Hank's Black Strat

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi Simon
I am in the process of putting together a left handed version of the black Strat. One of the lads playing at this years Newcastle music fest, was playing one put together for him by Alan Brasson and it looked and sounded very good.
Regards Geoff.

[Hank2k]

found this on another site

"
Hank bought the 'black' Strat (although it was originally white) from Barratts in Manchester around 1972 following the theft of his Burns Marvins from a van while Marvin, Welch, Farrar were appearing at the London Palladium. He had initially borrowed back the original Strat which had beenl eft in the van by the thieves and was now in Bruce's ownership - I believe - and liked playing it again so much he decided to get a new one. It was still white in 1974 when The Shadows played Jungle Jam on the Cilla Black show, but by the time of Eurovision in 1975 he'd had it refinished in black (although he played a sunburst Strat in the heats on the Lulu show). He had several pick up alterations during the 70s and had the neck shaved as well: I believe this work was carried out by Roka in Denmark Street. Around 1981 he bought an original (1958?) red Strat in Paris and shortly afterwards bought another (1957, I think) sunburst Strat from Tony Hicks of the Hollies. He used these well into the 80s before he started playing a series of custom shop Strats. "

[Hank2k]

Wilkpedia Contradicts it all:

Second (and third) Fender Stratocaster Guitar(s)

In 1970 to facilitate a new Shadows' type guitar sound, Marvin and bandmate John Farrar bought electric and two Martin acoustic guitars. Farrar purchased a Fender thinline Telecaster with a Bigsby tremolo arm whereas Marvin purchased a new Fender Stratocaster guitar with a sunburst finish with non-Fender custom pickups and a large headstock.

This Fender Stratocaster guitar was subsequently resprayed in a Black-gloss finish and was used by Marvin during the 1970s and early 1980s Shadows' studio albums and concerts. By the mid-80s Marvin reverted to a third Red Fiesta Fender Stratocaster guitar for studio and concerts. Marvin subsequently gave the Black Fender Stratocaster to his son Ben Marvin who had it resprayed back to its original sunburst finish.

[Moderne]

found this on another site

"
Hank bought the 'black' Strat (although it was originally white) from Barratts in Manchester around 1972 following the theft of his Burns Marvins from a van while Marvin, Welch, Farrar were appearing at the London Palladium. He had initially borrowed back the original Strat which had beenl eft in the van by the thieves and was now in Bruce's ownership - I believe - and liked playing it again so much he decided to get a new one. It was still white in 1974 when The Shadows played Jungle Jam on the Cilla Black show, but by the time of Eurovision in 1975 he'd had it refinished in black (although he played a sunburst Strat in the heats on the Lulu show). He had several pick up alterations during the 70s and had the neck shaved as well: I believe this work was carried out by Roka in Denmark Street. Around 1981 he bought an original (1958?) red Strat in Paris and shortly afterwards bought another (1957, I think) sunburst Strat from Tony Hicks of the Hollies. He used these well into the 80s before he started playing a series of custom shop Strats. "

What an eloquent synopsis of Hank's electric guitar history from 1972 to date. It sounds strangely familiar!

[JimN]

Wilkpedia Contradicts it all:

Second (and third) Fender Stratocaster Guitar(s)

In 1970 to facilitate a new Shadows' type guitar sound, Marvin and bandmate John Farrar bought electric and two Martin acoustic guitars. Farrar purchased a Fender thinline Telecaster with a Bigsby tremolo arm whereas Marvin purchased a new Fender Stratocaster guitar with a sunburst finish with non-Fender custom pickups and a large headstock.

Incorrect. The Telecaster did not have (and never was to have) a "Bigsby tremolo arm" fitted. John did have a Bigsby Palm Pedal fitted to the Telecaster, customised with three palm levers instead of the usual two. The bit about Hank's alleged "Fender Stratocaster guitar with a sunburst finish with non-Fender custom pickups and a large headstock" is almost completely incorrrect. The bit about the large headstock is right. The rest isn't (and the correct information is given above in this thread).

JN

[JimN]

I'm tempted to try and build a replica of it, although I'd probably have to settle for one of the reissue Wide Range humbuckers, as one of the originals would probably set me back an arm, a leg, and several major organs. It could also make playing the guitar a tad tricky.
Simon

Please consider Alan at Catswhisker Pickups in (or near) Birmingham:

http://catswhiskerpickups.com/humbucker.html

I can't speak highly enough of his P90 pickups in Jazzmaster covers (used on my Jazzmaster) and his P90 pickup in a white plastic humbucker-sized cover (used on my Jagmaster).

Alan does a repro of the Fender WRHB, complete with authentic windings and the proper threaded magnet polepieces...
JN

[Simon Underwood]

Thanks, Jim, that' s interesting. I'd never heard of Catswhisker pickups before. It would be interesting to compare the sound from one of the modern WRHB conversions with the originals with the Cunife magnets.

[Bill Bowley]

I built a replica H-S-H CBS Black Strat using a Wide Range and PAF huimbuckers in '82, lost interest in it and refitted the original Fender pups. Should nave taken some pic I guess. Anyway, here's some on the present subject. And that part5icular Strat wasn't the only white one Hank has had by the way.

[bor64]

The Black strat of Hank...many threads where made in the past about that lovely guitar.
Mostly the same questions,wouldn't it be time to made a FAQ area, on this site so people can see on the spot,all about Hanks,Shads and the stuff the boys used...?
Lucky enough i owned the same guitar after a hunt on about six years, 1970 factory black maple neck four bolts no bullet trust rod...those are rare to find,i can tell you Most people don't realize the black strat had a 4 layers pickguard! Now that's a rarer find then a dodo's bone it's pre dated the 3 ply guard...
When Hank saw the pics of my strat ,he told me it was a spitting image.....and he had lovely memories about his one....
Bruce on the other hand ,when he tried my strat....and liked the setup...ask me, when did Hank uses one?.....errrr I told Bruce about 10 years...from early 70"s till about you re-sprayed the 34346 in red again.....Bruce answered "that long???" I joked back "and you never played the white tele"