Several months ago Ian Evans (Scouser Joe) mentioned on the "old" site that, in view of the frequent questions about, and interest shown in these guitars, he intended to publish a reference document setting out the specifications and providing illustrations to exhibition standard of the four main Hank Marvin & The Shadows Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition Stratocasters. The project was deferred until full details of the new Shadows 50th Anniversary Stratocaster became available and, as this guitar recently went on sale, the document is now complete and is available as a poster/print for viewing and download at:
http://www.mountain-images.co.uk/shadow ... facts.html
Although I have been heavily involved in, and have assisted Ian with the project since its inception and it is me that is posting this message, the concept, design and layout of the document are Ian's and he should take the lion's share of the credit for it.
We hope that members will find this document interesting and informative and it will, once and for all, provide a permanent and accurate resource for information on these instruments.
We are, of course, aware that other 'Signature' models of various kinds have been built and sold over the years, but we have chosen to review and document only the four principal Fender Stratocasters which were approved and fully endorsed by Hank Marvin and Fender.
The information has been collated through knowledge obtained by personal ownership, at some time, of all these guitars along with supporting evidence from commercial advertising of the models, specifications supplied by the Fender USA Custom Shop, commissioning Fender dealers here in the UK, commercial invoices and other evidence kindly supplied by individual model owners. We are most grateful to those who have supplied images and other information. Without their help this project would not have been possible.
Please read the notes on the model specifications, particularly relating to colours. We have spent a great deal of time getting the relativity between the colours correct. However no matter how much we try, specific colours will vary on individual screens. The printed version of the fact sheet displays colours which have been accurately matched to the relative guitars.
As advised above, the poster/print is freely available as a PDF download from Ian's commercial website at Mountain Images. You will need Adobe Acrobat installed to view the document.
Alternatively (or additionally) a high resolution printed copy, double A2 in size ( that's two sheets of paper 594mm x 420mm ) is also available for £10 plus £3.25 P&P. It would make a great wall poster and Xmas present for any Shadows fan !!
Remember .. you’ll see the Mountain Images’ logos when you go to order the printed version in the shop. The shop is easy to use and has a secure payment and processing system.
Finally, we recognise that, although we have included as much information as possible, there may be queries from members and, if so, we will do our best to answer them.
Cheers.
Tony