The ShadowMusic Web Community

Here is an article for those interested : http://planetbotch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/ ... d-and.html

Tony.

So at what point in time did Flamingo Pink become Salmon Pink, or am I missing something?

Pat.

There's a good article on Fender Custom Colors in the September issue of Vintage Guitar.

George

The blog refers to Hank's guitar as 'said to have been the first Fender Stratocaster in the UK', but has it not been established that Malcolm Mitchell (he of the Trio) had a Strat from around 1957?

It's interesting to speculate about how history would have been different if 34346 had been another colour. Hank's own description from It was In tune when I bought It was "We opened the case and it looked fantastic. The body was coloured flamingo pink, not an unsubtle red and it really was something. It sounded really good".

The colour came as a surprise. Would Hank have ordered that colour if he had known before the order was placed? Pink was (as still is) thought of as a 'girly' colour, yet after Hank and The Shadows became a big success, 'Flamingo Pink' aka 'Fiesta Red' was established as an OK colour for blokes to have on a guitar and no Shadows tribute band today would think themselves authentic without Strats in the correct shade.

As far as I'm concerned there is no mystery about the colour. I have access to a 1959 red Strat in original condition that is only a few digits after Hank's and the colour matches exactly that of my 1989 Vintage Reissue in every nuance, the two were photographed together a few years ago and they are identical. That satisfies me that Fender never forgot the colour to be able to paint more guitars the same again. I've seen many other guitars in the same colour, one owned by my colleague in our band and the other by Colin Pryce Jones - all are the USA 1980s Vintage Re-issues. The colour on the two that we own is listed as fiesta red. True there are many variants of the colour using the same name, the Japanese tend to go slightly orange by comparison and I've seen some more on the pink side, but that's in the colour mix when they perhaps overdo the yellow or white, it makes a big difference. Also, those of you who play around with photo software will understand how a colour hue can drastically change the entire tone of a picture, which is referred to in that article when mentioning different types of film.
The debate can go on and on and I'm sure that Fender enjoy people talking about it, but seeing hard evidince by way of an instrument that was very likely from the same batch that Hank's came from is pretty conclusive for me. We all know how time and exposure to light can affect a paint job but the old 1959 guitar owned by a friend of mine still has it's colour and matches our instruments thirty years younger.

I don't wish to overly divert the original theme of this thread, but in response to Ray's remark about the earliest known UK owner of a Stratocaster, Bob Rogers of The Ted Taylor Four purchased a sunburst one prior to the arrival of the example bought by Cliff for his employee. Bob also informed me that Malcolm Mitchell acquired a Telecaster in 1954, but I wasn't aware that he too had a Strat.

Forgive me from going off topic- but I have some questions ..

- I wonder if Hank ever tried Bruce's Telecaster (which Bruce said he never used despite the clips from Cliff's TV shows!!)- he might have found out later and realised that James Burton used a Tele after all...and did he try Bruce's Jazzmaster as a lead guitar- or was it too 'Ventures'?!

- funny that Hank didn't get Cliff to order a standard sunburst Strat like Buddy's??? (maybe the red one was really more 1959 'flash'...)

- I doubt that paint colour affects sound or playability....oops! Did I say that?! As far as I can recall, I always thought Hank's guitar was RED anyway...

I can remember back in the early '60s gazing through music store windows & being stunned by the sight of the first Fiesta Red Strats seen over here in UK. At that time, they were the Rosewood board models, & Maple boards were no longer being made by Fender. The colour was amazing to people who were used to guitars being mainly Sunburst or Natural Blonde & hollow-bodied, & very bulky. In other words, Big Band rhythm section guitars from the 40's/50's.
They definitely looked Pink in those shop windows, & a fraction more Pink than the Red we have come to accept as Fiesta Red today. However, I am now wondering whether what we got over here was mainly the alleged 're-paints' by the UK importer, who is supposed to have re-finished many of the other coloured bodies to supply the large demand for 'Pink' Strats due to the popularity of the Shads.
I have seen several copies over here in the past ten years in the possession of Vintage & Rare guitar dealers that were still sporting that Pink shade, even though they were now over 50 years older. It didn't seem to have changed in all that time.

Tony.

Some of the "pinkest" Fenders seen in the UK in the early 1960s were the Jaguar, Jazzmaster and Jazz Bass models - with matching headstocks.

They clearly could not have been flashed over by Jennings or Selmer...

I believe Selmer sent their bodies to a local car sprayer. Probably with the instruction "can we have them in a slightly pinky red" or similar. I doubt they would have had a real Fiesta Red Strat, or even a Fender colour (sorry, color) chart for reference.