TV Yellow "myth and lore" or, "a color of contested origin"

[øøøøøøø]

Before the internet, all the books said it was due to TV cameras (side note: I read an interview with Les Paul himself that explained the Custom's black finish was so that Les's own hands would show up against the guitar better on television)

But we may not really know for sure.

If we thought creatively enough we could think of even more reasonable-seeming explanations, but unless they were based on evidence even the most logical among them would be more likely wrong than right.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

It‘s the TV cameras explanation, surely.

They actually mentioned it again on the latest Norm's Guitar Of The Day, so it must be true, right?

[Telliot]

Watching early black and white footage of live bands, the white guitars are completely blown out, so the TV explanation makes total sense to me.

[Embenny]

Watching early black and white footage of live bands, the white guitars are completely blown out, so the TV explanation makes total sense to me.

Makes me wonder whether the "broadcaster" and "telecaster" names tied in with Leo's initial choice of blonde finish. I always heard that he chose it simply because it sounded hip and cutting edge (just like the stratocaster tying in to the age of jet and rocket innovation), but maybe he had early television broadcasts in mind when he chose the finish. There were already 14 million homes with TV sets in 1951.

Probably a case of convergent evolution between Fender and Gibson. I don't think Gibson named TV after "Telecaster version," but it was likely named after telecasts, which the Telecaster obviously was, as well. So it makes sense that Leo might also have given thought to the issue of white guitars being blown out and dark guitars being tough to see. He'd have wanted any TV appearance to have people gasping and asking what that newfangled funny-shaped guitar was, so he'd have needed the shape to show up well on camera.

[luau]

Considering it ended up on budget guitars, my guess is they happened across a large quantity of the finish for cheap and then found reasons for it to make sense.