Fender finish question: Deluxe Player's Strat

So, my frustrating experiences with Musician's Friend and Sam Ash notwithstanding, I'm still planning to order a Deluxe Player's Strat. The color I *think* I want is called Crimson Red Transparent. But I've never seen one with that finish in person, so I'm hoping to get some info here.

Online, I've seen photos that look really pretty to me, like this:

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbas...5/0/270350.jpg

and this:

http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp...uper-Strat.jpg

Basically, a nice, dark red, almost like wine red, with lots of wood grain showing.

But then I saw this pic on the Elderly Instruments site:

http://elderly.com/images/fmic/30N/F...body-front.jpg

They say that's Crimson Red Transparent...but as you can see, it's really bright, almost orange, and very little wood grain is visible. And some other Fenders I've seen online that are labeled Crimson Red Transparent are a little closer to this version.

So now I'm not sure what finish I want. If I order the guitar and it looks like those first pictures, I'll be very happy. If I order one and it looks like the one on the Elderly site, I'll definitely wish I'd ordered the Honey Blonde.

Any thoughts? Has anyone seen a Crimson Red Transparent Deluxe Player's Strat in person? Was it classy, dark red -- or more like a tomato?

Thanks.

I've never seen one in person, but the MF picture above is probably a 'pick of the litter' photo and not a typical representation. The HC picture in the middle is a professional grade image, and it probably more typical. The Elderly picture seems overly saturated with camera flash judging by the white plastic parts and tortus guard, so it's probably 'typical of a high flash' image of the same guitar in the HC picture. I'd love to see them all look like the MF picture, but for some reason I don't find that to be too realistic (but I don't know why it couldn't be).

I have a Lightburst 335 that looks very 'brown' around the edges in natural light, but with a camera flash it looks very red instead. Not at all what it looks like normally.

I just noticed the one on the MF site has exactly the same woodgrain pattern as the transparent blue one. So either the red or the blue is probably just a photoshopped version of the other guitar, with the body color changed. Makes it hard to know if the real thing would look even remotely like that.

But then, on the Zzounds.com site, there's this pic:

http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/qua...15b31cb26e.jpg

Which looks great to me. Dark red, very visible wood grain.

I'm just scared of that Elderly Instruments image. That's a fine color, I guess, but it's not what I want at all. I like subtler colors, and I like to see the wood. But I had noticed the same thing you did; the white parts look really blown out, like the photo's very overexposed.

So I might be okay ordering that finish. I'd still like to see more opinions, though. :D

I've seen the red, it's nicely transparent. Perhaps not so much as the contrast-enhanced first photo, but certainly there.

Based on the examples of this finish I've seen at GC.... the MF shot is too enhanced, the Elderly shot is WAY too blown out, the Zzounds shot is pretty close to real life.

On my monitor, that is. YMMV.

The evidence of grain will also depend very much on the wood of the individual guitar, of course. I like the grain on my 'burst Deluxe Players, but I've seen some really bland ones at GC.

Look thru Ebay for completed auctions and current ones for pictuire examples. Some digital cams just dont replicate the correct colors.

Only found a couple, even looking at completed ones. This one scares me...but again, it looks like it could be pretty overexposed:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Ash-Body-...QQcmdZViewItem

The other one was transparent blue. I don't want that color, but if the trans red is similar (in terms of dark color and transparency), I'd be happy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Deluxe-Pl...QQcmdZViewItem

This is really confusing. I know you take your chances when you order online, and I'm fine if the wood grain isn't 100 percent what I imagined...but I don't want to find the color is way off what I thought I was getting. I guess if I decided I really didn't like the finish, I could exchange it for a Honey Blonde. Might have to pay a restocking fee....

the one i saw was closer to the dark picture with woodgrain showing.

Almost bought the blue one with maple fingerboard a few month ago ,got the American series instead . The red one was there with rosewood fingerboard and yes it was a darker wine colored red with wood grain showing through .Very nice rich colour . These both were very nice players , a little thicker neck than the American and I really had to think hard on it . I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Thanks, everybody. I'm definitely feeling more confident now about ordering the trans crimson.

Heres a clip of a guy playing one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAPt-cMalCw

of that colour. i have no idea who he is or what hes saying but its the guitar.