I don't know about color being a factor. I had 10 dolphins that I re-strung before giving them away, and the metallic black one was pretty good. I had an assortment of colors too, and two each of the pink burst, purple burst, and three metallic blue. One each of green, metallic black, and lt blue burst. The one that was the most "off" was one of the pink ones. I think it depends more on who was doing the final set-up work at the factory that day. That is going to be pretty variable.
–Lori