Black Strat back to a Fiesta Red Strat for Hank

[Ivan Pongracic Jr]

Wow, so much great info!!! Thanks, everybody.

Paul, so Bruce had the 34346 repainted for the '83 Silver tour - thanks for that, I had always wondered about that. I had a chance to play the guitar a bit in '03 (so, fully granted, 20 years after the refinish), and the red color on it was much darker than fiesta red. Does anybody know if it was originally closer to a fiesta red finish? It certainly had NO pink nor even orange in it in '03.

Thanks, Gary, for that info. I must admit that I was also surprised about the Gilmour reference, since I knew the guitar was repainted and wasn't black when Hank got it (though, Jim, I thought it was originally white with a tort pickguard, not natural finish). Also, I believe Hank got it in '72 or so, and Pink Floyd didn't really hit big until '73's Dark Side of the Moon. But anyway, lot of good info there, and fascinating to hear that Hank was just looking for a vintage Strat, not necessarily in fiesta red. I seem to remember him also having a sunburst original '50s Strat at some point, and I thought it was in the '70s, or early '80s, but maybe he got it later - anybody know? And certainly the early '80s were the time where people truly started appreciating vintage Strats a lot more, so it makes sense that Hank would have decided to go that route at that time.

Didier, that was an *amazing* story! Thank you so very much for sharing that! I love it.

Paul, I find it funny that Hank thought that both the '58 and the 34346 sounded 'bright/thin' and opted to go with a custom shop Strat. Of course, 34346 most certainly DOES NOT sound bright/thin on Apache, Man of Mystery, FBI, Shadoogie, Find Me a Golden Street, etc., etc.

Did Hank have a spare guitar for his '58 Strat on the '80s' tours ? Did he keep his black Strat for that purpose for a while before giving it to Ben later, probably in the '90s?

Thanks again!

[Paul Childs]

Hank had a 50s sunburst Strat during the 80s as a standby, I saw him use it once at the Cornwall Coliseum when he broke a string on his 58 Strat. Bruce also had a 50s sunburst as a standby and Alan Jones had a sunburst standby P bass.

On the 1981 tour at the Cornwall Coliseum though there was a black Strat with a white scratchplate on the stage as a shared standby?

Hank recorded with the 58 Strat on the Hank Plays Holly album in the Peggy Sue solo with the amp on full treble and used the bass/neck pickup to create that unusual sound.

[iefje]

Hank's sunburst Stratocaster can also be seen on the pictures taken at Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios, on the 2nd of July, 1982, for The Shadows' "'Live' At Abbey Road" album.

[fenderplucker]

Hi Ivan,

Paul, I find it funny that Hank thought that both the '58 and the 34346 sounded 'bright/thin' and opted to go with a custom shop Strat. Of course, 34346 most certainly DOES NOT sound bright/thin on Apache, Man of Mystery, FBI, Shadoogie, Find Me a Golden Street, etc., etc.

Nevertheless, that is how they sounded. I have played 34346 and also set up the 58 Strat for him for the comparison in his studio. The sound on record is affected very much by some equalization that seems to have been applied to all of those early tunes (amp settings, mic position and/or desk EQ): largely some top cut that brings out the lovely mid range that those pickups have. Interestingly, when we tried to match Dance On for the TVS site, the only way we could get close was with an Oasis Strat as even mine with the bright sounding CS54's still lacked some of the mid range detail, though they work fine for all the other tunes.

Regards,

Paul.

[StuartD]

Hank bought the sunburst 50's Strat from Tony Hicks of the Hollies. I know he used it on Memory because we discussed it. Hank said it was a harder sound than the Patrice Bastien Strat

Regards

Stuart

[Paul Childs]

Hi Ivan,

Paul, I find it funny that Hank thought that both the '58 and the 34346 sounded 'bright/thin' and opted to go with a custom shop Strat. Of course, 34346 most certainly DOES NOT sound bright/thin on Apache, Man of Mystery, FBI, Shadoogie, Find Me a Golden Street, etc., etc.

Nevertheless, that is how they sounded. I have played 34346 and also set up the 58 Strat for him for the comparison in his studio. The sound on record is affected very much by some equalization that seems to have been applied to all of those early tunes (amp settings, mic position and/or desk EQ): largely some top cut that brings out the lovely mid range that those pickups have. Interestingly, when we tried to match Dance On for the TVS site, the only way we could get close was with an Oasis Strat as even mine with the bright sounding CS54's still lacked some of the mid range detail, though they work fine for all the other tunes.

Regards,

Paul.

Wasn't Dance on recorded with the Gretsch instead of the Strat?

[fenderplucker]

fenderplucker wrote:Hi Ivan,

Paul, I find it funny that Hank thought that both the '58 and the 34346 sounded 'bright/thin' and opted to go with a custom shop Strat. Of course, 34346 most certainly DOES NOT sound bright/thin on Apache, Man of Mystery, FBI, Shadoogie, Find Me a Golden Street, etc., etc.

Nevertheless, that is how they sounded. I have played 34346 and also set up the 58 Strat for him for the comparison in his studio. The sound on record is affected very much by some equalization that seems to have been applied to all of those early tunes (amp settings, mic position and/or desk EQ): largely some top cut that brings out the lovely mid range that those pickups have. Interestingly, when we tried to match Dance On for the TVS site, the only way we could get close was with an Oasis Strat as even mine with the bright sounding CS54's still lacked some of the mid range detail, though they work fine for all the other tunes.

Regards,

Paul.

Wasn't Dance on recorded with the Gretsch instead of the Strat?

Hi Paul,

Ah, no.

Paul.

[JimN]

... Jim, I thought it was originally white with a tort pickguard, not natural finish.

I used to think exactly the same (only having seen the guitar on TV in monochrome), but it was still in its original finish in 1974 when I saw Hank and John Farrar in cabaret at a northern nightclub. It was clear that the guitar was not white like a Marvin, or even an Olympic White Fender. Others got closer to it than I did, and I'm sure that Stuart Duffy has confirmed its original see-through limed finish.

Yes, the original scratchplate was tortoiseshell and was progressively modified for these configurations:

(a) original three single coils (1972)
(b) bridge pickup replaced with a Gibson humbucker (1973)
(c) Gibson pickup moved to neck position (where the string alignment was better matched) and
(d) Fender Seth-Lover-designed Wide Range Humbucker (enlarged aperture compared to the Gibson) in the bridge position (1975)...

...along with various other small mods (eg, a small, switch to cut out one coil of the Fender WRHB).

It was replaced with a new black plate when Hank went back to three single-coils (c. 1977). The guitar had been sprayed black by then.

[StuartD]

It was indeed a sort of see through colour. Not white like the Marvin at all

[Patrice]

Hi all,
My name is Patrice ...
I'm this french guy who sold to Hank in december 80 this "Fiesta Red maple 58 Strat"
First of all, I just want to thank Didier for his report ! (Merci Didier !)
As many of you I'm a Shadows fan since the early years...
My professionnal life was mixed between "LF electronics" and during 20 years specialized in selling american Vintage Guitars in Paris...
In the early sixties (as many, many others guys !) with a close friend of mine "Jacques Mazzoleni" we tried to play together the Shadows songs. Him was Bruce and I Hank !!!
At this time we have no money enough to hope for buying a Stratocaster in Paris....
The price was terrific ! 2200 francs in Fiesta Red without the case !

In 71, Jacques immigrated to the US.
At the end of 77 we decided to do (together) a business of Vintage Guitars.
Jacques in the US and myself in Paris.
We started in March 78 and in December my friend Jacques (excited !) gave me a phone call and said:
" Hi Patrice I found to day an original maple neck Fiesta Red Strat the same one than Hank on the (french) record of FBI..."
The "only" problem (for us that we began...) was the price : 1500 dollars (We have 2000 to spend !)
Anyway... Hank was our Guitar Hero, we dreamed and dreamed on this (Cliff's) guitar... And we absolutly wanted to buy it !!! So Jacques bought it.
I received the guitar in Paris in Janury 79.
Compare with the exchange ratio between the dollar and the franc at this time, and adding the taxes (!) the price I wanted in Paris was 12.000 francs. At this price, all our customers said : "It's to expensive..."No matter ! we kept it.

During 1980 the prices of the Vintage US market grew and grew...
Like a stratocaster in this Custom Color and with a maple neck was very rare (I have head during 20 years of my professionnal carrer 78 - 98 , for only 3 maple Strat Fiesta Red for sell in the US... And "Guitar Express Vintage Guitars sold two ! a 58 and a near mint 57 : Cf The Strat book of my friend André Duchossoir) I decided to climb up the price of this 58 Strat to 15.000 francs... We sell it at this price very good, otherwise...
You know the rest !
When I received this phone call from Polydor asking me if I know The Shadows (sic) ! what a surprise for me to hear that Hank (my Guitar Hero....) was looking for an "old" Strat...
Keep in mind that we bought the guitar by thinking to Hank so I can't imagine (one second !) that it 'll be him who might buy it ! What a wonderful story !
I want just to add that the serial number of "my" maple Fiesta Red 58 Strat is # 39085...
Thank you !

Best regards to all
Patrice