right
A guitar can look precisely right and play poorly. High action, sharp fret ends, a nut that's cut too deep or too shallow, an intonation that's never been set — none of these show up in photographs. A visually perfect blue guitar with a bad setup will still make playing harder than it should be, and beginners in particular often blame their own technique for a problem that's actually in the instrument.
Budget for a professional setup — typically £30–50 at a guitar tech — as part of the purchase, especially for new production guitars. The setup adjusts the truss rod, nut height, bridge action, and intonation. On a correctly set-up instrument, the difference in playability can be substantial.
Mistake 5: Storing a Nitro-Finished Blue Guitar Carelessly
Vintage-style instruments and some higher-end models use nitrocellulose lacquer rather than polyurethane. Nitro ages attractively — developing the small cracks (called checking) and gradual colour shifts that collectors prize — but it's also more sensitive than poly to:
- Prolonged direct sunlight, which causes uneven fading
- Extreme temperature changes, which promote checking
- Many foam rubber materials (in stands, cases, and straps) which react with nitro and can dissolve the finish where they make contact
- Certain cleaning products not designed for nitro
Check whether your guitar has a nitro or poly finish, and if it's nitro, use a guitar stand with non-reactive padding and a case with a cloth-lined interior. The soft, absorbent foam in many cheap cases contains chemicals that can permanently damage a nitro finish.
Mistake 6: Conflating Blue with a Genre
Online listings and gear editorial sometimes associate specific blue finishes with genres — "Daphne Blue is a surf guitar colour", "Pelham Blue SGs are for rock", and so on. These are stylistic impressions and marketing associations, not technical rules. A Daphne Blue Stratocaster can play metal. A Pelham Blue SG can play jazz. The pickup configuration, amplifier, effects, and player determine the sound.
Don't let colour associations constrain your choice. If you play primarily jazz but love the look of a metallic blue SG more than the dark finish on a more traditional jazz instrument, the SG with the right amp and pickup settings will still let you play jazz. Buy the instrument you want to play.
Mistake 7: Ignoring the Acoustic Version of the Same Mistake
Blue acoustic guitars are less common but worth a specific note. An opaque blue finish on an acoustic top conceals the grain — you can't assess the wood by eye the way you can with a natural or sunburst finish. This means some buyers unconsciously downgrade their assessment criteria for acoustic quality, focusing on the visual rather than the instrument. A painted top is no guarantee of a solid construction — check whether the top is solid or laminate, play it and listen, and treat it with the same scrutiny you'd bring to any acoustic purchase.
For a grounded overview of what makes a blue finish more than just a colour, the blue guitar overview is the place to start. And for practical value comparisons at each budget level, the guide to the best blue guitars for the money has specific models and honest assessments.
The Bottom Line
Blue is a wonderful colour on a guitar. It catches the eye, it has history, and it looks great on a stage. But the colour is the decoration on a decision that should be made on specifications, construction, and playability. Get those right, and the blue is the final, genuinely satisfying detail on an instrument that actually works for you.
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