The guitar you want is probably not in a Toronto shop

Coastline — Pale blue recedes from the edges into an almost-white centre, like the last line of tide going out. With the pearl-white guard the whole guitar sits in a morning key — if you like clean and quiet, your eye will probably stop here first.

Miami Beach — Unapologetically pink, deep at the rim and soft at the centre, like seaside neon flickering on just before dark. Hold it through one intro and a bad mood rarely survives.

Sunrise — The loudest of the five: orange under a black guard — rare in this series — and the contrast does the waving for you. For people who figure that once you're on stage, modesty is a wasted effort.

Mojito — A restrained mint, dissolving toward the centre, cooled further by the white guard — chilly, never cold. The most air-conditioned guitar in a summer rehearsal room.

Violet Fizz — The violet is mixed light, like the splash of liquor in a fizzy drink. Quieter than the pink, warmer than the blue — people usually try the other four and come back to this one.

Purple Fade — Purple lights up at the centre and sinks into black at the edges, like a firework caught mid-bloom in a night sky. The deepest of the four fades — and a moving stage light suddenly wakes it up.

Green Fade — A deep teal running toward black, blue-green under lights, like open water past the drop-off. The most composed of the four — it looks plausible in any band you put it in.

Pink Fade — The black rim cuts the pink's sweetness in half, and the half that survives stands out more for it. If you want pink without the sugar, this is the one.

Grey Fade — Silver into black, restrained to the point of formality, like good suiting fabric. Probably the least demanding colour in the catalogue — no outfit, no occasion argues with it.

Volcanic Ash — The name sounds hot; the colour runs cool — pale grey with a drop of blue over a white guard, like the sky after rain before it fully clears. Quiet, never dull.

Rainbow Line — A silver-grey base held steady by the black guard; the rainbow in its name hides in the finish, found only up close and at an angle. A generous face with private details — the same temperament as its rosewood board.

Coastline — The same stretch of sea as the M30T's Coastline, on a Tele body — straighter lines, and the blue reads more matter-of-fact for it. The pearl guard holds the pale blue down: plain by day, mother-of-pearl under lights.

Mojito — The same mint, but the black guard changes its temper: still fresh, now with an edge. Against dark clothes on stage, it's the brightest thing you're wearing.

Miami Beach — Pink laid over the Tele's no-nonsense outline — sweet, with a stubborn streak. The pearloid guard picks up sparkle under lights; on camera, this one never loses.

Sunrise — The orange burns densest at the rim, and the black guard sits in the middle like a silhouette against sunrise. The Tele is an old face on stage; this outfit takes twenty years off it.

Violet Fizz — Pale violet on white, the softest-spoken of the set. It doesn't catch the eye, it keeps it — and the second is much harder to do.

Dream Peach — Pink melts inward to a creamy centre, genuinely like a ripe white peach just cut open. Of the fourteen it draws the most second glances — and defeats the most attempts to describe it.

Soft Cheese — A soft yellow, deeper at the rim and paler at the middle — the best layer of a cheesecake. Sling it on and the rehearsal room loosens half a notch.

Galaxy Salt — Blue floods in from the edges toward a metallic silver-white centre, like an aerial shot where shallow sea meets salt flat. The most expensive-looking of the fades — every layer shows under lights.

Lavender — A proper lavender, no grey in it, no drift toward pink, laid evenly across the body. Not many people love purple, but the ones who do don't waver — this one is reserved for them.

Sky Blue — The blue of a clear noon sky, saturated without glare. Possibly the easiest of the fourteen to explain: say "sky blue" and the other person already knows.

Pearl Pink — More direct than the peach, gentler than the magenta — a pink that needs no fade to help it. Against the white guard it reads sweet at first glance, clean at the second.

Bay Blue — A notch greener than the sky blue, like the shallows of a tropical bay. At a summer festival's daytime slot, it out-photographs the stage backdrop.

Amber — A yellow with brown settled into it, like honey that has sat a few years. A vintage-faced colour over the roasted maple neck, the whole guitar one warm palette — best carried out in autumn.

Brilliant Magenta — A metallic magenta that looks freshly glazed under light. The least stage-shy of the fourteen: more vivid from far away, brighter up close.

Metallic White — White with a fine sparkle folded in: cream face-on, a metallic sheen in motion from the side. For those who want a white guitar but fear plainness, this white keeps a card up its sleeve.

Metallic Blue — A royal metallic blue against a cream guard, with no hedging in it, and the whole flake lifts in sunlight. Of the fourteen it wears the word "classic" best — it doesn't look out of place in any band photo.

Midnight Black — Gloss black with a white guard, sharply divided — the one serious face among the fourteen. However chaotic the stage lighting gets, it holds its ground.

30th Anniversary Stripe, White/Green — A white base under a block of fluorescent lime, split by a white racing stripe: pure motorsport livery, the kind of move Farida only allows itself on a 30th birthday.

30th Anniversary Stripe, White/Orange — The same racing idea as the white-green, recoloured to a sunset orange. Side by side the two stripes look factory-destined to team up — get both into one band and the poster designs itself.

Obsidian Black — A proper gloss black, black guard, one piece to the eye. The standard uniform of a main guitar: needs no explanation, makes no mistakes, leaves all the attention for the music.

Mist White — A warm-leaning white with nothing clinical about it. Under warm light it warms, under cold light it cools — a guitar that takes direction from the lighting rig.

Metallic Green — A pale grey-green with a fine metallic sparkle, like matcha dusted with silver. Of the four it's the one that gets asked "what colour is that" — usually by someone who wants it too.

Bondi Blue — Named for the Sydney beach, a blue with some grey stirred in that improves with sunlight. It takes "a solid colour that lasts" to the limit: loved in year one, still loved in year three.

Dawn White-Gold — White body, white guard, gold hardware running from tuners to bridge, like first light on snow. The brightest thing in the catalogue — expected to book the most wedding gigs.

Santorini Black-Gold — Gloss black with full gold hardware, like Santorini after dark: black sea, gold lights. It and the white-gold are the same indulgence at two hours of the day — one dawn, one midnight.

Ocean Stone — The base is a near-translucent pearl white with a wash of pale blue drifting across the lower bout, like thin ice over shallow water; the guard is pearloid white, and every angle of light fishes out something new. The catalogue's only limited single finish — matching guitars with a stranger stops being your problem.

Lava — A white body traced in an orange pixel outline, orange headstock — from a distance it looks like a guitar that escaped its video game before the textures finished loading. Phones in the crowd go up before the applause does.

Grey Sand — The black-and-white pixel edition, half a notch calmer than Lava — but only half: the outline still runs square by square, and there's no hiding it. For people who want the conversation without wearing orange.

Speckled Black — Black gathers at the rim and opens into a pale ice-blue centre against a cream guard — an old-school burst. From across the room it reads as a sober black bass; you have to walk up to find the blue in the middle. It carries the J-J pickups, the flexible voice.

Crushed Ice Blue — A bright, lit-from-within blue with a white core like light through ice — the name earns itself. When the stage lights sweep, this is the bass they find first.

Lime — The lime's sourness diluted and painted on, pale and brisk. Basses spend their lives in the dim half of the stage; this colour wins half the presence back.

Spring Pink — A pink on the verge of dissolving into white, like cherry blossom in early March. The gentlest of the four J-J finishes — in cheerful contradiction with how solidly it holds the low end.

Phantom Black — Solid black, white guard: the oldest suit in the bass wardrobe. From this finish onward the pickups switch to a P, the thick-voiced kind — the most traditional look carrying the most traditional sound, honestly matched.

Pearl White — Pearl white on a white guard, clean as unmarked staff paper. The P pickup gives it a thick foundation, and it blends into a band dressed in white or black alike.

Sea Foam — Sea foam is one of bass history's sentimental colours; it was in the magazine spreads of the sixties. Freshly painted and back on today's stage, it collects nostalgia and freshness in one pass.

Cloud Blue — A faint blue, the colour where cloud meets water, exactly un-loud between the drums and guitars. Of the eight it feels most like a born fourth member: never stealing scenes, never absent from them.

Mint Ice — Mint cut with silver, the most refreshing entry in the cool palette. The JB body lines already run smooth; the pale colour makes it carry lighter — even the shoulder feels it got a deal.

Sea Salt Cherry — White with pink underneath: in full light it passes for white, and the pink only surfaces as things dim — one bass, two faces in a single show.

Basalt Black — The only matte finish of the four, a black that refuses reflection, like the rock it's named for. It sits out the lighting games and becomes the stage's base coat — exactly the introduction many bass players want to make.

Moonrock Silver — A metallic silver-grey, cool and reserved, a neat counterweight to the okoume body's warmth. If you want a bass that simply looks professional, this colour is the shortest path there.

Santorini Black-Gold — Black lacquer with gold fittings, the same family formalwear as the M50S. The active EQ knobs are gold too — when you reach down mid-song, all the crowd sees is a glint of gold moving.

Dawn White-Gold — White under gold, the bright half of the pair. Stage lights rarely favour the bass; this one is the exception — the gold hardware catches the light on its behalf.

Natural — The top is simply the wood's own colour, straight-grained, set off by the dark fretboard. The showiest thing on the instrument is the vine inlay climbing that board — plainness and ornament, half and half in one guitar.