Five Minutes...no Lying...

So I will probably get flak for this, but I will talk freely and honestly about Nitro for five minutes. Just read a blog entry on another site, where a guy mentions nobody, not even Fender, has ever got a mid-to-late fifties Tele blonde right. There is actually a color people refer to as 'Relic Blonde'.. which is close, but not dead-on, for an original (say 57 Tele). Now I have owned a respray on an original 51 Tele. I commissioned it from an ex-Masterbuilder. It was yellow, translucent in areas, and had spider-web cracks all over it that were filled with some transparent brown stain. (Bet we have all seen this look... and it wouldn't fool your grandmother). It was FUN though... but also felt too new. Now on to Mr Nash, who builds amazing guitars by all rights... I will not buy his Maple neck guitars, because they are sticky, and way too brown looking (like melted gummy bear). My research on this from Nitro spraying guy's sites is that he has the nitro mix wrong for the necks, and the paint then also takes years to dry. Apparently the necks will be dry, but not until years from now. I have owned 1 Nash Maple neck, and it was slightly sticky to play. Mr Nash might aptly state that he has no intention of making exact copies, just guitars that play amazingly well (and we are talking sheer genius here with sound). This would be true. But I do have to mention he gets his Custom Color bodies 98 percent there for me. Now to Fender...I have owned many Relic guitars, and the colors have all been (possibly intentionally?) just a little off, as far as SHADE, AGEING or TRANSLUCENCE/ LACK OF IT. I owned a John Cruz hand-made tele (#0525)...and he was 85% there for my mind... but get this... I own one roughly 150 guitars later... and...BINGO...JOHN CRUZ HAS COME 99% OR MORE to recreating the original 56-57 Blonde color... in feel, translucence, color and cracking. The cracking seems to be the hardest part to get right... since time is the only one who seems to really get it right so far... but I think he has just about done it. For any builders who would be slightly upset with my comments... I only strive to give honest, fair and compassionate feedback to them, so we can all get amazing guitars that LOOK AND PLAY like the real 50's thing, without paying 50K.