Marie, are you familiar with the Luscher colour test? There's an on-line version here, which seems more than a bit negative with the "random" answers I gave. It used to be avalable in paperback form in the 70s, and you might still find an old copy. Like Monopoly, it's a great way to alienate your friends!

If you ask me my favourite colours, you can ask me again tomorrow and I'll give you different answers! The artist in me got shouldered out years ago when I began to play and sing, but makes me awkward at replying to things like this. I know the kinds of combinations I like; and how to relate them to the kind of mood I want to encourage (maybe I should have been an interior decorator?) and I like textures as much as colours.

if it gives you any guidance, I play a 12-string guitar that's in a natural (i.e. not very shiny) finish with a light top and slightly darker sides and back; I bought a mandolin with a red wood-grain top (in preference to green or blue), but I've been kicking myself for over thirty years for passing up a mandolin-banjo with an wood-inlaid back.

Steve