The 50th Anniversary Shads Guitar in action

[Tone]

Interesting! So how does that fit in with what seems to be the generally held principle that a flush G pole needs a plain 3rd to avoid a volume imbalance on that string? I'm sure that Hank would have used a wound 3rd on 34346 as that was the norm at that time.

Cheers.

Tony

[ScouserJoe]

It is interesting that a Custom Shop '56 NOS Stratocaster, which is sold as being an exact duplicate of Stratocasters built between 1956 and 1959, has Custom 50s Pick-ups with staggered pole pieces. None are the same height; the order being (highest first) D, G, Bottom E, A, Top E, B. I have owned two, the previous one, and the one I have now use the same pick-up configuration. The same arrangement continues on the Custom Shop '60 NOS Stratocasters.

I have always been told that this was to compensate for the characteristics of the heavier wound strings, and certainly from personal experience I have found that fitting a plain third to a guitar with pick-ups intended for a wound third produces an inbalance of volume from that string. Equally, I have found the reverse the case also - fitting a wound third to a guitar with pick-ups intended for a plain third produces a loss of volume on that string - as Tony encountered and mentioned in his earlier post. This theory is supported by Chris Kinman. If you order a set of pick-ups from Chris in Australia, he insists that you tell him whether you propose to use the pick-ups he is making for you with a wound or plain third. The pick-ups then supplied have either a raised or lowered G pole depending upon your request. Fender are less fussy it seems, as even NOS series instruments are supplied with 10-46 strings with a plain third - how inconsistent is that or does it just blow the theory out of the water ??

So, as Tony has commented, the flattened G pole on the 50th, consistent with 34346, is not however not consistent with Fender's current interpretation of how the guitars of the period 56-59 as reflected in their Time Machine series were produced.

I agree that it is very clear from the enlarged image from the 'Shadows To The Fore' EP that even in those early days 34346 had the pick-up configuration that it has now. But it's equally clear from any number of early Shadows' images (if evidence was ever needed) that Hank used very heavy strings with a wound third during that period. However, there's one additional thread to this mystery which I think is worth a mention ....

Take a look at the picture of The Shadows in the Hank Marvin 2000 Tour Brochure. There is an excellent shot of Hank's JMI supplied Rosewood Strat. Look at the pick-up magnets and string weights. Clearly a raised G pole and clearly heavy strings. The pick-up configuration is consistent with the current 60 NOS.

So, there's certainly a few mysteries here. Was 34346 a one-off (an odd colour and an odd pick-up configuration), was it adjusted later, or have Fender got it wrong on the '56 NOS ? I don't suppose we'll ever know. Hank produced the sound he did with the tools he had, that's all that really matters in the end isn't it ??

[David Martin]

Note the exact phrase in the pickup spec... "pushed" ... which implies that the user made this modification (as I did on my original Hendrix '68 Strat sometime before I sold it for £250!!)

[ScouserJoe]

That makes it more interesting, David. If the user (ie Hank) is implied to have pushed the G pole down, why did he not also do it on the JMI Strat ? Perhaps he did later - the image to which I refer was probably of Late 61 vintage. However, given the problem that Tony mentioned using a wound third, why would he want to lower the pole anyway ?

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi all and good morning. I am even more intrigued, with regard to the G pole on 34346, after taking a closer look at The Shadows Vocals LP as Steve suggests. We all know that from 1956 the G pole became the highest on the Strat staggered pole pickups. This allong with Davids spec sheet, from Fender, detailing the pole as ' pushed through' clearly indicates a very early owner modification. I bet the bit that was 'pushed through' is still sticking out through the bottom plate of the pickup. Now that is intriguing. Regards Geoff.

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi again , Please read Peter for Steve in the above post. Regards Geoff.

[David Martin]

But conceivable that Cliff - or his guitar tech - did it during its white "Cliff" period...

[ScouserJoe]

But conceivable that Cliff - or his guitar tech - did it during its white "Cliff" period...

I don't think so, David. Doesn't the picture from the 'Shadows to the Fore' (or later The Shadows' Vocals') disc that has been mentioned above show that any modification was done much earlier .. early '60s in fact ?

[aardvarkd]

I think the photo(s) in question are 1960 or early '61, so within 18 months or so of the guitar's purchase. Earlier 1959 close-up pictures seem to suggest it was always like that, for example the well-known 1959 photos of Cliff posing with it soon after it arrived. I've looked through a wide selection of photos of late 50s-early 60s Strats and there is actually quite a variety of minor differences in pickup magnet configurations, even on supposedly all-original specimens. They range from all-flush poles (mid fifties) to 'raised G' (about 1961-62) but in between there are pickups with the G-magnets at various positions either flush with the pickup-cover tops or very slightly above them. It looks as if any attempt to generalise may be inadvisable irrespective of what might have been done to pickups in later life. In any case, I've heard from a number of 'techs' over the years that you just don't mess about with Strat magnets to avoid damage to the pickups and it's hard to imagine anyone doing so in 1959 when the Strat was such a novelty.

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi Peter. I think you may be correct in some of what you say above but why would Fender,or what would make Fender use the term 'pushed down'. It can only mean 'pushed down'. To me it can only mean that the 'pushed down bit of the pole was seen to be sticking out from the bottom pickup plate when they stripped 34346 down to produce a spec. We can only hope that David has to change his strings in the not to distant future. Regards Geoff.