The 50th Anniversary Shads Guitar in action

[Bille]

Hi David! Iv've been listening and compared to the orginal,and i can only say the sound is there. The orginal sound is a little bit thinner and more toppy.But that can easyly be adjusted.And the Miazzi is more wobbling than the ESE Echomatic IV.The guitar looks stunning,but is it that dark red in real? Or is it the photo? As i recall the orginal was more pinky?
Anyway congrats to fine piece of art.

Bille

[roger bayliss]

Aw... thanks Roger... Sanity preserved!

David let me know next time you come to Hankies and bring it with you ... please.... !

[Tone]

Hi

For all who are interested, here a a couple of photos of my 50th. They were taken in good daylight but I still had to adjust the colour in Photoshop. The results look pretty accurate, on my monitor anyway, but this guitar seems to have a particularly chameleonelike ability to change colour according to the light!

I love my guitar to bits and I don't regret a single penny of the cost. And I think David's sound files are excellent.

Cheers.

Tony

[Gary Allen]

Hi David..congrats on your new arrival..It looks the part and sounds great.Dont be dissapointed with soundfiles as theres nothing to prove.....Gary

[David Martin]

Thanks Gary...

Tony!! You got a tremelo arm!!!

[Martyn]

Just to change tack slightly - which camera did you use? That close up of the tuners looks superb.

Regards,
Martyn

[Tone]

Thanks, Martyn (I'm assuming that your question was referring to my photographs). I used a not particularly expensive Sony A100 DSLR which has now been superseded.

In fact, the pictures are not perfect, although the body colour is pretty accurate after a bit of tweaking in Photoshop, because I did them quickly. The shot of the full guitar is slightly overexposed and out of focus and the shot of the neckplate is even more out of focus. Even the one of the tuners gives the impression that the gold plating is wearing off! That's the light, of course. I'll take some, hopefully, better ones when I can bear to put the guitar down long enough!

As an aside, I've just noticed that the "F" in Greg Fessler's signature is remarkably like the "F" in the Fender logo. I wonder if he does it that way deliberately.

Cheers.

Tony

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi Toni. It's probably been asked before but what does the CRS on the neck plate stand for. I think it's a fantastic guitar and my only gripe is that left handed ones were not offered. Regards Geoff.

[aardvarkd]

Geoff,
You could take it to indicate 'Custom Red Special' or 'Cliff Richard/Shadows' as you wish. The Custom Shop certificate describes the guitar as a 'Dealer Select 1959 Stratocaster NOS Custom Red'. The '54' in the serial indicates the total built but also coincides with the year of the Strat's commercial introduction.

[aardvarkd]

Geoff (again),
Incidentally, that Antoria/Guyatone is identical to the one I had in 1960.