Are the neon color guitars coming back in style?

There was a time in the 80s when neon-colored guitars sold fairly well. Has that time come again?

Before I get into that, I'll describe the above guitar first.

Above is a Jackson Soloist SLX in a color they call "Slime Green", but I call Neon Green. It is no different than any other Soloist SLX, save for the color, which by the way is not only the body but the back of the neck as well. If you're going to do a "loud color" guitar, you might as well do the whole thing including the neck, which Jackson did do.

Neon colors are green, pink, yellow, orange, purple and blue because those are the only colors you can get to neon-like brightness. The most common were green and yellow.

If for whatever reason I wanted a neon-color guitar, I would go with orange, solely because it's one of the rarest neon guitar colors due to the fact it's not easy to get the mix right, and not easy to make super-glossy. Pictures do no justice as to how cool a neon orange guitar looks that had the paint applied right. And to date, Ibanez is the only company I've ever seen that got neon orange on a guitar body correct. It is only available on high-end models priced at a minimum $1,000 USD, and the color is called Fluorescent Orange.

Does Ibanez currently make any guitars in that color? Nope. Or not at the time I write this. They should because the RG Series takes to it quite well.

Is the neon-color electric making a comeback?

I think so. I see way too many electrics right now in dopey flame-tops and bursts. Neon-color guitars are just one solid color, and we haven't seen any for sale regularly for about, oh, close to 30 years.

Fender (along with Squier) brought back their cool colors like Surf Green, Sonic Blue, Shell Pink, Lake Placid Blue, Daphne Blue and several others. But the other guitar companies stayed with the dopey flames and bursts.

Heck, even Fender had a neon-ish color once. Graffiti Yellow. And oh yeah, it looked real good on a Strat. That would be a nice color to see again from the big F.

Jackson right now is on the map with 1980's-neon color Slime Green. If it sells well, we may see more neon colors sprout up soon. Or if it doesn't capture the attention of the guitar player masses, grab your neon-colored Jackson while you can.

Published 2014 Jul 9